I survived November, my least favorite month of the year. Not only did I survive it, I kind of enjoyed it. Mostly because I decided a stupid month wasn’t going to break me, and it worked pretty well. There was a blip toward the end of the month a totally understandable blip, but we’ll get to that later.
But let’s get to the pictures, shall we?
On the first day of November, I considered going south with this flock of birds that made a stop by the train station on their journey south. I dreamed myself back to Malaysia, to 12-hour daylight days (give or take half an hour) and lovely warm weather. But. My grandbaby isn’t in Malaysia, or even in the south of Europe where I’m assuming the birds were headed, so I stayed put.
And my reward for being so brave was a long-weekend-visit by my favorite people, my darling daughter, her fiancé, and Little W. They arrived on Thursday, so when I had to work (only half-day, but still) on Friday, Little W wanted to work, too. So she borrowed her dad’s iPad, and worked next to me on the floor by my desk.
If I could concentrate on working? Heck no 😍
There was a purpose with the visit, other than just having quality family time. My daughter gave me the most fabulous gift for my birthday back in September: a pottery class, where we learned how to do turning specifically, and it was SO MUCH FUN. The sad thing to the left is my first — less than successful — attempt, but as the hours passed, I sort of got the hang of it. I’ll show you the finished (glazed) result when I get it.
After the class, we had lunch, did some shopping, and stopped at a lovely café for fika (we are Swedish after all) before we drove back home.
One evening, my husband asked, “Wanna go upstairs and read?” Unsurprisingly, I said yes (call an ambulance if I ever say no to a reading date with my husband, because if that should happen, there’s something seriously wrong with me), and we sat in the lounge area in our bedroom, found a mellow playlist, and then hung out for hours reading, listening to music, drinking tea. It was a lovely, lovely evening.
And speaking of books: another great thing happened in November. We finally bought and built bookshelves for my office. I’ve always dreamed of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and these classic Ikea ones almost fulfill that dream (after we bought the tallest ones and added an extra top shelf). The ultimate dream is to eventually build shelves that are designed for this space, but this will be perfect until that happens.
I still have lots of empty shelf space, because I’ve moved so much and have donated lots of my books, but that means I have the perfect reason to buy more books. Right? (It doesn’t matter if you don’t agree, I’m gonna tell my hubby you said yes 🙂 )
But the best thing that happened in November was that I got to see one of my absolute favorite artists, Thåström, live. And if you’re a regular visitor to this blog, you’re probably thinking, But Nell, didn’t you see him live back in May? Yes, yes, you’re right, I did. But this was different. The earlier concert I attended was held at a big venue, with thousands of people attending. This time, he played in a tiny club that only admits 600 people. So we were standing really close to the stage, I think three people stood in front of me, and I could almost reach out and touch him. I danced and sang and jumped and screamed for two hours (my poor feet!) And I cried when he played my absolute favorite song (which he didn’t play the last time). It was magical. Magical!
And then, one Sunday as I was driving to pick up my husband at the train station, November decided to show me it can be beautiful, too. It was a glorious autumn day with crisp, chilly air, and golden sunlight. They hubby’s train was thirty minutes late, but I didn’t care. I bought a cup of tea and soaked up some sun and rejoiced!
It was the last day of autumn, because the morning after, I woke up to this:
Snow! Ugh. But, to be fair, it didn’t stick around more than a couple of days before the rain came and washed it away. But the air is different now than before the snowfall. And I haven’t seen anymore golden sunlight like that day.
And then came the blip that almost hurled me into unhappiness. My husband tested positive for covid. And the day after his test, I woke up feeling sick, too.
But my test was negative. Huh. What are the odds that he tests positive, and I get sick at the exact same time as him, but test negative? Seems unlikely, so forgive me if I don’t trust the test.
We locked ourselves into the house and did our best to get better. My husband recovered quickly, after only a few days with very mild symptoms (I guess those four shots we’ve had helped?), but I still have (mild) sniffles so I’ve worked from home this entire week to be on the safe side.
So I’ve spent the last days of November recuperating by the fire. A lovely sparkling fire is good both for body and soul, and reading by the fire while drinking a cup of tea is probably my favorite thing to do in the whole wide world.
Tell me, how was your November? Was it gray and boring or did you have a (mostly) good month like I did? Did you do something fabulous? Tell me! 🙂
Nell Iris 