The first sighting of Venus as an evening star, hovering in the dusk
Clear nights, frosty roofs, iced grass crunching underfoot, despite the cold it is utterly still with hardly a breeze, and there’s a parade of stars…Jupiter like a beacon, Orion watching the sleeping world, and a meteor blinks across the dark.
All very inspirational for my forthcoming astronomy advent calendar Substack project!
Floods cutting the town in half. Subsequent school closure, a couple of lazy mornings and a birthday treat -late afternoon coffee and cardamon buns at the Nordik cafe within sight of a beautifully lit Bath Abbey. Twinkly lights on the tree, a violinist busker and ALL the huts in various states of readiness for the Christmas market madness.
Pink and violet skies and glittering frosts over the moors. Festive rituals have begun, rereading Nigel Slater’s A Christmas Chronicle and rewatching Box of Delights. A trip to see an enormous moon installation at Blackburn Cathedral, which took my breath away.
Is it? I didn’t know that! We have it on DVD from years ago, it’s a Christmas tradition to rewatch it. I might do the double and watch it on TV as well!
A blanket of heavy snow. Cold, frosty mornings. Twinkling lights and trees appearing. New views, new experiences, and so much delicious food, visiting Cumbria for the week. Woken by a cockerel to enjoy sunrise breakfast while watching a flock of tree sparrows nibbling theirs. The joy of red squirrel spotting at Aira Force Waterfall. Cosy warm evenings resting by the logburner 🙂
We’ve been visiting friends in Amsterdam and have met up with other friends in Bruges this week. There are warm white Christmas lights everywhere and it’s so beautiful. We’ve spent hours catching up in cosy, twinkly cafes, pubs and restaurants where people have done the same thing for many, often hundreds, of years.
Enjoying dawns, and the moments in the afternoon just before closing the curtains when the neighbours' windows are glowing with reflected light in the dusk. The dawns are later and desks earlier each day as we hurtle down to the shortest day.
A cold barn full of well wrapped women, slow cookers full of soups and stews, hot tea and coffee and mountains of greenery as we chat and laugh and make wreaths
Brilliant, thank you, anyone can sign (even men and young people) so please feel free to get friends and family to sign and support us. It is shocking discrimination and I don’t know why the Ombudsman needs their homework checking!
Lumps of wet moss land on the path after crows dislodge them from my roof tiles. Fuchsia blooms, dark pink, cling to stems denuded of leaves by wind and wet. There's a buzz of energy in the town's streets; Christmas is in the air.
In the woods. Amber leaves crunch under foot, slowly turning to dust. Yet, others cling to their branches in sheltered spots. The deep green of holly scattered with red, like a child's spatter painting. But, as I gaze at the stillness of a world turning inwards, I see green shoots and juicy heliotrope leaves and tightly wrapped buds and bouncing deer. Preparing, living, alive! The wheel turning before my very eyes.
Sounds like you had an amazing weekend, Lia. Hope this one is equally enjoyable.
Multiple forest fires in a part of the USA where this is rare, welcome deluges of rain on Thanksgiving Day, an onslaught of carbs for Thanksgiving (the best part of the meal) and then the inevitable food coma.
After all that rain, the hurly burly brook has flattened the sedge leaves on its banks, so they all point to the sea.
I'm so glad I left the seed heads on the Japanese anemones, the ones I brought inside have started to open, their round fluffywhiteness is a bit like daisies.
All things Advent - digging out my Advent calendar jigsaw ready to go, and re-filling the teabag one from last year and sending it to my son and DIL and on Sunday I hope to see reindeer with my granddaughter, I think I am far more excited than she is!
Our baby girl arrived at the speed of light on Monday. Time has stretched and warped all week as we lean into the Newborn bubble and life as a family of 4.
We named her Autumn, and have enjoyed watching the last of the seasons colours change from the cosiness of home. An unforgettable week 🧡
Harvesting celeriac from the wet, muddy soil, hot chocs warming up cold hands, waking up (or being woken up) to see the 7am sunrise - the sky lit up with streaks of pink and purple and gold, playing board games with family by candlelight, waking up to a layer of frost covering the car and not really minding that it makes you late
The first sighting of Venus as an evening star, hovering in the dusk
Clear nights, frosty roofs, iced grass crunching underfoot, despite the cold it is utterly still with hardly a breeze, and there’s a parade of stars…Jupiter like a beacon, Orion watching the sleeping world, and a meteor blinks across the dark.
All very inspirational for my forthcoming astronomy advent calendar Substack project!
