November Takes a Bow

A pink rose in my neighbourhood.

The first half of November was warm with blue skies

and many flowers continued blooming

for our greatest joy!

Leaves started to turn golden and orange and the red berries were plentiful

Falling leaves decorate the cars in my street

These Lantana flowers were still flowering down in the park.

The graceful white Cosmos too.

Probably one of the most beautiful leaves in the autumn

are the Maple, especially against the blue of the sky.

This tree is in my neighbourhood

The fallen leaves create a carpet of red and orange stars.

Some of them get caught in the fence

Golden leaves and generous blue skies for the month of November

I often pass a whole fence of Morning Glory blooms

when I walk home from the metro stop which brings me up away from the town centre.

American Oak leaves down in the park

right at the beginning of the month when the beech trees in the background

still had green leaves.

Now the autumn chrysanthemums have been planted and these were joined

by a fallen Tulip Tree leaf.

Pretty cloud formations dance in the sky

The wind coaxes them into different shapes continually

My daughter had her birthday at the end of October and she came to celebrate it

here at the beginning of November and we all ate birthday cake!

I made this one with dark chocolate and ground almonds.

I recently heard about something called Fika.

Fika is an important part of Swedish culture where people meet mid-morning,

or mid-afternoon for a 'fikarast' or 'fikapaus' for a coffee (or drink of one's choice)

with preferably a cinnamon bun, or something similar.

This was taken on November 7th, when I started crocheting squares

to make a winter blanket!

Here are some of the different stages

I chose the colours to represent frost and snow and snug winter days.

Can you recognize the squares that make you think of holly and red berries?

I hope to finish this blanket by mid-December.

I also crocheted some lightly stuffed hearts to give as gifts.

The pattern is called Sunburst Hearts and is from a pattern by Bunny Mummy

Since there will soon be no more flowers or colour in nature,

I wanted to end this blog entry with a collage of colour.

The days are still getting shorter and the temperatures are going down.

We'll soon be getting zero Celsius at night

and then there will be snow!

I hope that you're enjoying the season and using these long evenings for occupations

that you really enjoy!

Autumn in Lausanne

The month of October has been very sunny and very warm

with temperatures in the low to mid twenties.

I think that my favourite colours has been the golden leaves against the blue 

of that clear, autumn sky.

My computer has been giving me lots of trouble, working very slowly indeed

and freezing often. I have been disheartened to put up a new blog entry for October

before today. 

I have very many photographs and will spread them out over several weeks.

One tiny leaf that left the tree and got entangled in a spider's web.

Fallen leaves on the windscreen of a car below.

The reflection of the tree above is reflected in the glass.

The Ginkgo Biloba Tree down in the Mon Repos Lausanne Park

 is startingto get its golden colours.

Look at their beautiful fan-shape and golden tones highlighted by the sunshine.

These joyful yellow Heliopsis flowers grow near my building.

They are also called Oxeye Sunflowers.

The Tulip Trees have quickly turned to golden yellow 

are now taking on a very coppery, burnished look.

Such a pretty shape to the leaves

Looking good against the evergreens in the park.

In my neighbourhood

I have so enjoyed all our beautiful blue skies this month.

Lausanne Cathedral taken from the big market place.

I usually do my marketing for fresh fruit and vegetables on Saturdays.

A collage of October colours.

The pink Windflowers/Anemone are still blooming.

I crocheted four little pumpkins and took them for a walk down to the park.

They seemed to settle in well among the fallen Tulip Tree leaves

showing up nicely against the dark trunk of the tree.

This month, I made a small lap blanket to give to a friend for Christmas.

I've called this one 'Cosy Winter Blanket'.

The edging.

I still need to finish making several other crocheted gifts.

My fingers are kept very busy during these longer evenings

now that we have put the clocks back for the winter months.

Today, Monday 31st October is All Hallows Eve.

It is a day to remember our departed loved ones, to light a candle in their memory

and also to take flowers to the cemetery.

The first day of November is known as All Saints' Day or All Hallows' Day.

There were so many marvellous cloud shapes one afternoon

and I enjoyed making this collage of the prettiest ones.

I shall be doing another blog entry fairly soon to catch up with showing all my saved photos!

A Stay in the Mountains

 

When I opened my kitchen door onto the balcony this morning,

I saw how the flowers of one of my cyclamen plants had formed a little nest of petals

for this pretty white feather which must have blown there on the wind.

It is said that white feathers bring special messages from loved ones.

Now I will show you some photos that I took during a few days in the mountains last week.

It was a last minute decision to go away as the weather forecast was excellent.

We went to a mountain resort called Villars-sur-Ollon.

This is just before sunset on the first evening we were there.

I took this from the hotel balcony at 18:35.

Almost an hour later, at 19:23, the sky was getting darker 

even though the setting sun still illuminated the mountain peaks.

These are the lovely colours developing at 19:34

The rich hues developed five minutes later.

All taken from my balcony!

The next morning, I watched all the different stages of the sunrise.

It was fascinating and so beautiful.

The sun was giving a warm glow to the mountain tops.

The range on the extreme right is called Les Dents-du-Midi.

This is the view in the afternoon after getting back from our hike.

We took a cog-wheel train up to a place called Bretaye.

This is the view from the start of our hike.

It's the Bretaye Lake.

The town of Villars is very well kept and there were lots of flowers still blooming.

On our second evening we went out to eat a Cheese Raclette.

Our beautiful, well varnished table is made out of a tree trunk.

The very good red wine we had was called Noire Agate (Black Agate).

It went very well with our raclette.

In the lower part of the restaurant a log fire was burning.

You can see half of a big round of cheese sitting in front of the flames.

Here is the restaurant owner, scraping the melted cheese onto a plate.

My first cheese raclette of the evening.

It's served with a small boiled potato and I like to add freshly ground pepper from the mill.

I do love to see the chalets in the mountains, especially those with weather-worn wood.

Notice the pretty carving and the heart decorations on the balconies and on the shutters.

A traditional timber used to make chalets is Larch (Mélèze in French)

it's an oily, resinous and dense wood which withstands the mountain sun

and is very low maintenance.

I liked walking past the silhouette of this big chalet against a backdrop of pure blue sky

and the mountains.

On our last morning, the different stages of the sunrise were stunning.

This was taken at 7:15

Three minutes later, at 7:18, the sky was taking on a different glow.

Four minutes later, at 7:22, a warmer colour was coming in.

At 7:45, just before breakfast, the sun hit the mountain tips

and promised us a sunny morning.

It really was a beautiful stay in the mountains.

I had come here with my son and his wife in the summer and was really impressed with

the beauty of the area.

A mountain scene in winter painted on wood in the restaurant where we had our last lunch.

My main crochet project in September was made from granny squares

made in early autumn colours.

Some of them were flowers in squares and others were the classical granny square.

These squares made me think of autumn berries with a hint of pumpkin

colours so lovely to see at this time of the year.

I decided to make a cushion cover with two different sides in similar colours.

Can you believe that tomorrow will be the first day of October?