Last of the Summer Wine?

It's a rainy Sunday here at Gidday HQ.

I can hear the occasional car swish by on the wet street outside and this morning my feet slipped easily into my fleecy purple slippers, my toes sighing in toasty relief.

There are no shouts from next door's football-playing children today, confined to indoor pursuits by the inclement weather. 

And earlier this week, I bemoaned my lack of an 'extra layer' as I stood on the platform at West Hampstead station and felt the chill in the air through my jacket.

Autumn has arrived in earnest this week with its chill-blue skies and brisk damp air.

But this year, it has crept up on us all.

The trees have not heralded Autumn's arrival with their usual fiery display of foilage, confused (it has been said) by the 'poor summer' and an on-again-off-again burst of warm sunshine around the August Bank Holiday weekend. 

Last of the Summer wine?

It has tiptoed quietly in, behind darker mornings and shorter evenings, allowing us to stick our proverbial heads in the sand and pretend.

But in the dark of each workday morning this week, I have found myself automatically reaching for my 'cosier' dressing gown, where it has hung patiently all Summer, behind the bedroom door.

And after Monday's invigorating reminder, my Autumnal work coat was brushed down, readied to commence its Fall 2012 season on Tuesday. And I wore tights to work.

Most years, we accept the transition from English Summer to Autumn's embrace with a little moaning and a stiff upper lip. (After all, how else can one start a conversation with a Brit if one is not up on the mildly depressing vagaries of the weather?)

But if you listen closely, there is still a hopeful whisper of an Indian Summer, another burst of sunshine and warmth before the nights close in and mornings become crunchy with frost for good. 

So in spite of the Autumn chill, I shall leave a few lighter items in the corner of my wardrobe, still within reach yet just outside the more immediate array of cardies, polo necks and mid-season jackets that I suspect will be needed in the coming weeks.

And socks. Yes, I think socks will become a constant at Gidday HQ from now on as well.


New Tesco socks - ready to go

So could someone please explain to me why I spent an hour yesterday painting my toe-nails?

Goodbye To Summer...

The thing about the August Bank Holiday in the UK is that it's like this last 'hurrah' of Summer.  Even though for the last week it's been cooler on the walk to and from home each day and it's dark enough each night when I get home for me to leave the outside light on when I leave in the morning, there's something about our last long weekend of the year (not counting when the fat man in the red suit visits) that's a little laden with regret.

It's been a cloudy Bank Holiday Monday too - perfect weather for some daytime telly and an indulgent dvd (Julie and Julia if you must know). This has followed on from much sleeping in, considerable reading and highly-intensive jigsaw-puzzling and as a result, I'm feeling extraordinarily relaxed and reflective as I sit down to tap this farewell to Summer post. 

And then just as I'm sitting down at my computer positioned smack-bang in my front window, a blinding shaft of sunlight bursts through the clouds - making the late afternoon all golden and hazy for a moment - and then it disappears again. The light is soft and beautiful and takes me back to when I first arrived here and how struck I was by how softly the light bathed everything it touched compared with Australia's harsh and brilliantly hued landscape.

I know it's a day early: but today it's goodbye to cardy-less commuting and twilight evenings around the barbie...

...and welcome to my favourite season of the year, the soft, golden hues of Autumn.

Date Night: Breathless Anticipation...a correction...

Dear reader

An erstwhile follower of my blog has pointed out to me today that the 31st May was not the end of Autumn for me here in the UK but the end of Spring!  Generously she has done this via email rather than leaving a comment on my blog so for all of you who thought I'd lost the plot but were too polite even to mention this gaffe...what sort of friends are you?? (Ha ha...)

I have obviously been left somewhat dazed and confused by my Aussie visitors...who will be back on the weekend!

Yours sincerely

The Numpty Blogger

Date Night: Breathless Anticipation...

Here we are at the 31st May...for me the last day of Autumn.  And I'm kind of peering ahead into the Summer months, hoping that the recent burst of glorious weather here in the UK is not all behind us, given that the sunshine-y top-down temperatures of yesterday have disappeared into gloomy greyness today.

I have just had 6 days off in a row and, as I'm feeling rather chilled and not at all like getting ready for work tomorrow, I have convinced the lovely J that we should go to see Sex & the City 2 tonight.

(I think I can just about hear your barely baited breath in anticipation of my critique but don't you worry...there will be plenty of opinions...as always!)

So toodles, cheerio and all that!  Date night has begun...

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year...

The weekend is here again and despite the fact that during this last week, there's been just a little nip in the air as the sun dips backs down to the horizon each day, today we were blessed with a beautiful Autumn Day...so beautiful, in fact, that the top came off...

...my car you numpty, I'm talking about my car...

Got your attention though, didn't it! Ha!

Anyway, Autumn is my most favourite time of the year.  

(English people think I am weird when I tell them this. The usual reaction is an unbelieving 'What about Summer?'...I try to be gentle when I tell them that we don't all live in 'Summer Bay' and it does actually rain in Ramsay Street.)

The leaves are starting to turn now so we are getting some of that startling red and orange appearing in the midst of leftover summer-green foliage.  The mornings are peppered with misty puffs of breath and there is an extra layer of clothing in place on my daily, crunchy-leafed walk to catch the bus. And the daylight hours are definitely getting shorter too with my normal journey home cloaked in evening by the time I reach my door again, with the tip of my nose gone all cold and tingly.

But it's lovely - crisp and invigorating outside and cosy inside - and a great excuse to rediscover my warmer wardrobe staples that have lain abandoned over the glorious summer that we had...and so it all feels like new.

Yes, Autumn is definitely the most wonderful time of the year...

  

The view from my front door...glorious!!!

Last of the Summer Wine...

Well, here we are at August Bank Holiday Monday and the official last day of summer here in the UK and the weather has put in a simply splendid show of sunshine to remind us all that summer was actually pretty good over here this year. 

It's 26C, and whilst I submitted myself to a rather unruly burst of spring-cleaning this morning, I followed this with a couple of hours of luxurious reading under the trees out the front...and we are bbq-ing in earnest tonight to give this English summer of 2009 a proper and fitting 'cheerio'.

So it's a toast to farewell Summer...goodbye to tomatoes and blackberries and rosily,sun-kissed cheeks and noses...and to welcome the brilliantly-hued and softly sunshine-y days of Autumn...