Swallows set to leave as ‘the change’ arrives

Well as Mr. Keats put it, nearly 200 years ago, the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ and ‘close bosom friend of the maturing sun’ has almost nefariously sneaked our way, leaving us with just three months of the year to go and the dark nights at our door.

Things took a serious turn for the worse last week with dates being set for Christmas parties and nights out over the so called festive season, as the autumn equinox came and went, heralding the change between the seasons.

I’ve had no sighting yet of the swallows lining up on the wires between the ESB and telegraph poles, but surely it can’t be long now before our little feathered friends embark on their 6,000-mile journey to the warmer climes of South Africa.

A mild enough September has probably elongated their summer vacation but they’ll be getting edgy now as the first hint of frost arrived last week, bringing a dip in temperatures and a consequent reduction in insect feed.

Their departure normally coincides with my first very begrudging look at snippets of Coronation Street or Eastenders where a few faces will have appeared over the summer season.

Just over a month from now [Sunday, October 30] the clocks will be going back an hour and the evening chores will have to be conducted with the help of artificial light. The usual rummage will have to take place for the torches as we rouse them from their summer hibernation while lights on tractors and sheds will have to be repaired.

Research, from all those professors who know everything, has clearly indicated that it is more difficult to rise early from our slumbers on the darker mornings with two factors involving hormones playing their part in this.

One of them unearthed by research at the University of Westminster in the UK has identified a hormone called CAR – standing for cortisol awakening response – that plays a strong enough influence in our daily moods.

The earlier we get up – assuming we go to bed on time without any undue alcohol or caffeine fortification – the more CAR we can access to keep us lively through the day.

Apparently it’s all about routine but then we also have to factor in SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), a by now well researched condition of feeling ‘down’ and miserable due to the absence of sunshine and natural light on our bodies.

For the world, I cannot figure out how we all haven’t that condition in Ireland on a 12-month basis given our dreary summers, but it does often strike with a vengeance as the winter season arrives.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.