Floods cutting the town in half. Subsequent school closure, a couple of lazy mornings and a birthday treat -late afternoon coffee and cardamon buns at the Nordik cafe within sight of a beautifully lit Bath Abbey. Twinkly lights on the tree, a violinist busker and ALL the huts in various states of readiness for the Christmas market madness.
Hope the floods have receded and not caused too much damage.
Pink and violet skies and glittering frosts over the moors. Festive rituals have begun, rereading Nigel Slater’s A Christmas Chronicle and rewatching Box of Delights. A trip to see an enormous moon installation at Blackburn Cathedral, which took my breath away.
Christmas Chronicles is the best, I read it every morning in winter with my coffee! Did you see the BBC is airing Box of Delights again this December?
Is it? I didn’t know that! We have it on DVD from years ago, it’s a Christmas tradition to rewatch it. I might do the double and watch it on TV as well!
A blanket of heavy snow. Cold, frosty mornings. Twinkling lights and trees appearing. New views, new experiences, and so much delicious food, visiting Cumbria for the week. Woken by a cockerel to enjoy sunrise breakfast while watching a flock of tree sparrows nibbling theirs. The joy of red squirrel spotting at Aira Force Waterfall. Cosy warm evenings resting by the logburner 🙂
We’ve been visiting friends in Amsterdam and have met up with other friends in Bruges this week. There are warm white Christmas lights everywhere and it’s so beautiful. We’ve spent hours catching up in cosy, twinkly cafes, pubs and restaurants where people have done the same thing for many, often hundreds, of years.
Enjoying dawns, and the moments in the afternoon just before closing the curtains when the neighbours' windows are glowing with reflected light in the dusk. The dawns are later and desks earlier each day as we hurtle down to the shortest day.
A cold barn full of well wrapped women, slow cookers full of soups and stews, hot tea and coffee and mountains of greenery as we chat and laugh and make wreaths
A blustery stroll through Bunhill Fields where the falling leaves are flickering pale gold, past the tombs of Defoe and Bunyan.
Watching the numbers scroll upwards towards the required 100k signatures. Will you sign and share to show support for the WASPI women?
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700765
Thanks for sharing. I added my signature to the petition... I'm one of the women affected by this and happy to support this claim.
me too!
Brilliant, thank you, anyone can sign (even men and young people) so please feel free to get friends and family to sign and support us. It is shocking discrimination and I don’t know why the Ombudsman needs their homework checking!
Have shared on my Instagram. :-)
Lumps of wet moss land on the path after crows dislodge them from my roof tiles. Fuchsia blooms, dark pink, cling to stems denuded of leaves by wind and wet. There's a buzz of energy in the town's streets; Christmas is in the air.
In the woods. Amber leaves crunch under foot, slowly turning to dust. Yet, others cling to their branches in sheltered spots. The deep green of holly scattered with red, like a child's spatter painting. But, as I gaze at the stillness of a world turning inwards, I see green shoots and juicy heliotrope leaves and tightly wrapped buds and bouncing deer. Preparing, living, alive! The wheel turning before my very eyes.
Sounds like you had an amazing weekend, Lia. Hope this one is equally enjoyable.
Multiple forest fires in a part of the USA where this is rare, welcome deluges of rain on Thanksgiving Day, an onslaught of carbs for Thanksgiving (the best part of the meal) and then the inevitable food coma.
After all that rain, the hurly burly brook has flattened the sedge leaves on its banks, so they all point to the sea.
I'm so glad I left the seed heads on the Japanese anemones, the ones I brought inside have started to open, their round fluffywhiteness is a bit like daisies.
All things Advent - digging out my Advent calendar jigsaw ready to go, and re-filling the teabag one from last year and sending it to my son and DIL and on Sunday I hope to see reindeer with my granddaughter, I think I am far more excited than she is!
American Thanksgiving was yesterday, so this week was about food: pumpkin pie, homemade cranberry sauce, casseroles.
Our baby girl arrived at the speed of light on Monday. Time has stretched and warped all week as we lean into the Newborn bubble and life as a family of 4.
We named her Autumn, and have enjoyed watching the last of the seasons colours change from the cosiness of home. An unforgettable week 🧡
Congratulations and what a lovely name! x
Congratulations! And welcome to the world Autumn. X
Harvesting celeriac from the wet, muddy soil, hot chocs warming up cold hands, waking up (or being woken up) to see the 7am sunrise - the sky lit up with streaks of pink and purple and gold, playing board games with family by candlelight, waking up to a layer of frost covering the car and not really minding that it makes you late
Coming home from work covered head-to-toe in mud after all the rain!
Beautiful sunrises.
Frost covered oak leaves are extra crunchy under-foot.
Making paper snowflakes with my little girls to decorate the windows and doors.