The chills, they're multiplying

This morning is much cooler than recent days and the first time, blustery weather not withstanding, that I have felt the approach of winter.

People seem to assume that autumn is a bout a fortnight long these days and that we are now in winter, but for all the odd weather we seem to get, it is still changeable enough, and still early enough in the year to be clearly autumn. Despite St Jude on Monday morning, the leaves are still resolutely sticking to the trees and I expect that we will be deep into November before they’ve gone. Certainly the days of bare trees at Remembrance seem to be long gone.

For all that, up until today, it has generally felt like summer waning into autumn; today it feels like winter waxing from autumn. If we lived somewhere more rural and remote than Ilford, I shouldn’t have been surprised to have seen a light dusting of frost (even at these relatively balmy southern latitudes). I have broken out and worn my scarf for the first time since last winter, though as yet I think it is still too mild for me to start with a coat: my tweed jacket works nicely in the interim. A fortnight or so ago, I used my winter coat when I went back to Shropshire to visit Mum in hospital and I was far too warm.

I suspect it won’t be long before I am reaching for that coat in earnest.