Dear LPG,

This is the time of year when the summer is fading or has faded, the weather is changing for the worse and those long summer evenings are not long and summery anymore.  There are no two ways about it winter is around the corner again.

Now that I am retired, when we get to October I usually am thankful that I don’t have to look forward to any more winter days of getting up and having to brace the cold in the mornings to get to work, because my bones have earned the right to be warm and snug all year round.  If and when it happens, I think that it is really nice to be able to look at the snowy version of my back garden from the warm side of my living room window.

But I suspect that the thought of winter and the cold leaves quite a few of us older people anticipating long days stuck at home with little to do. It is a time when lethargy creeps into our lives and it is a good thing that we have Christmas to look forward to although, after the last year we have had quite a bit of practise when it comes to being stuck at home with not a lot that we are inspired to do.

Now that I have depressed you a bit, I want to remind you that this time of year; specifically, this day in this particular year has a little present for us.  Tonight the clocks go backwards and allow us a tomorrow which includes an extra hour.  Every year we get that extra hour back but I wonder how many people make use of it.  You could sleep through it or spend it adjusting all the timed appliances in your house but more and more of those just change automatically. 

I don’t think that it has to be the first hour of the day, any of the 25 could be the one that you designate as the extra one, but perhaps it might be a good idea to pick one of the 25 and do something significant with it.  I would suggest that phoning someone you have not heard from for a while or getting started on that book you promised you would read might work.   I did take a look on-line, but it appears that they only think that younger people need such suggestions, although some of them could work for us older bods. So, for those readers who like to make each hour of each day really count, here are a few options that might work for those who would rather not let that hour disappear into obscurity…

Happy extra hour…

GN, Bromley

GN shares what she found online…

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