Late but autumn has arrived!

Yesterday evening I was at Stow Tellers, a story-telling (aural tradition) club in Walthamstow. The central heating wasn't on and I would have been glad if it had been.

I decided to wear bed socks to bed as I didn't want to wake up cold in the night and have problems getting to sleep again. Mentioning this to colleagues at work, a couple of them had also worn bed socks last night.

I've lit a fire in the wood burning stove for this first time this season.

With this morning's weather forecasts telling of cold weather approaching (though BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio London disagreed in which direction this cold weather was heading from) this morning I picked not just the ripe tomatoes but any that were even slightly orange. There are 10 green ones left - not enough for a green tomato chutney.

The leaves of my boston ivy on the back wall usually turn red and then the leaves drop off in August, very early. They have just turned red. Being driven around by friends on Saturday and Sunday the trees are still very green, with just one here and there with a yellowing tinge (probably the same species, but going past at speed I wasn't able to work out which it was).

Autumn has come!

This morning my north facing, single-glazed bathroom window had condensation. My north-facing double-glazed bedroom window was steamed up, but my other windows were fine (forgot to check the conservatory windows).

I left on my bike at 9am in a long-sleeved top in a thick material, but was glad I had put my winter bike jacket in my saddle bag, as I soon stopped to put that on, plus the gloves in the pocket. Back by 10.30, and, although much warmer, I didn't feel hot.

My garden at 8 am looked as if there had been a heavy dew. By the time I got to the Lea Valley, along by the west side of the old Essex filter beds, the grass in places was white. The Navigation was steaming - so the water was presumably warmer than the air. There didn't seem much rubbish in the water. Denis at my kayak club claims it sinks in cold weather, and I suspect he is right,

I went down the Navigation, half way along the Hertford Union, round the east of Victoria Park and back, a route I haven't done since the Spring.

The leaves are beginning to turn, but no real autumn colour yet.