How to Enjoy November

Maple leaves

How can we enjoy the month of November?

We know it can be a month of dull weather, rain and wind.

Some of the things I really love to do in this month are

 Daily walks

 Getting into nature as often as possible

 Collecting colourful leaves to press

 Making hearty warming soups

Inventing new ways of capturing interesting images with my camera

(even when the weather confines me to the home).

Handiwork which means lots of colourful crochet for me!

Despite windy days and some rain, we have had some beautiful sunny days too

in this first week of November.

Walking fifteen minutes down to the park always lifts my spirits.

I see how the leaves have changed since last time I went.

The sun was illuminating the beech leaves in the late afternoon sunshine.

Maple leaves in different shades of orange

dancing against a background of evergreens.

A flowerbed of deep orange Chrysanthemums

with leaves falling from the Tulip Tree above.

Look how the Gingko Tree has turned golden since I last showed you

through the same archway.

I love the carpet of fallen leaves.

Another cascading branch of Maple leaves turning deeper shades of orange.

Walking back home, I noticed the lovely leaves on one of the trees in my street.

I picked several of them up from the ground to make a leaf collage.

Last Saturday, my daughter and I decided to go walking in the vineyards

because the weather was so fantastic.

The wind was blowing and it created pretty ruffles on the surface of the lake.

We started our walk on the steep slopes of a village called Chexbres

It stands at an altitude of 589 metres.

We walked along the vineyards above the lake and a view on the mountains

I never tire of these views, They change constantly according to the lighting.

There is already snow on the higher mountains.

Steep stone steps leading up to the vines.

Notice the red rose bush planted at the top.

The sun was right opposite me when I took this photo, 

but the vineyards are so lovely that I didn't mind that big white glare on the lake.

One of the small roads coming up the slopes.

Cars are not allowed here.

Vine leaves changing colour and illuminated by the sun.

We decided to do quite a long walk two villages further on

so that we could take the train back to our homes from there.

It was actually further than we thought and there were very steep parts

to walk uphill!

In the end, we walked 17.917 steps

which turned out to be 12.5 kilometres!

A nice flat part before the climb.

The last photo I took before the very steep part.

I think I was too tired to take more photos!

We had a leisurely drink on an outside terrace at the Auberge de Grandvaux

before catching the train.

What a wonderful outing with so much walking.

The Dahlia are still blooming on my balcony very prettily.

A close-up of one of my geraniums.

Don't you love the little star in the centre and that tiny curl on the petal on the right?

I finished my autumn colours crochet since my last blog entry.

I made a tabletop Mandala. 15cm in diameter.

The two smaller doilies are useful for a mug of hot drink

and my Essential Oil Vaporiser.

The colour of the autumn leaves was the inspiration for my choice of colours.

I may already have started a new crochet project in red, white and green!

I'm an early bird and I like to get up, make a hot herb tea, often peppermint,

light a candle and read.

You can see the Autumn Mandala in place on the small round table next to my couch.

I hope that you are finding lovely ways to enjoy this month of  November.