So far this year we’ve had a wonderfully mild autumn, following that splendid summer and Indian sunshine in September. In fact, autumn seems to be lasting forever, with leaves still on the trees making a magnificent display even if all the conkers and blackberries are long gone – curiously, we started picking blackberries in August this year.

I’ve always thought autumn the nicest season, with its colour changes, crisp mornings, rolling mists over the landscape and glorious sunsets.

But apparently Winter is Coming, and we can expect a cold one – and where will that leave us if there actually are power cuts because the National Grid can’t cope?

That’s assuming, of course, that we can actually afford to run our central heating systems and aren’t having to leave the boiler switched off because of the economic freeze.

Personally, I think there’s a lot to be said for turning down thermostats a degree or two and supporting the great British knitwear industry by wearing a jumper.

It’s a source of fury to many parents that they shell out for expensive, and compulsory, school jumpers and sweatshirts for their offspring, only to spend as many hours retrieving them from classrooms and lost property baskets because they are taken off and cast aside during the school day.

I used to fume in fury every time the classroom door opened in the morning and a waft of heat swept out, and growl inwards again at hometime as out came the kids in their shirtsleeves, trailing their coats across the playground.

Of course I’m not advocating that the little darlings work in coats and gloves, but surely keeping public buildings at a temperature where at least two layers of clothing are needed isn’t too much to ask for?

Surely heating places to such a degree isn’t actually good for us – mind you, neither is the blast of freezing air which seems to surround the chilled food sections of many supermarkets these days. It makes you reluctant to scour the shelves for the best deals when you need your thermals on to do so.

Maybe if they kept the rest of the store at a lower temperature, they wouldn’t have to turn up the chiller units so high to keep food cool that they freeze the customers as well? Physics was never my strong point, but even so....

And after autumn, of course, comes Christmas – but the less said there for now the better. Christmas, in my view, comes after Halloween and Bonfire Night.

I’m not saying you can’t make plans before then, and I will even admit to tucking away a couple of pressies already – having painfully learned, over the years, that it is no good going back to a shop six weeks later and expecting that Perfect Present to still be there – but I am not going to get excited much before December. Or put up tinsel.