Autumn is aptly known as fall for those of us in well wooded districts. Trees are turning prior to the big leaf drop and for many the season is being celebrated in the the form of Harvest Festival, a tradition which In Britain, began in pagan times. It's usually held around the time of the harvest moon, the full moon that falls nearest the autumn equinox on September 22nd.
For some harvest as it used to be known is celebrated in church with singing, prayer and the decorating with baskets of fruit and food, which is not infrequently auctioned off for charity. Those of you who grow fruit and vegetables will recognise that this is also a time of competition!
For 50plus autumn marks the time that customers begin to turn their central heating systems on. This means a number of calls when heating fails to operate as it should! Seized pumps and valves are a perennial problem, in many installations these sit idle all summer. More modern systems utilise the pump for both heating and hot water and/or have have an automated 'pump run' cycle to keep the pump in fine fettle. It's worth checking your heating now, even if like many you resist turning it on until the temperature drops further.
Also check your outside lighting. It's far easier to repair it when it dry and light! 'PIRs' are a perennial issue. We generally recommend LED replacements. One pays a little more but the halogen tubes in the traditional PIR (movement detecting) lights are notorious for failing and the screws all too frequently rust in, making changing the bulb an effort.
NB - English Language and Usage (english.stackexchange.com) neatly sums up the uses of fall and autumn. 'Fall derives from an Old English verb, but it wasn't used as a noun to designate the season until the 16th century. This use most likely developed from the Middle English expression "fall of the leaf." So what did Old English speakers call the season? Harvest. The need for a new word arose from a population shift that made cities more important than farmland. From being a word for the season, harvest came to refer only to the agricultural event that occurs in that season.'
The image is the lake and park at Stourhead, Mere, Wiltshire.
