Hour tune

Today was one of my favourite days of the year: the return of Greenwich Mean Time.

For me, there's always been something deeply rewarding about the very business of turning a clock back an hour. It's like you're getting to almost control time. It's one of those precious few moments where man seems to have the upper hand over nature, and can arrest the normal ebb and flow of events to his (and her) choosing. It also gives you an extra hour's sleep, of course, which is no small added bonus.

Above all, though, it really does signal the arrival of autumn and the advent of winter. I love the fact the sun now sets before the evening begins. It's something I've always found deeply endearing.

I am not and never have been at ease with the notion of the sun still being out at something like 9pm. It's just completely wrong. By definition (well, sort of) evenings are supposed to be dark, not light. I'm convinced it does your body no good at all to see and feel the sun beating down after teatime.

Anyway, out for a walk this afternoon in the fading sunlight and smelling the onset of the first chill of the night in the air, mixed in with the inevitable whiff of domestic garden bonfires and the distinctive scent of crumped leaves, I couldn't help but allow myself the sense of being a little renewed and refreshed.

Things felt right, felt...in place.