The nights are closing in. This is a phrase that is usually uttered with a defeated tone. ‘Closing in’ certainly sounds ominous. Slightly threatening. Like a pack of wolves slowly creeping towards the door. However, I love these earlier sunsets, the longer nights, the stretches of twilight. The huge harvest moon glowed orange and bright in the sky this week and it was captivating. I kept trying to snap a picture of it while I was walking Harper through the quiet side streets of Warwick; none of the photographs captured its size, its beauty. Instead, I had to stop and look up at that lovely moon with my own eyes. The air was still as I stood by the town’s cricket ground, just the slightest of breeze rustling through the trees which border the cricket field.
The leaves on the trees are only just starting to turn. It is still early in this most wonderful season but there are still drifts of brown and red leaves on the verges and driveways in this part of town. We have walked back to the main road, where Tudor homes mingle with buildings from every century in between. These night walks will become more frequent – her runs around the field will have to happen earlier in the day.
With the darker nights comes more reading time. I made a list of books to read last year and there are some that are appearing again. I am still working through Babel by R. F. Kuang but these books are also calling to me:
- The Last to See Me by M Dressler – a gift which I have still been meaning to read.
- October, October by Katya Balen – purchased at Chatsworth House, this is a beauitful book which I have had on my shelves for a while. Austin and I read two other books by this author recently and I adored her writing so I am definitely excited to start this one on 1 October!
- Regeneration by Pat Barker – I read this as it was suggested reading when I started training to teach in 2012. It is the fictionalised telling of Wilfred Owen’s time at Craiglickhart Hospital in 1917. Having now taught his poetry as well as that of Siegfried Sassoon, Owen’s friend at the hospital, I am eager to reread this so that I can finish then go on to read the whole trilogy. I will probably save this until November to coincide with Remebrance Day.
- Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood – this has been described as You’ve Got Mail but with witches, so it sounds like my perfect book!
- Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs – another fantasy that I received in the gorgeous hardback version as a gift. I have read the first few pages and loved what I have read so far.
Bonus book: I still have my friend’s copy of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I am going to post it to return it as I have had it far too long but I have bought it for 99p on Kindle so may well read this too once I have finished my current Kindle read The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods.
Notes From My Day 