There is little doubt in my mind that this autumn, or at least the March bookend of it, is different to previous iterations. Sure the leaves are turning, all at the steady rate nature has decreed, but the weather is muggier, warmer and wetter than before. March is usually dry, sunny and has cooler evenings, even when the day is very warm.

There have also been some very odd electrical storms, accompanied by dramatic downpours and exceedingly strong winds. Some have compared it to a small cyclone, coming and going within the space of 15 or 20 minutes. I was caught up in one yesterday afternoon when I took a short walk to the park adjacent Hazelbrook Station. Dark clouds suddenly rolled in, vigorous sheets of lightning flashed, and enormous booms of thunder sounded, all as if emerging from nowhere. A minute or two later and I was fully emersed in a fast-moving storm. I got home saturated but safe. The sun appeared a few minutes later, as if to say, 'if you'd only waited a moment longer!'

I know that we are in a period of climate change - the science is in and keeps coming in - but those who want to do something about it are largely outnumbered by those who don't care or habitually deny the facts of the matter. What's to be done?

I would like a return of that 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' something of the 'winnowing wind' and the 'sweet kernel' too. Keats might have written about a different autumn, had he been living a hundred years from now.