Overnight Unterrüti has taken on an incredible golden hue. All around, leaves have turned into variations of amber beauty, giving a magical quality to our little outdoor picnic place. This picnic place with its natural pagoda of old trees, and the path leading up-to it had cast a spell upon us, when we first came to visit this house. Peace enveloped us as we stood under the shade of these wise old trees and i could imagine Pixies, Gnomes and Elves peeping from behind every moss covered stone or bush along the path. Now suddenly, nature is showing off its palette of colours in this magical place...

Today, I've cooked South Indian food for our guests and workers... Vepambu Rasam, Kohlrabi-Carrot Poriyal, Rice and homemade Yoghurt. Somehow this natural setting makes the meal deeply satisfying.. Soul food. It never ceases to amaze me how these Swiss, who've perhaps only experienced Naan and Butter Chicken at Indian Restaurants, warm up to the bitter-tangy taste of Neem-fower-Rasam.

The guests have now gone and the workers are back at their tasks. I clean up the table and sit down for a moment to reflect. Autumn is one of my favourite seasons, not only for the colourful palette that comes along with it, but the crisp and cold is refreshing after the heat and humidity of the summer. As Autumn creeps upon us, the earth bares its fruits and curls up to rest and rejuvenate over the Winter... leaves crunch underfoot.. I've always loved the sound of it... but this year with autumn comes a new, seasonal chore: Raking.

The entire walkway needs to be raked of leaves which can be slippery and dangerous. I look for a rake among the assortment of age-old non-motorised gardening tools in the cellar and find one that could work. As I rake, my own small worries and the bigger worries of the world are momentarily swept away. There are frequent pauses as I pick up a colorful maple leaf to admire Nature's Handiwork and to breathe in the scent of the ancient living soil stirred up by raking. I try to listen for the squirrels. They must be eyeing me from the treetops, scolding me for turning up the dirt and for taking away the yet unclaimed nuts hidden among the leaves.

Before I know it winter will be upon us and out will come the jackets and scarves, not to mention the tree limbs will be bare, and the small creatures that live beneath the leaf litter will burrow deep into the cold ground. I give myself over to what is happening here and now. Watching the leaves unloose themselves from their branches and deliver themselves to the wind. Watching the wind, catch and lift the leaves and drop them and lift them again. Again and again and again.

I grab my old rake and rake the leaves as I nourish my soul...