Autum Arrives early

~ beetleypete

As the heatwave here continus unabated, and we get a Summer we didn’t expect, it is hard to imagine Autumn, with its fresher days, and chilly mornings.

But I was woken up many times during the night by a familiar sound that I hadn’t heard since late last September.

The acorns were falling from the oak trees. Dozens of them. They clattered onto the garden furniture, and bounced off the flat roof of the kitchen extension. Some even bounced high enough to strike the bedroom windows. The sound is not unlike distant rifle fire, and the random nature of it makes it hard to get back to sleep once you start to notice it.

Once I was thus disturbed, I could also hear the metallic clang as acorns from the other large oak at the front began to cascade down onto our two parked cars.

I had to take Ollie out much earlier today, due to the afternoon heat building up at his normal time. As we walked around Hoe Rough, small leaves were fluttering down around us like green butterflies. Looking up at the small and large trees, I could see much of the new growth was already falling, leaving bare twigs behind that poked up at the sky like skeletal fingers.

I had never seen Autumn in a heatwave before.

But I have now.

60 thoughts on “Autum Arrives early”

  1. Pingback: Netflix finds for Pete (and everyone else). Part 2: Tv Series – Raistlin0903
  4. Pingback: Netflix finds for Pete (and everyone else). Part 1: Movies – Raistlin0903

  5. Cleansing of weather has lead to climate change. We have experienced 5 days of rain and 3 days of a heatwave. It’s weird but still, we are coping up to it. I like the heat as it cools down my allergy and like the rain as it cools the heatwave. These are indeed confusing times, Pete. 💖✌😊🤔

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. We are experiencing a sustained heatwave for the first time in decades. It hasn’t rained in two weeks, and is even too hot here for me, at 34 C +
      Best wishes, Pete. xx

      Like

      Reply

  7. I hadn’t realised you were still having your heatwave. We had glorious sunshine yesterday and again today until about 3.30 pm then it clouded over and we’ve had a thunderstorm and rain. It’s dry again but I suspect there’s more thunder – and rain – to come. I noticed some of the leaves on the trees in a nearby park are beginning to turn yellow – and the brambles are ripe, which is pretty early.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. I imagine it is the lack of rain that’s doing it. My Goat willows have gone from green to a dull khaki shade in a week, but I was woken at 5 am by the rain pattering on my windows! And once again as I write this the sea fret has come inland and covering the hills in front of me. The temperature was around 21 this morning, I suspect it’s dropped a few degrees since then, The holidaymakers from the south-east must be wondering what on earth’s going on!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. It was 32 C here at 4 pm, and shows little sign of dropping below 25 C tonight. It feels as if I am living in Greece, but without the blue sea, and the nice olives. 🙂
      Julie is convinced that we will have Cicadas here soon.
      Best wishes, Pete.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

            1. I think some restaurants there used ‘concentrate’ back in the 70s/80s. I tended to buy wine from wine shops, and avoid the stuff in jugs in the tavernas. I remember having to buy a corkscrew in Crete. 🙂

              Like

              Reply

  12. Well, that’s one thing I will never have trouble with as I live 12 stories high in an appartment building. That said, I definitely wish autumn would come too. This heat is really starting to get very annoying indeed 😢

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I used to live on the third floor in Camden, (London) before we moved here. No air came through the open windows at all, and we used to have two fans in the bedroom, just to get any sleep.
      Best wishes, Pete.

      Like

      Reply

  18. Scientists are hard at work reconfiguring oak tree DNA so that acorns pop out a little parachute when they take the final plunge. They’ve already commingled oak tree DNA with the DNA of green butterflies as part of the Green New Deal—however, the benefit of this work “leaves much to the imagination.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I wish I had your optimism, Pam. New car sales just increased dramatically here, as post-lockdown driving holidays become the ‘thing’. How soon they forget the peace of the lockdown, and how less traffic helped nature re-emerge.
      Best wishes, Pete.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

All comments welcome

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.