Autumn

[C1239]

Even though the weather has generally been pretty pants this summer I sort of feel ready for autumn now. Do you set goals for yourself going into a new season? What’s on your to do list for this autumn?

I love autumn, and I treat it like a new school year for myself!

• Buy new stationery (a diary, pens, stamps for post, etc) and sort out my old ones. Go big or stock up at the supermarket/Poundland, where they do a surprising selection of planners and pen sets.
• Think about goals for the rest of the year - I think with the weather tending to be shit it's good to have something to achieve eg get rid or sell X amount of items each month, complete a series of workouts off YouTube or Nike.
• Learning: again, poor weather means being indoors more often, so take up a new class or attempt to seriously learn something on your own (using free apps, YouTube videos, online articles, books from library, podcasts). Plan out what you'll be using, when and for how long you'll learn each week, and set yourself a target end date. It could be a specific topic slightly related to your work, or a new language, or watercolours for beginners...
• Uniform, ie cull the closet and make dark mornings easier by creating a uniform for your work days.
• Breaktime: Prep your outdoor gear. Wellies/waterproof trainers, thermal layer, warm hat, decent socks, a coat... If you get outside each day for a brief walk then by the time the depths of Jan roll around it should be habit. If you find walks boring then give it a purpose, like 'I'll listen to 2 episodes of a podcast while I walk' or buying a newspaper.
• Packed lunch: Sort out your tupperwares and flasks. Write a list of basic dishes you can make that can go into a packed lunch for work or an outdoor picnic. Stock up on teabags, coffee, or hot squash mix (yuck).
• School trips: Look up the museums etc in your area, they'll either have already or will be soon releasing their AW program. Note down or book any events you'd like to see, invite a friend along so you have a social date to look forward to.

These aren't very practical preps, like winter proofing your house or anything, but lots of people have great lists for those online. :)

I really like autumn. I’m afraid I’m one of those boring people who love all the changes of season (the only bit I don’t like is where winter drags on and on and it should be spring).

I really like getting cosy for autumn, the leaves falling, Halloween and bonfire night (especially the later), the lovely calm of November (very underrated month) before the Christmas madness starts.

And Strictly of course!

PS. September is NEW BOOKS OUT! Best time of the year! Preorder them, usually half price, or quickly get on the reservations waitlist at the library.

Autumn is my least favourite season because I loathe the dampness and the garden untidiness that comes with it. Every time I go outside I seem to walk into a spiders web!

Snuggle, snuggle, snuggle, snuggle, snuggle...

Thank me later, bingo lover 😜

Me too! I normally go to bed about 10pm but have found myself yawning come 8pm as I’ve closed the blinds and turned the lamps on. I must admit, staying in when it’s howling outside, cwtched up in bed warm with a good book is heaven to me.

I love all things autumn, but September is still late summer. It's normal to get mild days into mid October so I save all my autumn activities for then.
I admit I'm a bit of a geek about seasons and love seeing and feeling the changes they bring, but summer turning into autumn is my favourite.
I'm not a 'snuggly' person, I enjoy cool and crisp walks out in nature seeing the leaves and leaving my patio doors open to freshen the house.

This! Much easier to dress.

Yeah I think I have SAD too - I live next to a lightbox during January and February. I'm normally okay until then, what with warm autumn colours and then Christmas coming up and everything. However, this year, I feel apprehensive (? best word I can think of) about autumn coming. It's dark now when I get up around half five. Only just getting light when I take the dog out at six.

I wonder whether that apprehension is because we've had a poor summer? Not been able to stock up on my vitamin D like usual, as there's not been as much sun? I'm still digging around in the garden and doing some clearing at the moment, determined to make the best of it for as long as possible! After that, it's back into the warm slippers and watching as the leaves fall from the trees I guess.

So much of this supposed ‘autumn’ stuff is nothing you can’t do all summer. I eat casseroles in summer - the cuisines of Italy, Spain and Morocco for instance contain those kind of dishes and it’s famously quite warm in those places. Also India…
Chai is a drink from a. Warm country - just drink it.
Why can’t you stay in and do a puzzle in summer?
I don’t get it.
All autumn brings is (more) grey skies and rain, long dark nights etc.
Some of the ‘nice’ stuff is mad too - steaming hot drink in cold hands? I’d rather not have cold hands, ta very much. And I drink hot drinks all year round.

We kept our twinkly lights up this year as we couldn't face the thought of a depressing January with no cheerful twinkly lights.

I love autumn, I also like spring. Summer is too hot for me normally (I've loved this summer 😂) and jan-March is just depressing.

