During the hot summer, I noticed people beginning to talk longingly about cosy evenings at home. While the sun was still shining, they were already imagining cooler nights, curling up on the sofa and snuggling into bed.
I understood. You can enjoy summer and still look forward to pulling a duvet around your shoulders without immediately wanting to push it away again.
Then comes that first properly cool evening. You climb into bed, settle beneath the duvet and think, “Oh yes. This is nice.”
The duvet may be exactly the same one you slept under the night before. But suddenly, being tucked beneath it feels especially lovely.
A very British confession!
When it hasn’t rained for a while, I find myself craving rain. A slightly risky admission when you live in Devon, where we are not normally short of it.
I miss the sound of it, the smell of the garden afterwards and the pleasure of being indoors while it patters against the windows. I wonder whether other people feel this too, even after spending much of the year hoping for sunshine.
On a beautiful evening, I always feel drawn outside. There is something to see, something to do, or simply the feeling that I ought to be making the most of it. A quick look in the polytunnel can easily become another hour in the garden.
Rain takes that decision out of my hands. The garden is being watered without my assistance, and whatever else needs doing can probably wait.
I can settle down at home without feeling guilty or mentally making a list of things to do before the light goes.
“The garden is being watered without my assistance, and whatever else needs doing can probably wait.”
The pleasure of pulling the duvet up
As the evenings draw in, the house begins to feel different. Curtains are closed, lamps are switched on and something warm for dinner becomes especially appealing.
Bedtime has its own small change of mood.
On a very hot night, there can be quite a lot of negotiation with the bedding. One leg out, both legs out, duvet back on, duvet off again. By morning, it can look as though there has been a disagreement.
A cooler evening brings the welcome prospect of pulling the duvet around you and simply leaving it there.
Perhaps that is what we were looking forward to during the summer: the feeling of being comfortably covered, with cooler air beyond the bed and nowhere else we need to be.
If there is rain at the window as well, so much the better.
Cosy doesn’t always mean thicker
That lovely autumn feeling does not necessarily mean bringing out a thicker duvet. Sometimes it is simply the first evening you want to snuggle properly beneath the one you already have.
This is one of the things I appreciate about wool. It naturally insulates, helping retain warmth, while its breathability and ability to absorb and release moisture contribute to a comfortable sleeping environment.
You may find that the wool duvet you have been sleeping under remains just right as the nights become cooler. A change in season does not automatically call for a change in bedding.
Of course, bedrooms and people differ. If you begin to feel chilly, a warmer duvet may be welcome. The useful guide is how you feel beneath it: comfortably warm, without becoming too hot.
For me, the pleasure is in being able to draw the duvet around my shoulders and settle, rather than in choosing something thicker simply because autumn has arrived.
A little pleasure in the changing season
There are things about the colder months I could happily do without. The mud, for example, and discovering that it is already dark when I finally have time to get outside.
But I do love a quiet evening at home and the prospect of a comfortable bed.
That first night when you really want to snuggle beneath the duvet is one of those small seasonal pleasures that rarely makes it onto a calendar but deserves a moment of appreciation all the same.
And if I wake to hear rain in the night, I may lie there listening for a little while, enjoying the feeling of being tucked up indoors.