Well hey there, October! When did you creep up on me?
I reckon we're officially into autumn now, having enjoyed walks through parks carpeted with red and gold leaves, ordering chai lattes instead of coolers, and starting to break out the scarves instead of the denim shorts. To be honest, September was really an Indian summer, with some very hot and sunny days here in London, but I've been relishing the slightly cooler days where I get to wear my much-loved knits and thick socks. Yes, yes, I'm an old lady at heart.
Here's what else I've loved this month!
Reading until I get square eyes. I've genuinely been reading about four or five books a week this month. I had the huge pile from publishing work experience to tackle, and then I also decided to re-register at my local library. It's been refurnished and is now generally amazing! So, so happy I've rediscovered it. Favourites this month were Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Laline Paull's The Bees and Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. I'm sure I'll write some reviews on these soon.
Catching up with old school friends, over coffees and tea at Le Pain Quotidien in Covent Garden. It was wonderful to be regaled with tales of falling in love in Jordan, starting a research PhD at UCL, working at London Zoo and a hectic induction week on a journalism course! I love meeting up with friends who I might not have seen in the past few months, and having that instant connect cemented over years of friendship. Oh - and LPQ had these amazing giant hot chocolates that came with little jugs of molten chocolate. So yummy.
Picking the last of the summer vegetables! There's still lots of tomatoes, and we've also had almonds and some very interestingly shaped courgettes. And these seriously teeny carrots - which we didn't even know we'd planted. Pictured below with Alex's hand for comparison...
Watching Pina, an incredibly beautiful film about the work of late ballet choreographer Pina Bausch. Performance art at its most gripping. If you're a fan of dance or theatre, you must see this. I also went to the cinema to watch Lucy, a very violent sci-fi action movie starring Scarlett Johansson, which I weirdly enjoyed - especially the time-defying sequence at the end. And I'm so, so looking forward to Gone Girl, which comes out at the end of this week.
Celebrating my mum's birthday yesterday! I'm going to blog about it soon because we discovered a great little restaurant in our neighbourhood. But for now I want to talk about Lanka, a very elegant Japanese patisserie just off Finchley Rd, where I bought the birthday cake! I fell in love with some of their other cakes while I was waiting for my order - slices of pumpkin pie with just the right amount of wobble, green tea tart with white chocolate shavings, gorgeous hazelnut tarts. Let's just say I'll be back soon - that place smells amazing.
Enjoying the little things that herald a new season. At the top of this post is a gorgeous leaf I found on the path in local park a few days ago - I love the incredible deep red colours, and the way the edges of the leaf look almost burnt. And above is my first conker of the autumn! I found it yesterday on my way back from the doctor's, accidentally kicking it open as I was walked up the street. I thought it was so beautiful and shiny, especially in the autumn light. On that note, I've been revelling in the long shadows and breathtakingly beautiful cloudscapes we've been having in the evenings this month - see below for one that made me look twice yesterday. I heard a little kid behind me marvelling at it with his friends, too. How I wish that the clocks didn't have to go back... *shakes fist and curses Scottish farmers*
What have you been enjoying this September? Are you as sad to see it come to an end as I am? I accidentally wandered into the Liberty Christmas shop last weekend and was confronted by mountains of tinsel and fairy lights...I think I'll enjoy the autumn a little bit more before the Christmas songs inevitably start up at the end of this month!
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