Autumn here at last!

I doubt you can see this photo very clearly, as I took it with my phone earlier on today. It actually shows a rather established tree in Paston College's grounds. I took it, not necessarily to show everyone what trees we sport at Paston, but to point out the characteristically autumnal feel we seem to have at the moment.

As I was making my way through college this morning with my hot chocolate, something felt different and I can safely say that it was the amount of crispy brown leaves I was trecking through. But is autumn a little too late?
Once upon a time, Autumn used to fall between August and October in Britain, but after a few weeks of uncharacteristically high temperatures in this 'Indian Summer', and no sign of getting 'much' colder this week, should we question the dates we place on our seasons.

Indeed, across North Walsham, a whole host of trees still sport all of their leaves and don't seem to be putting up much of a fight to get rid of them. Despite the fact there seems to be a lot of them about, the volume is no comparison to what would have been seen hundreds of years ago. So, is Summer extending? Well, the 'city' is known to have longer summers, but perhaps now, as global temperatures rise, the 'extended' summer is suburbanising to our rural communities.

Did Spring occur earlier this year? Did Summer start earlier? Will there ever be a time where winter just doesn't exist as we know it? My answer to these questions is that there's a possibilty. The changes or shifts in our seasons is no short process; it takes decades for such a change. But it's the 3rd October, and I'm only just seeing these leaves. Global Warming is a paradigm shift but there has to be a case made about our seasons.