Happy Autumn!

That was the subject line in a recently received email. Initially I was suspicious. Was this an unscrupulous spammer using the seasonal shift for their own ends. Fishing the pond of the gullible, in the hope that they would hook someone in. The hooked in turn would invest their savings into the proposed leaf blowing & collecting business in the Sahara Desert.

“Happy Autumn, by spring with your investment, we could have a business that will help my poor, sick old mother to health, money will fall from the trees……”

No, it was a normal email, the sender was just sending a seasonal message. The author responding to the signs that Autumn is here. Not just because the shop fronts in the local mall say so,

“Autumn sale now on”

More because Mother Nature tells us so.

It’s the changing colours of the flora.


It’s the geese flying overhead, you’ve got to use your imagination here, this morning, they must have been on tea break, there were none around.

More personally and importantly it’s how I feel. No more shorts, they’re packed away until the spring. My pale legs now covered up by trouser legs.

More importantly it’s the “roof” as I’m no longer favoured by a thick thatch of hair on my dome. The woolly hats are coming out of hibernation, although today it was probably a bit premature and a tad warm for bonnets but give it a few more weeks.


The hole in the hat is not to accommodate a horn or other stalk like growth, it’s a remnant of a mouse thinking my hat would make excellent nesting material, several years ago. It’s part of the hat now and it didn’t feel right to extinguish the memory with a darning needle.

Finally of course the stove has been pushed into service once or twice this Autumn, soon it will become a warmth giving daily essential.