Autumn: A Season of Painted Landscape

Whenever September and October arrive, I always find myself feeling nostalgic.

I start my travels carrying with me the memories and experiences from my childhood and youth back home in Nepal.

The Autumn season in Nepal is truly blissful.

This season is filled with festivals. The two biggest Hindu festivals, Dashain and Tihar, are celebrated during this time of year.

As children, we would eagerly count down the days until these festivals arrived.

For children, the tika, blessings, gifts and love they receive from their elders make these festivals especially meaningful.

Young people cherish the long college holidays and the opportunity to reunite with their families.

Adults too look forward to returning home, spending time with their loved ones, and reconnecting with childhood friends.

The weather is also exceptionally pleasant during this season.

The muddy, cloudy and rainy monsoon has already passed.

You will also find plenty of tourists visiting Nepal during this season.

Additionally, the season is filled with flowers as people use them extensively during festival celebrations.

With the monsoon gone, clear, dust-free skies let you enjoy panoramic views of the Himalayas.

But here in Norway, and across Europe, autumn brings a different kind of beauty.

Autumn is my favourite season in Norway too, but for quite a different reason.

One of my favourite things to do during autumn in Norway is to spend time in a mountain cabin (hytte), go hiking in the mountains, savour Norway’s national dish, fårikål, and relax by the fireplace (peis).

A hytte is a cosy wooden cabin built close to nature, often in the mountains, by a fjord, or near the sea.

The original concept of hytte was ‘go and stay close to nature or stay disconnected from routine life’.

There used to be no indoor toilet; instead, ‘you simply went out into the woods’.

No television either.

Things are rapidly changing now. You are no longer truly offline.

Sadly, you bring your connected world with you.

There is a smart TV, Netflix, and YouTube; everything you have at home.

The original essence of hytte culture is slowly being replaced by modern convenience.

Cabin culture is deeply rooted in Norwegian society and perhaps throughout Scandinavia and other parts of Europe.

I never miss the chance to escape to the mountains in autumn.

Mountain cabins are usually nestled among forests high up in the mountains.

It’s still early autumn in Norway. Last week, we took our first autumn trip of the year.

The crisp air, colourful landscapes and peaceful surroundings make autumn the perfect time of year to enjoy ‘a stay in a hytte’.

With the onset of autumn, the large areas of landscape begin to transform into bright yellow, orange and red, often set against dark green conifers, mountains and fjords.

The autumn colours around the cabin always fascinate me. I want to experience orange, yellow and red up close.

I feel that autumn colours in Norway are generally more intense.

This may be partly because Norway has extensive deciduous forests, particularly birch, aspen and rowan.

If you are a nature photographer, you will certainly have an ideal opportunity to capture stunning images that beautifully capture the essence of the season.

Why do leaves change their colours during autumn?

Let us talk about the science behind autumn colour.

What makes leaves change from green to a beautiful range of colours?

It is something that seems to fascinate everyone.

This is actually high school science.

The changes in leaf colour during autumn are attributed to the different pigments present in the leaves.

Plants contain different pigments, such as chlorophyll (green), xanthophylls (yellow and orange), carotenoids (red), and anthocyanins (red, purple and blue).

These pigments are responsible for the colours we see in different parts of plants.

Anthocyanins are particularly important because they contribute not only to the colours of autumn leaves, but also to the vibrant colours of many fruits and flowers, helping attract animals that aid in pollination and seed dispersal.

As autumn arrives, temperatures begin to drop, sunlight decreases, and the days become shorter.

Such changes in weather conditions ultimately cause the breakdown of chlorophyll, allowing the orange and yellow pigments to become visible.

The pigments remain masked by chlorophyll during the other seasons.

You may also see vibrant red and even purple leaves, which are the result of a chemical change.

However, not all leaves produce anthocyanins, but those that do add vibrant red and purple hues, enhancing the beauty and richness of the autumn landscape.

In places with dry, sunny, and cool weather, the autumn colours tend to be more vibrant, while cloudy, damp, or warm conditions do not produce the same degree of colour change.

These colourful leaves will eventually fall at the end of autumn. This is actually part of the plant’s survival mechanism.

As food production through photosynthesis slows down due to the breakdown of chlorophyll, the plant needs to conserve energy.

It does so by shedding its leaves.

My second goal is to go hiking.

Hiking through the autumn landscape in the mountains obviously offers the best experience.

Norwegians make these opportunities in time, knowing that soon they will have to face minus temperatures with snow outside.

Obviously, there are so many additional fun things you can do during autumn in Norway that it can easily become your favourite season of the year.

Life is not easy in Norway. Long periods of darkness, severe cold, heavy snow, and stormy winds are common in most parts of the country.

But Norwegians excel at finding beauty in these hardships.

*This story was originally published in The Environment on Medium.