Sunday, November 30, 2014

November collage


Well, here I am at the end of a month of daily blogging, with only a couple of days off while we were away. It seems a bit odd to be maintaining this tradition with the white heat of the blogging craze long behind us, and I've sometimes wondered why I'm doing it and what I've got to say or show of any importance, but I'm glad I have, it's made me feel more connected with an activity I still value and with all of you who stop by, who I still value too, and I have enjoyed exercising the discipline of making myself sit down and put a post together, I think it's probably done my brain some good, and I have thought to use the camera a bit more, which I've enjoyed too. I rarely think to look at stats any more, but when I did recently, I observed that they spiked dramatically on the days when I used photos, videos and links from elsewhere, so I don't know what's going on there, but not to worry.

There are still things I meant to post about then didn't get round to it, but they can wait and be subjects for later, or not, as it goes. However, now I expect to feel a little like the poor man in the fable who complained that he had no room with his big family in his tiny house, so the rabbi told him to bring the chickens, then the goat then the cow into the house, then to put them all outside again, so the man revelled in all the sudden extra space he had. Similarly, I will, I hope, discover a luxurious access of time, probably early evening, which I hope to use in sitting on my arse knitting, of which I have rather a lot to do before Christmas.

So to round things off, an end-of-the-month collage, on time for once. 


  1. Breakfast, yoghurt and honey. Actually this isn't particularly seasonal but it's nice.
  2. View from the front door early in the month, almost bare branches now.
  3. The man cutting the hedges.
  4. Tom's Christmas jumper, taking a rather long time. Half and half merino wool and cotton, nice but rather fine, half fisherman's rib, mostly big simple rectangles, might be a last minute rush before Christmas. More dark red.
  5. On the Condor ferry on the way to Jersey, rather too warm Australian Shiraz in plastic glasses, but we were in a holiday mood and didn't mind.
  6. First fires in the chimney. We usually manage to hold out till November. This was one of the old beams Tom took down doing the garage job, you can see a nail sticking out of it.
  7. Road through the chestnut and beech woods, see yesterday's post.
  8. Walnuts, usually a basket of them on the table during the winter, good for antioxidants.
  9. Leaf litter.
  10. Skeletal poppy head. More dead heads on a web album.
  11. Foggy garden this morning, only a couple of weeks ago it still looked like this.
  12. Mince pie, the first today as it is the First Sunday in Advent. Enjoyed with tea and Radio 3's Service for Advent with Carols, which ticked all the boxes for such a thing, which are really just two: Oh Come oh Come Emmanuel to start and Lo He Comes with Clouds Descending to close, Sleepers Awake after that was a bonus. I like early Advent, it's really the best of Christmas for me, it feels fresh and ancient at the same time. Some of the liturgy, said the programme notes, dates back to the sixth century in Gaul, which gave me a bit of a shiver.

So, be seeing you, and thanks for reading and stopping by.


8 comments:

marja-leena said...

Lucy, thank you for all the riches this month! You put in a lot of work with gorgeous photos and all the interesting writing. The once or twice that I did this daily blogging challenge for a month, it was often just photos, for words are more work for me. Brava!

Enjoy your December of knitting and baking and feast preparations!

Lucas said...

I really like this collage, Lucy, with its reds and yellow, greens and browns which are truly seasonal. I like equally the haiku-like notes describing the subjects and their ambience. I like "road through the chestnut and beech woods... first fires in the chimney."

Zhoen said...

Thank you so much for this past month. The community is still here, if older and less fluid. It's made me think about a lot of what I do, how I waste time. Blogging isn't a waste, it's creative and inclusive and even if I only ever have one or two anonymous readers, it would remain so.

The Crow said...

Thank you for your monthly collages, Lucy. They're such a delight to see. I come back often to see them again and again.

Had such an odd experience when I looked at that gorgeous red wool - I had the taste sensation of pomegranate juice. Twice, in fact! Maybe that means it looks delicious enough to eat?

Catalyst said...

Lucy, dear friend, recently I grew curious about how long I'd been blogging. So I went back to the beginning. Actually it wasn't since I had tried twice before and dumped them so I have no idea when I actually started. But this was in March of 2008, when I returned to the blog. And one of the comments came from you! So we've been together for coming up on 7 years at least! I find that amazing but I am grateful for you sticking with me.

And I LOVE your blog and especially your collages. Today's is especially wonderful. Thank you for continuing to delight us with Things Brittany.

Fire Bird said...

Well done! I fizzled out at the end but it still felt like a pretty good run, and a worthwhile practice.

Stella said...

I am glad to be among your fans and enjoy your writing and images a whole lot. I am in London and have discovered a shop called Brora (new to me although they are opening a shop in New York City). You might like to look at their Fair Isle collection. Www.brora.co.uk I assume it is all machine knit, although I overheard a woman in the shop who sounded as though she was one of their knitters..... I bought the wee Sammy the Spaniel brooch, will be sorry if I don't take home a pair of gloves. Lovely stuff!

Avus said...

Thanks for a delightful post, Lucy. I always read you, but do not necessarily always comment. "The white heat has fizzled out" of blogging and many have moved off to Twitter and Facebook, but maybe they are the lazy ones. I like the spaciousness of a blog.
Never give it up, please.