As the summer comes to an end, what excites you about autumn?

[mugcup]

I am weird but I love this time of year. Things I look forward to are..
• chunky knits
• nice boots
• that feeling when your freezing and you walk into a warm building
• buying nice candles
• settling down with the kids on a sat night to watch a movie with treats ( normally they play out till Bath/bed time in summer)

I'm sure there's more.

What's yours ?

Autumn is my fav time of the year. Not having to entertain kids during the summer. No more scorching hot days and nights. The air smells fresher, I feel like it’s a new beginning.

Halloween, decorating and sweets
Christmas shopping
The colour of the leaves
Walking through the leaves
Lighting the coal fire
Quiet beaches
Smell of ginger and cinnamon
Comfort food- Bolognese, macaroni cheese, red wine, mashed potatoes, sticky toffee pudding
Scarves, slippers - comfort wear
Dark evenings together with a film on the TV and popcorn for the DC's
The best season for TV shows
Not needing to take SPF everywhere
No midges
No wasps
No flies
Seeing the milky way in the evening sky
Not having to keep legs shaved for summer clothes
Not having to keep toenails painted for sandals
Less sweat
No exam stress
New school/ academic year
Not getting woken up early by light coming in the window
Hot drinks

Ok, I’m going to be positive. Saying goodbye to the flies. And a bit later on, the hornets. That’s about all I can muster up.

Please post where you live if you’re celebrating crisp and crunchy leaves. Because, wherever I’ve lived, they’re wet, slimy and a blooming hazard.

Three and a half months until the shortest day, that’s my yardstick!

There is something positive about every season.

I'm on an acedemic schedule, so September feels like a fresh, new year to me and it is the time I make all my "new year's" resolutions.

I like autumnal colours and the sight of bright orange and red tree leaves brings joy. The seasonal craft possibilities are amazing; I love making straw dolls and decorating the house in autumnal colours.

The autumnal smell and slightly crisper air is something to behold. As is the sight of late fruit-bearing trees like crabapples and the harvest season in genereal. Squashes start being in season and I love adding the taste of butternut squash or pumpkin to dishes.

Not much can compare to coming home after a long walk and making a spiced herbal tea or a hot chocolate to warm up.

I also much prefer autumnal fashion; changeover seasons give rise to the most creative combinations with all their layering and accessories.

Perhaps this year we will experience more continental seasons; the warm and dry summer has given me hope that we will have a proper autumn and snow in the winter (which will, incidentally, feel warmer than the damp air of perpetual rain).

@Furries me too. I count down the days to 21st December then relish each extra minute of daylight. I find too many daylight hours being dark to be depressing and claustrophobic.

Don't know why people harp on about crispy mornings etc. cos the reality is it's mostly damp, dull, windy, wet, endless grey skies. Struggling to understand how that is preferable to warm, sunny, light days. And the fact is we get very few summers when it's decent weather for 3 months.
Autumn and winter last a lot longer in this country than spring and summer.

I am all for positivity but ‘nothing can compare to coming home from a long walk to a cup of herbal tea’ is pushing it a bit 🤣. I can think of lots of things that would compare favourably and that will not make me enjoy 6 months of dreariness...

I try and make the most of it. I will concur running is easier when it’s cooler. And I’ll enjoy buying some knitwear and boots. But by Nov I’ll be bored and slightly depressed by the lack of light and we’ll still be staring down the barrel of another 5 months of cold dreary weather. It just goes on too long. No matter how much you love a cosy snuggle under a blanket…

I count down the days until 21st Dec too. It’s the only way to break it up.

Nothing. I am already hating the fact that it is getting dark earlier and earlier. I just find it so depressing.

I also hate wearing socks, hate wearing jumpers. I don't like long sleeved clothes at all really.

Not much can compare to coming home after a long walk and making a spiced herbal tea or a hot chocolate to warm up.

As a tea drinker a nice cup of PG Tips tea is much more preferable

I'm not British and keep forgetting how protective people over here get over their tea 😂 I much prefer herbals.

But anything warming does the trick; I just didn't want to be the one advising spiced rum on here 😅

I get reverse SAD and have found summers very very difficult (used to reckon on being in bed crying most of the August Bank holiday weekend because it would have been too long without relief from the relentless long hot days) so I definitely look forward to autumn as a relief from all that. However, about ten years ago I took up gardening, partly as a way to appreciate the summer for something and it has worked really well. Summer will never be my favourite thing, though, and I will always die inside at the thought of lunchtime barbecues, sunscreen before you can set foot outside, wasps and heatwaves. I do try and have sympathy with those who hate winter because it must be awful.

Autumn is full of fruits, harvest and residual warmth which I love, safe in the knowledge that I'm not going to be fried at 30 degrees plus any more. I hate hot chocolate and Halloween but love Christmas, especially the lights and the music. I find the dark exciting mostly - like I'm a survivor in my own secret world.

This winter however is going to be very cold and scary even for us autumn lovers. We will have to approach it with radical hope and all the inner resources we can muster. Now the enervating heat of summer is waning, I'm girding myself up for the fight.

Sweating less.

PS I may just be a crazy plant lady but I think part of winter SAD is about missing things growing. I do also get fatigued by winter in late January and I find I can lift this mood by visiting botanical gardens that have things growing under glass. (It's also warm and feels like summer)

I now start seedlings under a cheapo LED growlamp from January onwards and that helps too. Maybe worth trying any of you who suffer badly from SAD? Got to be better than swilling back endless rivers of sticky hot choccy at any rate.

