Seasonal working

For the past few months, my morning routine has been much the same:

• Get up and have breakfast
• Head upstairs to my office, switch on my computer, check my email and have a browse through social media
• Get dressed (no, I don't work in my PJs, but I do enjoy the luxury of slow start!)
• Then I head up the garden for 10 minutes before I make my second cup of tea and settle down at my desk to start on the day's writing.

I live right in the centre of the city, so I don't have a large garden, but I love my morning garden tour. I see how everything's looking, dispatch a few slugs and snails, and usually come back in with a handful of home-grown goodies ... most recently that's been raspberries and French beans. It helps to clear my sleepy head and gives me a few minutes of 'me time' before I face the demands of the day.

This morning though, it was absolutely heaving with rain and there was no way I was stepping out the back door. So I made my tea, switched on the lamp on my desk and tried to get my head back into an exercise practising emotion adjectives. Personally, I couldn't help feeling a bit sad (A1) at the passing of summer and a distinct sense of gloom (C2) at the prospect of the long autumn and winter to come.

Thankfully, this afternoon the rain has stopped and the sun's reappeared. I've just had a trip up the garden, hefted a dozen snails over the back wall and come back in with a handful of beans. And now I'm sitting with a cup of tea in the sun on the front doorstep before I fit in one more hour at my desk. Maybe it's not time to give up on summer just yet ...

The view from here ...