And there's nothing wrong with taking joy in the small things we might enjoy about autumn.

So much of this supposed ‘autumn’ stuff is nothing you can’t do all summer. I eat casseroles in summer - the cuisines of Italy, Spain and Morocco for instance contain those kind of dishes and it’s famously quite warm in those places. Also India…
Chai is a drink from a. Warm country - just drink it.
Why can’t you stay in and do a puzzle in summer?
I don’t get it.

I agree. I eat a lot of salad in summer because I love it, and I eat it in winter because I love it. I drink tea all year round - just like they do in India.

Despite SAD, I actually turn a corner on 21st December. I find late November especially tough. Xmas is a distraction in December (although it’s not my favourite time of year). Usually by Feb I start to notice that it’s a bit lighter on the commute home from work and by March we start to see the snowdrops and the daffodils.

Maybe because I’ve had 6 weeks off I don’t feel the summer has been as bad as others are saying - the rain seems to have happened mainly at weekends!

The only positive I can come up with for the A word is I don’t have to shave my legs as often. If spring came straight after it, maybe I could cope

It could also be that I have 5 children. They don’t care it it’s a bit dull, they can all play outside when it’s daylight!

So the cosy steaming mug brigade can shove their pumpkins up their arse!!!

It's not so much that people cant enjoy it but the constant wishing life away is quite depressing.

Er... you do realise that just because some people prefer autumn to summer, that doesn't actually make autumn happen more quickly? The Earth doesn't orbit the sun more quickly because someone says the word 'cosy' or expresses a love of hot drinks.

People 'wishing life away' doesn't actually make anyone's life pass any more quickly, and I don't really see why looking forward to something is any more depressing than clinging on to something that's slipping away. Absolutely fine if you hate autumn, but the fact that someone else might enjoy it has zero impact on you, so it's really fucking weird to get so cross about someone liking hot chocolate and cardigans. I don't like summer very much, but I'm perfectly happy for other people to wax lyrical about it.

Anyway, to answer the OP's perfectly normal, pleasant question - my favourite thing about autumn is when you go out in the morning and there's a bit of a chill in the air and it's sunny, but there's also some mist about. I enjoy going for a run in autumn and winter much more than I do in summer - an evening run when it's dark and cold is one of my favourite things, I find it much more satisfying and invigorating than running when it's warm. I also like it when it gets dark earlier, as I'm not a big fan of light evenings. Light evenings just feel a bit unsettling and harsh to me, I don't know why. Dark evenings seem much more atmospheric and interesting and I like the general eeriness - I'm a big fan of reading ghost stories and gothic fiction and that tends to lend itself well to autumn and winter.

I agree that you can do autumn stuff in summer.

But most of it is just more enjoyable in rainy, chilly gloom.

And if you do it in the summer someone is guaranteed to tell you to stop doing it and get outside to enjoy the sunshine.

@Sorryiexist
Do you have any recommendations for the chai tea latte syrup?

Me too 😊

Still waiting for summer. I've only had my shorts on for about a week (if you add the days up) this year. Last week was better and I felt my mood and energy lift. I'm worried how little potential for warmth and sunlight there is left now, I don't like how early it's starting to get dark. If we'd had a really good summer I could accept it in a nothing you can do way but there just hasn't been the respite from crap weather that I need to power through to spring again.

Mixed feelings for me. I love to be out in the garden so spring and summer are my favourite months. All I mainly remember of last Autumn is worrying about putting the heating on etc so I'm hesitant a little. I've hardly sat out of an evening this summer, that's what I've missed the most. However, I love candles, twinkly lights and I've finally had some blinds fitted in the conservatory and so I won't be staring into the darkness that puts me off using it in Autumn/ winter evenings.

I fucking love autumn.

@RampantIvy you are right. Especially about winter. What's romantic and snuggly about scraping ice off the car in the dark and lashing rain so you can get to work? Give me a warm bright morning where I can just jump in and go.

Why is it "mad" that people like different things than you? Why does that bother you so much?

I understand that some people prefer wafting around in sundresses and eating salads in their gardens and so on (see? You lot have cliches too!). That doesn't bother me at all, why would it?

It's honestly so weird. Almost as weird as the notion that people are unaware they can drink hot drinks all year round.

And I see the old saw "wishing it away" has surfaced. Look, even if everyone in the world wished as hard as they could, it would have zero effect on the seasons. This really shouldn't need to be said.

I love Autumn, the cooler days, crisp walks, leaves changing to beautiful colours. Do need some candles and lights going up by November.

Food wise I love crumbles, roasts, stew, casseroles in autumn.