"Harvest now is over..."

"The harvest now is over, the summer days are gone."
                                                                          Mendelssohn's 'Elijah'

"...and the windows of heaven were opened." Genesis 7 v 11b

In between bouts of ridiculously heavy rain we have had spells of glorious sunshine. During these blissful intervals of warmth the farmer has been harvesting his crops; first he reaped the wheat, and then the oats, and now after weeks of being surrounded by a golden haze, the fields around us are rapidly becoming stubbly and brown.
One morning recently I woke up to find condensation on the inside of my window. For many days past (unless the sun is actually blazing) there has been a distinct chill in the air that nips the nose and sends shivers up the spine; the brambles in the lanes are heavy with glossy blackberries, and the apple boughs are laden with fruit; surely autumn is almost upon us...