The Last Day of November

 

The air is crisp and a cold wind has been blowing lately.

A walk downtown in the early evening with a companion.

We wanted to eat roasted chestnuts and drink a goblet of mulled wine.

We stopped in the area of this church called St. François.

I did like the illuminated leaves against the dark blue sky.

There were still leaves on the surrounding trees, also illuminated by Christmas lights

which have now been installed across town.

Market day is one of my favourites.

I usually go on Saturdays, but occasionally on Wednesdays too.

When I was downtown, I passed by the barber's and saw this lovely scene.

I liked the striped capes and the smart barbers in black and white wearing waistcoats.

The young lady barber saw me with my camera behind the big glass window.

She smiled and put up the v-sign with her fingers! So friendly!

In my neighbourhood, I saw this elegant lady all in white

holding a very large Poinsettia plant and waiting to pay.

One day, I visited the lakeside village of St. Prex, in the Morges area.

The weather wasn't beautiful enough that day to take likeside pictures,

but I did love the village shop which sells cheese and also groceries.

I'll be returning to this lovely place on a sunny day.

My aroma-diffuser which changes colours constantly

 I made a collage of them here so that we may enjoy

some of them which I took in a darkened room.

Today, I'm diffusing Eucalyptus and it smells wonderful in my home!

As the trees have nearly lost all their leaves, I picked up the most beautiful

and took a picture of them. 

They were mostly from my own street, but the dark pink and green one

slightly to the right of the middle is a vine leaf picked up in the vineyards.

The title of this book in English is: 'A Rose and a Broom'.

I heard the author speaking on the news. He is a road sweeper who writes books.

He sounded really interesting so I decided to order his first book above.

You can listen to him talk HERE

in German, with English sub-titles.

You can also read about Michel Simonet in this article in English

***

As anyone who does crafting or handiwork knows, to make things for specific

events, we need to start well in advance.

This is some of my Christmas crochet. 

On the upper left is a partial view of a large table-top mandala 

which measures 50 cm across.

Can you see the heart shapes?

This collage shows smaller doilies.

The pattern at the top is called 'Christmas Rose Coaster'

I find it so pretty. I bought the pattern on Etsy.

"One of the reasons crochet is so relaxing is because it allows us to achieve mindfulness,

the state of being in which we are fully immersed in the present moment.

This gives the mind a much-needed break from worries about the past and future,

allowing the brain and body to both rejuvenate themselves."

Tomorrow is the first day of December

and I love to prepare seasonal decorations, both to give as gifts and to create

a festive atmosphere in my own home.

Do you have special decorations that you like to put up at this time of the year?

Autumn's Splendour

My daughter and I decided to visit the beautiful Arboretum in Aubonne

Many of the leaves were falling, but there were still  enough for us to .

enjoy the splendour of autumn.

I especially liked walking along the water.

We crossed a bridge which had beautiful and different scenes on either side.

We followed a pathway lined with trees.

The yellow arrows on the tree-trunk show us the way.

It was so quiet and beautiful and the air felt fresh and healthy after the town.

An opening in the trees revealed a pond with pretty evergreen reflections

in the water and burnished beech leaves overhead.

Don't you love shuffling through the crisp, fallen leaves?

We come to an open area on our path with orange-red trees brightening up the scene.

There's another pond

with beautiful reflections.

Those brightly coloured trees have unusual leaves 

which look more like pine needles.

Here is a close-up to see their structure.

(click on the photo so it will fill your screen)

This is the botanical name of the tree.

It's a type of Sequoia which comes from China.

We walked underneath a covered bridge before climbing higher to get a better view.

A Tulip Tree was already losing a lot of leaves

A water feature captured the water tumbling down a steep slope.

Capturing the flow of water.

One last look at the colourful Beech leaves before returning home. 

I think it would be lovely to visit this Arboretum again next spring! Don't you?

Nearer to home, some Cherry Tree Leaves still hang on to the branches.

Many of them have already fallen, like this beauty here.

I liked the contrast of the fresh white chrysanthemums against the fallen leaves.

The season is changing and the cold autumn winds have started to blow.

We shall soon be admiring bare tree silhouettes and maybe even a sprinkling of snow.

We often have a little snow in November.

I hope that autumn is wonderful where you live

and that you are able to go out for invigorating walks and fresh air.

It feels so good to come home again afterwards, 

make a warm drink after enjoying to the full the season we are in.