I saw a report today that said that Spring in Europe this year started a few days earlier than usual and that summer was likely to last a few days longer.

Here in Finland that wasn't the case as the late winter was colder than the early winter and now we're in the typical decline that is August with more signals that summer is coming to an end than anything more positive.

It's very odd at this time to watch French TV which seems to be full of outside broadcasts from the beaches in the South of France while we are beginning to think of getting the winter clothes out.

Well, more like the autumn clothes because one actually quite positive thing here is that there really are four seasons (requiring three - spring and autumn clothes are about the same - sets of clothes). The only bad thing about this is that I'm sure most people would welcome a longer summer and a shorter winter.

Actually winter would be OK too if we could do without those (many) weeks at the beginning of it when it is just dark and getting darker and cold and getting colder without having stabalised on a few minus degrees (say -10C) all the time and with snow on the ground to lighten things up. Those days are regretably few and far between in Southern Finland so we have instead just the misery of plus/minus zero weather with icy roads and no sign of the sun for weeks.

No wonder that there is a mass migration to the Canaries in December/January/February although in most cases the "migration" is only for one week or two (to charge up with sun) rather than the several weeks that only well-off pensioners can afford (The Canaries are no longer cheap).

For me the end of summer means firstly an end to my canoeing as the water is too cold to fall into (not that I have fallen in for over ten years but it could happen) and then about a month later there's an end to my golfing as the courses get hard and virtually unplayable and you need to dress up very warmly in order to survive a typical round. I see no point in putting off the inevitable so I roughly stop both activities according to the calander (or the first signs that "this isn't going to be fun, anymore").