nichepoetryandprose

November is here. Not my favourite month, but a month I try to face with planning and determination.

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Why the word ‘drear’ for November? After the colours of October, November seems a month of blacks, whites and greys. Snow has already fallen here in New Brunswick (we had 10 cm on October 30). The days and evenings are colder. The trees are mostly bare trunks and branches. The days are shorter and lower exposures to sunshine encourage the doldrums.

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But November has some fine characteristics. The oaks and beech trees cling to their leaves, creating slashes of orange and copper on the landscape. The month begins this year with a gibbous moon, waning from the full Hunter Moon of October, so clear nights will be bright, at least for a week. The crisper drier air invites deep breaths as I walk the loop of our driveway. And cooler evenings invite warmer activities like quilting and embroidery.

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We have a few plans which will improve our lives:

1. We are planning to add another loop to our driveway trail and are having some dead and encroaching trees removed so we can walk more easily.
2. I am working on a special shelf in our house to be an emergency station, in case we have winter power outages and flooding. It will be a place for storing water, candles and other things we might need in an emergency.
3. I want to complete a small quilt I began years ago with my mother-in-law. When it is completed, I will send it to my husband’s niece as a memento of her grandmother.
4. Reading is always on my list of things to do and this year I have a new way of recording the books I read. Emily Arsenault at Dog Eared Books in Oromocto, New Brunswick has created ‘The Book Lover’s Journal’ with space for listing books read and making comments on the reading experience. ( https://www.dogearedbooks.ca/ )
5. As you may know, I am working to complete ‘Pareidolia,’ the fifth book in the Kaye Eliot Mystery Series, to be available by the end of November.

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I am a planner by nature and by training, but I think having a plan at the first of any month helps it to progress more smoothly. Items not completed become the plans for a later month. And accomplishments feel so rewarding.

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In the next posts, I will talk about each of the plans mentioned above and give you an idea of my progress through ‘drear’ November.

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All my best,

Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)