Winter Has Arrived

I don't think that there can be any doubt that winter has arrived.  The temperature plummets at night and even though we have some sunshine during the day, there is no warmth in the sun.  Now is the time for thick winter woollies and warming soups and stews to warm you body and soul to keep out the cold.

I have sorted out my winter pyjamas and thick dressing gown, and the T-shirts and short-sleeved blouses have been put away for another year.  I'm even considering sorting out some socks to wear with shoes and trainers. This is unusual for me because I normally live in sandals; in fact, I can't remember the last time I wore a proper pair of shoes.

The last thing that we need at the moment is a really cold winter.  With the cost of fuel bills soaring, keeping your home warm is going to cost more than it ever has in the past, and the elderly are going to find it more difficult than ever. One wonders how many are going to succumb to hypothermia this winter, and whether anyone will take responsibility for those deaths.  

Autumn Is Here

Autumn is with us already.  Summer seemed to pass us by this year, but autumn has definitely arrived.  

The leaves on the trees are changing colour; no longer various shades of green, the trees are becoming clothed in shades of yellow and gold.  Then as the leaves finally free themselves from the branches that they have graced through this dismal summer they change to brown.

The lovely colours in the photograph are not, I'm afraid, from a tree in this country but from one that I photographed in Canada at this time last year.

When autumn arrives there the trees, especially the sugar maples, really do get dressed in many colours.  There is nothing quite so wonderful as the sight of a large sugar maple that is dressed in leaves in every shade of green, red, yellow and orange.

Another sign of the season is the shortening length of the days.  At a time both morning and evening that just a few weeks ago we had broad daylight, we now have darkness.  It won't be long before we leave Summer Time behind and go back to Greenwich Mean Time.  Then the days will shorten even more and we will be mourning the passing of another year.

We have entered Keats' 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'; we will soon be seeing diamonds of frost rather than diamonds of dew in the weak morning sunlight.