The weather is lovely: all sunny with crisp air. I went shopping for Christmas presents today and am almost finished buying for the Danish side of the family. Almost. On my way home from town, I met up with Other Half and we went for a walk through autumnal woodlands. And we saw this little cutie just a three-minute walk away from Dumbarton Road, one of the busiest roads in our part of town:
Sometimes I worry that Domestic Bliss has ruined my ice-cold demeanour and unsentimental outlook on life. To wit, I am sitting here with a lump in my throat after stumbling across this:
For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn't in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president.
Then again I also found Make Art From Starbucks Junk with a really, really cool TIE Fighter and I was instantaneously reassured that despite lapses into sentimentality my inner self will remain a 12-year-old geek (with an ice-cold demeanour).
This morning I read Nancy Mitford's Love In A Cold Climate which reads like a funnier and far more grown-up version of Dodie Smith's I Capture The Castle (which left me completely cold, I'm afraid). I'm now off to find more of Mitford's novels as I think the brisk winds of October are best kept away by tea, knitting and books set in interwar England (Waugh as well, I think, in addition to Mitford). Hello, favourite bookshop, here I come.
My love affair with Glasgow continues.
Glasgow Botanic Gardens (a ten minute walk away from Casa Bookish).
And you get squirrels in the Botanics! They'll throw stuff after you if they feel you're trespassing into their territory. Violent little beasties.
You also get a host of birds. This little guy sat on top of one of the greenhouses and was so busy screeching that he didn't notice me thrusting a camera in his face. Or perhaps I'm just not very threatening.
And, yes, it really is autumn. All those gorgeous hues and light rain and brisk wind.. Mmmm.
Tonight we'll have our second helping of David's homemade chilli-tomato soup and I have a pumpkin on the kitchen counter just waiting to be made into delicious pumpkin soup and a hearty pumpkin pie. Man, I just love this season and Glasgow's one of the best places to be during autumn.
PS. I'm also eyeing some pumpkin coloured alpaca yarn but I think I've talked myself out of buying it. After all, why would I want to look like a giant, fuzzy orange blob?