The 1st of the month.... I'm a day late............. marks the start of meteorological autumn, astronomically Autumn doesn't begin until Mabon or the Autumn Equinox which is on the 22nd this year................... So you choose.
There are old traditions about the most frequent weather patterns for September which tell of three periods of "Old-wives Summer", each are followed by stormy days. The dry spells were said to occur about the 7th - 10th, 16th to 21st and around the 30th as anti-cyclones move east across the UK. The most common time for gales was around the 24th. I wonder if things are still the same in 2024?
The Golden Rod is yellow
The Corn is turning brown
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down
The gentian's bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun
In dusty pods the milkweed
It's hidden silk has spun
The sedges flaunt their harvest
In every meadow nook
And asters by the brook-side
Make asters in the brook
From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes sweet odours rise
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies
By all these lovely tokens
September days are here
With summer's best of weather
And autumns best of cheer
But none of all this beauty
Which floods the earth and air
Is unto me the secret
Which makes September fair.
T'is a thing which I remember
To name it thrills me yet
One day of one September
I never can forget.
Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)
September dries up wells or breaks down bridges
September rain is much liked by the farmer
Many haws and many sloes make many cold toes.
September 2nd 1666 was the day the the Great Fire of London started . It burned for 3 days and nights, destroying the Cathedral, the Royal Exchange, about 100 parish churches, many public buildings and more than 10,000 homes. Yet the death toll was much lower than the 75,000 that died during the Great Plague of the previous two years.
When the city was rebuilt roads were straightened, timber homes were replaced with brick and Sir Christopher Wren's designs were used for St Paul's Cathedral, 50 churches and the Monument - to remember those that died.
Monument to the Great Fire of London story 2 of 4