Monday 31 October 2016

Notes from the hornbeam: October.


The tall hornbeam outside my bedroom window has always been one of my favourite subjects to photograph. On my computer's hard drive there are countless photos of this tree that I have taken over the years - at every time of the day, in every season. This will be the first post of a series I have called Notes from the hornbeam: the idea is to share a photo of the tree every month, accompanied by some thoughts about the month past.

October was extremely kind to me. It started off on a high note with a trip to London, which is my favourite city. I was talking with one of my best friends last night and she told me that when she visited New York she felt as safe as in the womb there, she felt like everything was in the right place; London has the same effect on me. I went with my brother, who is the perfect travel mate. We spent an amazing couple of days there and just thinking about it makes me so nostalgic. I discovered new favourite places, visited some old ones, ate great food and laughed a lot. We even met one of our idols! Incredible. How lucky were we?

I then spent about ten days in Rome, where I study (wow, I just realized I spent more time at home than in Rome this month.). Life there always goes by at a faster pace, between lectures, making sure there's food in the fridge and my room is tidy... and trying to fit some studying in there as well! The days I spend there are not my favourite to be completely honest - I always end up feeling a bit alone, although I have made a lot of progress in the past three years. My house mates and I often have very different schedules and even though I don't mind being by myself, sometimes it does weigh on me.

Thankfully those ten days went by fast and I came back home a few days before my dad's birthday. Our house is in a very quiet neighbourhood near the countryside and being so near to nature -unlike in Rome- feels so beneficial to my mood. I'm much more relaxed and serene when the only noise I can hear from my room is birdsong! On the 26th we finally saw Doctor Strange at the cinema (if you follow me on other social media you will know that I am a huge Benedict Cumberbatch fan!) and it was AMAZING. I have been waiting to see it for over a year and finally being able to watch it was so exciting. We may be planning to go see it again in the next couple of days... ;)

As I said in my previous post, I have been pushing myself to enjoy Autumn a bit more. The weather has been great this month, and that has definitely helped: rainy days often make me a bit sad, so I'm glad we have had just a few of those. The next month won't be as exciting as the one that has just passed as I will have to spend a lot of time on my books, but nevertheless - I am ready for you, November.

2 comments:

  1. I love how you describe the feeling London gives you - safe like in a womb.
    That is such a wonderful feeling. Here's for November (I can't believe it's almost Christmas)

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    1. It's truly a beautiful feeling... I only wish I didn't have to cross Europe to experience it haha! Thank you for following me Niken, I absolutely love your blog. :)

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