Sunday, 18th. August 2026

For me the beginning of autumn is a personal thing, an event that occurs when certain conditions are met – conditions that are unique to me and my geographic location. Autumn can therefore ‘start’, insofar as we can attach a meaningful start date, on any day in October.

Why is it day 1 of autumn – for me at least? Well, at after 10am this morning it is cool 10 degrees outside but, more importantly, temperatures outside have not been consistently high enough in recent days to stem heat-loss and therefore maintain a reasonable temperature of 18 degrees or so indoors. As a result, and due to living in an energy inefficient home, this morning it is 15ºC in the living room and as high as 17 degrees elsewhere. As a result this is my first 2-shirt day! When I say ‘shirt’ I always mean ‘t-shirt’ as I very rarely wear shirts, although in the next month or so as temperatures drop further I shall start wearing over-shirts. The layering-up season is here!

So there you have it, an actual start-date for autumn, at least in my part of south Devon and in my energy inefficient home. As autumn days go this is a particularly fine one, with cloudless blue sky, a very gentle breeze and no hint of rain or any other form of precipitation. Very pleasant. And because it is the beginning of autumn there is no need to have the heating on, much as I feel tempted to – I just need to stay out of the living room – perhaps a rather unusual cost-saving measure but one that must be made in order to remain within budget. To be fair, I have built up a healthy balance on my energy account over the summer that should see me through even a harsh winter, enabling me to ensure indoor temperatures rarely drop below 16 degrees.

Thanks to the weather, and my positive outlook regarding my ability to keep reasonably warm this winter, the periods of depression that have plagued me of late are abated – and I feel quite well.