All of a sudden, it’s autumn.

The past week was this year’s first week of autumn. Late summer lasted long, and the week before had 17-degree weather still. But now it’s turned cold – I’ve needed gloves when cycling both to and from work. And we’ve had several days of steady rains, and strong gusty autumn winds.

We can’t really see the seasons from our apartment. Weather, yes, but not the larger longer-term changes. The few trees visible from our window are all evergreens, and never change.

The light changes, of course, and we get less of it. It’s barely light when I get up. In fact the time I get up has slowly been slipping together with the sun, so that I’ve gotten up just as it’s almost light. As the sun rises later and later, so do I. Just a few minutes every day, but it adds up… even after cutting my morning activities shorter, it’s now close to the point where I’m getting to the office too late.

Well, one more week and we turn back the clocks, so the inevitable struggle of getting up in the dark gets postponed for another while.