Autumn is a magical time of the year

Autumn in all its glorious and colourful splendour really is one of my favourite times of the year.

It is still warm enough to enjoy the great outdoors without having to wear so many layers you can hardly move.

There is still a chance that you can get out and about for two or three hours wihout getting soaked to the skin or your boots springing a leak.

And there is still enough wildlife out there to make sure you keep your eyes wide open while enjoying the tremendous countryside and scenery that we enjoy in this particular neck of the woods.

Autumn also has its own smells as our deciduous trees start to shed their leaves and much of the rest of our flora starts to put itself to sleep for the winter.

Most years our autumns seem to know what their job is and they get on with it without too much fuss –unless, of course, it has to fight off the after effects of an unwanted hurricane.

Autumn rains when it has to, but gives you some great late winter sunshine.

It is windy and then it is still. It is unpredictable in quite a predictable way and for those of us who do not worship either sunshine or snow it is just about right.

Compare it to spring with its succession of false dawns predicting early summers that then slapp you in the face with several degrees of frost you weren’t expecting.

Compare it to summer, especially one of our traditional Lancashire summers.

Where have the endless weeks of wall-to-wall sunshine I clearly remember from my youth gone to?

Will they ever come back?

Do I really care?

The easy answer to the last question is no, I’m not that bothered.

Like anyone else I like to be warm, but you can always put another jumper on.

Like anyone else I am happy to get rid of the near-death palour that takes over my complexion in the winter. I usually do it with wind-burn.

Spring and summer? I’d rather just have autumn all year round!