November

"In the original Roman calendar, November was the ninth month of the year. It got its name from the Latin word "novem" which means nine. However, it became the eleventh month when the Romans added in January and February to the start of the year.

Throughout much of history, November has often been thought of as a somber month because it signaled the start of winter. People would spend the month storing up their harvest and preparing their food and homes in order to survive the winter."

 

The historical Germanic name for November is Nebel-mond (fog month)

 

 

 

Grey and somber are words to describe

the month of November,

at least in this corner of the world.

This year has more than proved this again.

 

 

By the end of november most leaves have fallen.

 

 

Not all that much fog though this year,

lots of rain, not one day without rain actually.

Even today, while sun was predicted the day before yesterday,

that had changed already by last night, and a grey day was predicted instead.

And indeed, it was another grey November day again

and we had more rain, nasty dusty rain.

Really can't say I love rain at this very moment ;)

Last week, at dusk already, a rainbow appeared,

a small token of colourfulness from nature.

I tried to capture it on photo.



 

 

Chrysanthemums are the flowers of the month of November,

but they haven't been looking too cheerful this year,

because they were smashed down to the ground by the rain

before they even started to bloom.

This is a photo from the beginning of November.

Things are looking even less photoworthy now.

 

But after reading what's quoted on top of this post today,

I realized this is just a 'normal' November month we're having,

at least for the Northern Hemisphere,

it's a completely different story for the Southern Hemisphere

where November is much more like May over here.

 

 

 

With December and Christmas on the doorstep,

I decided to move our 'litlle christmastree', not that little anymore actually,

from the side of the house to its proper place for now, on the terrace!

It was a huge job. I kept slipping on the mud that's now become

our lawn at the side of the house and I even managed to almost

loose my boot when at one spot my foot(with boot) went half a metre into the soil.

I think you get the picture of me struggling with this tree in a pot?
At first I thought I'd never be able to move it,

heavy as it was, even just to tip it over a bit to put the cart

I always use to move pots underneath it.

I'd rather have the tree planted out into the soil

but can't do that all by myself and my husband isn't really fond of this tree ;)

He doesn't want it anywhere in the garden.

Me on the other hand, I 'm so very glad it's survived all the time

from when I bought it as a little christmastree for inside the house until now,

I don't want to just get rid of it,

it puts a smile on my face to see it thrive and grow ;)

But hey, maybe it wouldn't even survive in our wet soil

and it's better off in its pot. I put it in a larger pot last summer,

because it had really grown out of the pot I originally bought it in

after three years. That alone makes it an amazing tree, don't you think?

I have to say, it doesn't really look like it should on the picture above.

It was raining when I took the picture, happy as I was that I had managed

to move it but it's otherwise a very happy looking tree, I can assure you ;)

 

Think I might start on some wintery decorations soon.

Dark and cold days have been here for a while now.

Did you start adding some winter or Christmas decor

into your home yet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marian

 

 Dec 1st: It's now official, this month november is on the fifth place of
most somber november months ever since weather records were kept.
Phew, so it wasn't just me, this month was really somber ;)
Only about 1 hour of sun a day average last month.