The natural beauty of Finland is breathtaking, and autumn is no exception!⁠ Summer ends with an explosion of autumn colours. The forests turn to various shades of yellow, orange, red, and brown, or maybe I should describe them as amber, auburn, russet, and crimson.

I am a lover of autumn, of earthy colours and golden copper leaves that elegantly dance in the wind. Autumn in Finland is a season of inner calm, of evenings with hot chocolate, of lighting candles and making cinnamon apple pies. The faint scent of wood smoke mixes with the damp earthy aroma of the forest. The world has been painted with reds and oranges and it smells like wood-smoke and cinnamon.

The long summer nights rapidly change to give way to dusk in autumn. It is the time to relish the silky, smooth sunsets by lake shores and if you are like me, it is also time for nostalgia. Just like a sunset represents a conclusion with its burst of reds and yellows in the night’s calm, so autumn reminds us that all things come to an end.

We read in the Good Book that a wise man once said: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot… a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance… a time to be silent and a time to speak”.

Autumn is when I truly feel alive yet out of all the four seasons, it is the one that is the strongest reminder to us that we are only visiting this planet. Life is short, time goes fast, no replay, no rewind.

So, no matter where you are right now, be it the Finnish autumn or here in the Australian spring, be in the moment, soak up, gather rosebuds, dance in the rain, enjoy the wood-smoke and cinnamon, because there is no time like the present.