In mid-November here in the northern hemisphere, the shadows lengthen and the darkness falls early. Last night we were doing errands, and there was a beautiful sliver of a new moon -- an eyelash moon. When I took Duncan out at bedtime, the stars were twinkling and were a beautiful sight to behold. I love this time of year. When we're out, I like to see lamplight in people's windows; it projects warmth and coziness to the outside world. If you're lucky, you might catch glimpses of bookshelves filled with books, pictures on the wall, or family gathered around the table for dinner. Perhaps the curtains are drawn and you'll only see the warm glow behind them. Nevertheless, it speaks of home and hearth. I know some of you have already begun decorating for Christmas. We have not, but we'll probably need to start soon. As part of the season's rituals, I like to start my Christmas reading around the end of November or first of December. I usually read the same books every year, but they always seem to make me happy. I am thinking of finding some new things to add to the list though.
Happy November to you! Like so many of you seem to do, I love this time of the year. This is the season when I am really drawn to hearth and home. The last time I posted, I said I would share some of my fall decor this week, so I'm starting with our family room.
Can you believe tomorrow is the last day of October? 2020? What a year, right? I hope you're enjoying a beautiful autumn wherever you may be. We have some pretty colors here in our town, but we've seen prettier. Weekend before last, we drove up to the mountains for the day, and the colors were so dull; it was as if the leaves were seriously considering just skipping the whole show this year. It was a disappointment, for sure. Chalk another one up to 2020. I am thankful for mostly blue skies and puffy white clouds today. Yesterday, we suffered the leftover wind and rain of Hurricane Zeta, and I realize that what we had was mild indeed compared to what the people of Louisiana have been hit with. There were several large trees down in our neighborhood and the surrounding town; this morning we heard that about 100,000 residents in North Carolina are still without power. In looking at pictures of the Gulf Coast, we were very fortunate.
Happy Columbus Day everyone. Before I get to the rest of my post, I want to say that I've really had a challenging time lately with blogging, and especially visiting other blogs. At first I thought it was Blogger, but now Mr. Forest Manor and I have determined the problem is with my browser, Google Chrome. Certain blogs would open and load immediately for me, and others refused to load. I was not able to visit my friend Betsy at Estelle's, and I wanted to leave some comments for her. I also tried to visit Michele at Finch Rest and Martha at Lines From Linderhof. I've now switched to using Microsoft Edge as my browser, and that is working well (for now). Is anyone else out there having these kinds of problems?
First things first. I've been having a little trouble with the new Blogger lately. I'm assuming it's Google Blogger, but it could be my browser. At any rate, I've had trouble pulling up several of your blogs that I normally read, and last week, I wasn't able to make some basic changes to my sidebar. Very, very frustrating; but let's move on to more pleasant things.
I think a lot of people are ready for fall. I'm always ready for fall, too, usually because it's been so boiling hot and humid here in North Carolina. This year has been quite different in that respect. We have had some very hot days, but overall, our summer here has been pretty mild temperature-wise. If you disregard the earthquake that began in Sparta, North Carolina, and the hurricane that hit Oak Island a week after we visited there, well it's just been a very uneventful summer. 😏 Welcome September 2020, my birthday month and the first month of fall.
