Just One More Day Before It's Autumn

The end of summer?

Well, if you divide the seasons into bundles of three months each- which is as good a way of reckoning as any- then tomorrow is the last day.

There's a chill in the air. The central heating has started turning itself on promiscuously and I've been shutting the doors behind me when I come in from the garden. Yesterday I told myself it was no good pretending anymore and I might as well put a body-warmer on.

Ailz says we could be in for a harsh winter. Just like 2010. "What happened in 2010?" I ask. And she says, "We were living in Oldham and a polar vortex came down and everything froze."

Oh, yes, I remember now. It got to be dangerous to walk to the shops and we were delivering groceries to Ailz's parents because we didn't want them leaving the house.

Oldham- highest town in England (or that's what it claims for itself)- is not a good place to be living when a vortex hits.

Or a pandemic. They had a spike a week or two back and the government slapped then back into partial lockdown.

This is the same government that is urging office workers to go back into their offices- and is reopening the schools...