In praise of... summer in September

It's the end of September and autumn is stealthily creeping up on us. The trees are beginning to blush red and copper, and late summer flowers are blooming. The days are slowly getting shorter: in the morning I settle down to pray as a pre-dawn pearliness suffuses the room and the dawn chorus chirps lustily away; twelve hours later as dusk creeps up on us we're already switching on lights.

But those intervening twelve hours... they are gloriously full of sunshine and summery temperatures, short sleeves and smiling faces! They're full of people in cotton and bare feet making cheerful small talk in shops about the lovely weather, and families enjoying the park. And they're full of a sense of blessedness, that each day of sunshine is indeed a blessing and a bonus. We know they'll soon come to an end as autumn tightens its grip, but I think we also know that when that happens we'll have nothing to complain about as far as this summer was concerned!