Getting dark

The last weekend in October, when the clocks go back and the sun suddenly sets around half past four in the afternoon, is the point where the year turns for me. We have passed the equinox, it should be getting colder, though it isn't, and although lighter mornings offer short term compensation, the dark afternoons have far more impact. I didn't get out for my walk until after four, so it was rather gloomy for photos, but I enjoyed seeing the shapes of increasingly denuded trees silhouetted against the sky, their branches crowded with roosting jackdaws, and these interesting layers of cloud above the rooves and chimneys as low, dark, wispy forms travelled rapidly across the sky below the high, white dappled pattern on still sunlit blue. 

Back at home, I closed all the blinds and curtains to shut out the dark, and P cooked our first roast dinner of the season, a delicious chestnut based roast with lots of roast vegetables and gravy - and the main oven stopped working. Fortunately the small top oven allowed him to complete the meal, but this is the latest in a  list of key domestic appliances which have recently needed repair or replacement. I guess, like us, they have all reached a certain age...