So here we are now in early September – like me, you are probably asking how that happened!

Despite the weather, I have enjoyed the summer with the annual parades and celebrations, the coming together of family and friends, and the milestones marked for a number of bands and lodges.

I noticed several bands were celebrating anniversaries this year.

Teemore Accordion Band was celebrating 50 years on the road, whilst Ardess Accordion Band had clocked up 60 years, and Drumharvey Pipe Band were marking 90 years together.

Meanwhile, the Mitchelburne Apprentice Boys club in Brookeborough celebrated their 90th anniversary by going to the parade in Londonderry with their own flute band, made up of their members – that was an impressive sight to see.

The Battle of Newtownbutler celebrations for the Royal Black Institution was held in Lisnaskea and, as a family, we had a wonderful day at home with our mum, now 91 years old – still the boss, and enjoying all the friendship and fellowship which a day like that brings.

Now that it’s September, as we settle into the autumn routine, our minds turn to shorter evenings, darker mornings, and chilly weather – all a bit grim, you may think!

I prefer to be positive and think of autumn as the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, as the poet John Keats wrote in his poem, ‘To Autumn’.

To be honest, we have not had a great summer – it has actually been dire, and I’ve often found myself feeling very sorry for our farmers, who have to take any few hours of dry weather as an opportunity to do all the gathering in and work that they can.

When I was growing up, the celebration of Harvest was a key part of September and October.

Whether at school or in church, the celebration was always one of thanksgiving, especially for the work of our farmers in rural areas.

Decorations of autumnal flowers, apples, potatoes, little rucks of hay and singing those familiar hymns of ‘We plough the fields and scatter’, and ‘Come ye thankful people come’, always give me a warm feeling of contentment.

But in the fast world we live in, pausing, and taking time to appreciate God’s creation, is something that is falling out of fashion.

Of course, we don’t have to wait to Harvest thanksgiving to pause and appreciate the world around us, but in the midst of all the busyness of September, I am looking forward to singing those old familiar hymns and giving thanks for the food and flowers provided this year, in particular, when the community faces uphill challenges with the costs of living.

September and January are the two months that we press the refresh button.

In January, it is because we are at the turn of a new calendar year. In September, it’s usually all about going back to school – children, teachers, grandchildren, or just young people that we know facing into a new academic year.

That is probably why I found myself coming home from holidays and deciding it was time to have a thorough clean-out of my wardrobe.

I am sure this is a familiar situation to a lot of you. I started off with the best of intentions – I was getting rid of everything that I hadn’t worn in the past 12 months, and then halfway through, I was keeping far more than I was throwing away, in the vain hope that I might lose weight, and that fabulous skirt might fit me again in the future, when it would probably be so far out of fashion that it would be back in fashion!

Who am I kidding? I am a terrible hoarder – I still have my A-Level notes some 35 years after I sat my exams, never mind the school blazer to go with them!

Every now and again, my poor mother will say, some 29 years after I married and moved out of my childhood home: “Are you going to take those schoolbooks home with you? Maybe your children would be able to use them?”

It makes me smile, because I remember a conversation with one of my kids about a play by Shakespeare, and what it meant.

When they told me things had changed since I was at school, I replied that I was fairly sure that Shakespeare hadn’t much changed in 400 years!

Speaking of anniversaries, the Enniskillen Royal Grammar School community recently had another celebration to mark – that of 150 years of rugby at the school.

Portora, and now Enniskillen Royal Grammar, have provided young men – and latterly, young women – with the opportunity to play the sport of rugby for 150 years, but that would not have happened without the dedication of staff and volunteers over the years, taking that shaky First Year through to their final game for the school.

I never had the opportunity to play rugby at school, as we played hockey, and female rugby was only developing, but whatever the sport, the benefits of being involved in a team are positive – even if it means getting up early on a freezing Saturday morning to travel to exotic places like Raphoe!

Working together as a unit, leadership, loyalty to your teammates, commitment, resilience – dealing with disappointment as well as success are all skills picked up in team sports, and I for one loved it.

At Harvest thanksgiving, we give thanks for our farmers and the food they provide – this year, I also want to say thank-you to all those coaches, teachers and volunteers who give up their time so our young people can take part in sport.

Our school rugby players may not all turn out to be the next Jimmy McCoy or Rory Best, but the opportunity is there to find out if they are the next “big thing”, and have great experiences along the way.

Thank you, and best wishes to all the school sports teams for a successful year ahead. September – let’s be having you!