Summer comes crashing down

On Monday I rode to work on my bike, leaving home at half past seven, wearing one layer. The daytime high was 27C; cycling between meetings I was sweating heavily. Today, just three days later, the temperature hit no more than 14C. In three layers I was shivering; heavy showers caught me out twice on my way home. And hunger... I'm hungry all the time - tucking into more and bigger meals and snacking in between. My body is obviously beginning to set down a store of fat for the cold months ahead.

As my fingers passed through the morning air, I found myself thinking of gloves for the first time since early May.

The end of summer? The weather forecast on TVP 1 when I got home was suggesting a return to 27C on Sunday, so no, not yet. As in the human ageing process - there are better days and worse days. Not a sudden switching off, but an inexorable though inconsistent decline into darkness, coldness and gloom. The wet has never really gone away, neither this year nor indeed last year.

Somehow that feeling that summer's over has not taken hold, the mono no aware and wabi-sabi moment has yet to occur (see this post from exactly two years ago for fuller insight into the significance of this particular time of year to me).

This time last year:
Tanks and guns and drones - Kielce arms fair

This time two years ago:
That post mentioned in the paragraph above

This time three years ago:
Recycling household waste

This time four years ago:
How many folk singers does it take to change a light bulb?