When the first autumn leaves beginn to flutter down around my house, it signals the start of a traditional family ritual. To ensure good luck for the next twelve months it is important that, when the autumn winds are blowing, we go outside and catch – or try to catch – twelve falling leaves. It sounds easy, but twisting, spiralling, flying leaves are not easy to snatch out of the air. And the competition for extra colourful or nice-shaped specimens can be fierce when flurry of them whiz past, making for excellent and sometimes quite violent sport.

Picture by Ged Wells

From The Book of Idle Pleasures (Ebury Press)