Nothing disappoints me more in the mornings than rain because it botches my daily morning walk in Hyde Park. But this week has seen some glorious mornings, with the sun bravely making its presence. Of course, it has become colder and yet I quite like the autumn nippiness when the breeze ruffles you to walk faster in order to be warmer, without it being so cold that you wish you hadn't come out at all.
Autumn in Moscow is much colder, and, of course, the less said about the Russian winter the better. The year I came to Moscow (1993) it snowed on September 30th. By this time of the year several degrees below zero is par for the course. You realise what it is to be really cold when the temperature is in the vicinity of minus twenty. Your breath freezes up on you. It takes a good half an hour to scrape the ice off the car windscreen. And if any part of your autonomy is not adequately covered it can quite literally die.