Closing in

It’s that time of year when the nights are longer, we have to start sleeping in the bed rather than on top of it, lunches are a bit more substantial than a few slices of melon and shorts are not always the garment of choice during waking hours. I won’t call it autumn, we still have high daytime temperatures, the leaves remain on the trees, tomatoes continue to be produced, breakfast is always taken outdoors.    But I can feel the change and I don’t like it.  The local festas are over, we had the last one on Sunday and it got quite cool sitting in the square till midnight for our village talent contest.  The grape harvest has started and the olives are turning black, people are preparing for winter and of course wearing their warmer clothes even on a sunny day.
The pool temperature is down to about 18 deg so it isn’t used much but we leave it up as it’s holding down the membrane for the new pavings that probably won’t be laid till next year.  
We are into October, we shall have to go back to Yorkshire next month and my heart sinks at the thought of leaving our cat Grigio even though she is perfectly happy spending most of her day and a lot of her night outdoors.  She has chummed up nicely with Enrico who has become much less aggressive and likes to sleep in the pizza oven, it does contain a basket and pillows and is never used for cooking.  
A better person would concentrate on the last weeks here and relish the season, I’m trying really I am.   Tell you what I’ll light a candle or two as the sun goes down, put my slippers on and pretend I like cosy.