Is this the end of summer?

It seems scarcely possible that only last weekend I watched children paddling in the sea on a beautifully warm afternoon. Now there is a definite touch of autumn in the morning air. Madam is thinking of changing to the winter duvet on our bed as, for the first time since last winter, the temperature fell to single figures last night. That's single figures Celsius of course. It was cool enough for me to wear a thin fleece when walking the dog this morning rather than the thinner windcheater I have been wearing recently. There are still flowers in the garden (of course) but the apples and pears are ripening fast. Fern, our dog, has discovered a taste for the windfall pears, although she leaves the apples alone. The fruit has given rise to a certain looseness at the end opposite her mouth, so she has had rice for supper all this week. We have now taken to clearing the pear windfalls rather quicker than we were doing!