The end of summer and the end of an era?

Alexandra is on her way home. She is leaving Brisbane this week, spending a few days in Fiji and will be back sometime at the beginning of September. Summer is definitely on her way out. It is damp and there is a slight nip in the air. Mornings feel a little fresher and I am colder when I step out of the bath. The nights feel a little longer and it is getting darker earlier every evening. From about the second week of August, it was noticeably darker at 9.30pm. Now is dusk around 8.30pm. I have started taking a spare cardigan in my handbag and I am contemplating getting my winter trousers out of storage. I have turned my desk lamp on at work and started wearing a jacket again.

There is an air of finality about the end of summer; the new academic year is beginning, teenage lives are ending and student ones commencing. There is an undertone of anticipation - new starts are about to be made, new wardrobes are to be bought; a new season is creeping underway. And for me, it is the end of an era. My baby sister will return to spend the last days of her childhood at our family home and then she is off; to university, to freedom, to her adult life.