There is something about autumn that always makes me want to start again.
Not in a big, transformative way. More in the sense of coming home. Clearing things out. Oiling the wooden boards. Filling the kitchen with jars. Arranging things, refining things, making them work better than before.
I want to spend more time in the kitchen. To cook more. To set the table for my family as a gesture of love and care. Over the years, I have come to understand how important service is to me. Giving it is one of the things that nourishes me the most.
I think some of this comes from my childhood in the north of Sweden.
Autumn was never just a season. It was a time of gathering and preparing. Potatoes were lifted from the earth. Berries were picked and preserved. Mushrooms were cleaned and dried. Everything good that nature had given us was taken care of, so it could bring joy later, when the days became shorter and the landscape rested under snow. And where I lived, winter came early.
That rhythm has stayed with me.
For me, September has always felt a little like New Year. The air is clearer. Work takes a new direction. Children begin new schools and new routines. The light changes. The home starts asking for different things.
And the table becomes much more important again. From the light, breezy gatherings of summer, we move towards something cosier, more heartfelt and more vital. We need the table to carry us through the winter months.
At PotteryJo, this is the season I always come back to. The season of colour, craft and care. Of objects brought out, mixed together and used again. Of making space for people around the table.
Not for perfection, but for a sense of belonging.
For me, autumn is not the end of something. It is the beginning of a creative process.