I’m a summer girl through and through, but as the leaves slowly start to change I’m reminded of how much I love fall. It’s not only the beautiful bright orange leaves, the mysterious morning fog, and the smell of rain on the still slightly warm concrete of the streets — it’s the feeling of fall that I love.

Somehow, fall is very melancholic time of the year. As the year is about to end, colors, memories, and warmth are fading away. The forests aren’t as colorful as they will be in October, but the greens start to glimmer yellowish already. The first leaves are slowly dancing their way down to ground these days. The days get chillier, and the sun sets earlier every day — until it will be dark at four in the afternoon. Now is the season for apples, blackberries, plums, chestnuts and pumpkins. But there are only few more fruitful weeks ahead before skeleton trees and winter gloominess take over.

But for me, fall has also always been a time for new beginnings: The new school year always started in fall, so did every new semester at university. Almost every time I moved somewhere it was towards the end of summer. Fall thus is a paradox to me: It means endings and new beginnings at the same time. It’s a sad, but thrilling time of the year.

As I mentioned in my recent blogiversary post, I’m about to face a few major changes in my life again this fall. I’m about to say goodbye to careless student life for good, and start my “real life” — whatever that’s going to be. I’m sad, terrified, and excited at the same time. So this very time in my life is definitely a transition season for me. And as I take my last strolls through the woods of my German Middle of Nowhere, I can see the changes that are about to happen everywhere.

There is a striking beauty in things that are about to end. A fading beauty is unrepeatable and every moment enjoying it is precious. So I dedicate this Picturesque Monday to a season of changes and to finding beauty in melancholy, in endings, in good but decaying memories.

I know this is may be a bit too far off the travel topic, but my blog is about journeys: Actual travel journeys and the general journeys of life. And this is the journey of an art historian trying to find her place in the world — during a true transition season.