Spiced rum might be the thing to cheer me up!

I love early autumn up to Halloween, less keen when the really cold weather kicks in after and clocks go back.

Love the leaves changing and berries and fruit on the trees and hedgerows. Conker hunts, putting autumn flowers into the garden. Cooler but not cold weather when you can still get outside without freezing but with a light coat/jumper not hats and scarves and gloves.

I'm just looking forward to not getting burnt to a crisp every time I venture outdoors.

Kind of think summer lovers must all have lovely big cars with super efficient air conditioning and never experience the misery of bringing a heavy load of shopping back from the supermarket in searing midday heat, then having to sit down for half an hour in a sweaty mess and drink 5 cups of iced water to recover at home.

I don't drive and would prefer to walk or wait for the bus in the rain anyday. There is no joy waiting for a (usually late!) bus in the stinking hot bright sun with no shade available. At least in the winter/rain I can feel warm and cosy in my dry robe while waiting!

Also my garden is south facing so I can't really sit out or do any gardening until late in the day - just way too hot and bright son on my head/in my eyes I can't bear.

In fact most of my August has been limited by the heat - sitting indoors with all blinds and windows shut in my cooler north facing dining room!

I'm really looking forward to being able to do stuff outdoors now it's cooling down and not being stuck indoors all day. Lots of long beach walks etc

I already do this but I’m afraid it doesn’t help me (although definitely better than the vastly overrated hot choc!) I do love watching the seedlings grow in the spring and summer though after I’ve planted them out.
I suspect a lot of it comes from living further north where the days are much shorter, colder and damp - and while summer was nice in parts here it certainly wasn’t on par with the south of the UK, so we don’t really have that level of contrast.

Kind of think summer lovers must all have lovely big cars with super efficient air conditioning and never experience the misery of bringing a heavy load of shopping back from the supermarket in searing midday heat, then having to sit down for half an hour in a sweaty mess and drink 5 cups of iced water to recover at home.

I think you may be right. I drive a car with aircon and work in an office with aircon. I also live on the edge of the Pennines so we don't get the stuffy heat island effect you get from towns and cities. So our hot weather is much more manageable, and cooler.

When London had 40 degrees we had 35 degrees and a breeze.

Kind of think summer lovers must all have lovely big cars with super efficient air conditioning and never experience the misery of bringing a heavy load of shopping back from the supermarket in searing midday heat, then having to sit down for half an hour in a sweaty mess and drink 5 cups of iced water to recover at home

I have - I lived in the SEE for many years. I drive a car with aircon now but don’t have an office with aircon - it’s not really needed here. Perhaps the autumn and winter lovers don’t have to woh f/t and have to worry about driving on rural icy roads in the dark, getting stuck for hours in their cars in snow, getting home to children in schools or nurseries with no emergency cover because they can’t reach them either, having a 30 minute lunch break in daylight when it may or may not be possible to get out for a walk depending on how bad the weather is, or fuel bills which exceed the average for the southern areas. Etc etc. It’s not really a competition though, is it?

I love seasons. I'd hate to live somewhere that was a similar temperature all year round. So I'm just looking forward to a change. I've enjoyed summer but I'm ready for a break from the sun. I also have a large garden but not much inclination to garden so I'm looking forward to that pressure being taken off and not having to keep on top of brambles and weeds.

Kind of think summer lovers must all have lovely big cars with super efficient air conditioning and never experience the misery of bringing a heavy load of shopping back from the supermarket in searing midday heat, then having to sit down for half an hour in a sweaty mess and drink 5 cups of iced water to recover at home.

alternatively, they just might be different to you and suffer in the cold instead.

One other thing I’m looking forward to is seeing my green lawn again (the downside will be needing to get the mower out again!)

I do work (nurse) and also have to cope with icy roads - I get a bus service in a hilly town to get to work/home and that can be tricky! Also live at the top of a super steep hill.

Still love winter though and really hoping for snow this year.

Would love to live in the north TBH, I live as south as you can get in the UK, might seriously consider it when DD leaves home just for cooler summers and full on winters.

Yes bills are an issue this year, but it's not as though the heat is benign - peoples houses burnt down, grass fires etc all costing millions, plus drought and narrowly avoided power outages. My elderly DF came to stay with me for the first time since Covid and I couldn't even take him out in the day as it was too hot for his health.

Not a competition obviously but it does seem more socially acceptable to love summer than winter. I always think when I'm suffering through July/August that I know there are people who love this so I have to put up with it for them (so I try not to moan as much in real life!!) , so when winter comes it's your turn to put up with it for the winter lovers! Then the wheel will turn again as it always does.

Do like spring too though for the flowers.

And if your bus can’t get up the steep hill, how do you get to and from work? I presume you’re working 3 or 4 12/13 hour shifts per week so that’s great your bus is available at 6/6.30 am to take you to work and bring you home later in the evening. If you’re a nurse you’ll also know that more people die in the winter than the summer - although again, not a competition.

I don’t think it’s more socially acceptable to love July and Aug, I think it’s more that autumn and winter can be very hard the further north you go and the odd hot chocolate doesn’t help. I get that some people like the cooler weather though, but I think living in the NE of the UK has given me a very different perspective to the one I had in the SE of the UK.