I was listening to someone on the radio a little while ago who mentioned in passing that they were doing something in October but that "October is ages away yet".
No it isn't. October is never ages away. October is always there, lurking in the undergrowth, growling quietly. October digs silent little elephant traps and loiters by them sniggering soundlessly. October peeps at you over the hedgerows and glances at you among the Christmas lights and smiles at you sneakily on Sundays. October is looming on the horizon even on November the 1st. October lulls you into a peaceful, calm defencelessness through July and August and then abruptly and suddenly POUNCES
October has pounced!
The students are all back and my diary is filled with inductions, workshops, lectures, seminars, not to mention the desk shifts and other things that fill my time right through the year. It is true that I do all the lecturing and workshops and other things through the year as well, but not quite as intensively as in October. My diary quivers every time I approach it with a pencil. And it's only October 4th!
In the meantime, we have been enjoying some lovely weather. The weather that you might expect to get in July or August but which passed us by. Temperatures around us in the high twenties. Sunshine and blue skies. I dusted off my shorts and sandals (which I think I have worn once in England this summer!) and even rescued my straw sunhat. It all felt slightly odd. It had been quite chilly a couple of weeks ago and I had moved on to autumn food. We've had to make a quick slide back to summer! But it was really quite odd to have warm, balmy evenings, but to have the sun go down at 6:30. Pleasant. But odd. They say that normal autumn temperatures will be back with us in the next day or two. Good. I like my autumns to be misty and chilly in the mornings and sunny but cool during the day, cooling down again in the evenings. And I want to snuggle into the new, winter weight feather doona we bought recently!!!
We went back to Bishops' House on Sunday. After our visit there when we learned how to make butter, we joined the Friends of Bishops' House. And Tabitha registered as a volunteer - it's opened by volunteers at the weekends, which is the only time it's open to the public. the Builder and i thought that sounded like a fun thing to do, so we volunteered too. It's only half a day or so once a month. So we went for our first session with a more seasoned volunteer on Sunday. And it was quite busy - even if two ladies did come in just to buy pencil sharpeners. I assume they had been before and had bought pencil sharpeners previously. Otherwise, how would they have known that we had them?
Oh. If you are interested in life during October from the viewpoint of the (slightly more mature) student, you should follow @runrollerrun on Twitter. Her #lifeinhalls remarks are very entertaining
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