It's not just the coolness in the morning air, nor the spiders' webs glistening in the hedgerows. It's not the feeling of those fresh white ankle socks and the hem of the striped school dress lapping above my knee, an inch or so above where it had done so two months before (and another month before the winter uniform proper makes an appearance). And it's not even the wispy curls of scented bonfire smoke rising above the hedges on the way back from school that spell autumn for me. None of these. It's the unmistakeable urge to cover notebooks.
"NB?" said Grandpa, smiling below his little sandy-coloured toothbrush moustache. I knew he would know: he was in The Printing Trade. "It stands for Nota Bene - that's the Latin for Note Well. It means: Mark This, Pay Attention." My seven-year old self was entranced. How magic was this, that NB didn't just mean notebook (in my childish mind) but also pointed to something important about what was to go inside the covers too. Notebooks clearly had to be treated with respect. And that meant, at the start of every September, covering the notebooks and exercise books for each school subject.
Wall-paper was a favourite in my class but resulted in lumpy corners. Shiny patterned shelf-paper was a step up, but sellotape was less than effective in keeping the edges stuck down. My favourite was brown paper, but led to lots of agonising decisions: shiny or dull on the outside? The subtle stripes going horizontal or vertical? If we'd had scrapbooking paper, I'd have been in seventh heaven. I still back my notebooks every autumn ...
Enrolling in Shimelle's Learn Something New Every Day 2011, I am pondering how to structure the photos and journalling this year: if it's September, and it's about learning, it's just got to be a notebook. I'm still thinking it through ... If you're doing the class, have you reached any decisions yet? Somewhere I am sure I have a roll of brown paper ...