Warning – this post contains the gratuitous use of asterisks – those of a nervous disposition should leave now.
So it’s now eleven months since I started taking a photograph of this particular oak every time I pass it while walking the Delinquent Dog – how time flies!
The photograph above was taken this morning – another grey day as you can see.
This is how the oak has been progressing over the last couple of weeks…
Once again we can see the elegant branch structure that caught my eye all those weeks ago.
The weather has been very grey this month so far – even the days that started out sunny, seem to have turned grey before nightfall and we’ve had a lot of rain. In fact it’s been the wind and rain that finally brought the leaves off the oak, almost overnight.
Some of us find it hard-going when the light levels are low, so I’m hoping it won’t be long before we get sharp frosts and crisp blue skies. The cold I can deal with, but darkness really gets to me.
I’d planned to end this post with an uplifting little poem about November, but having dredged my way through Google, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is an unremittingly miserable month for poets too. I’m not going to put anything I found up here, just in case it drives anyone over the edge – really, you’d think poets through history have deliberately waited for November to indulge their most depressive fantasies.
Does anyone actually know a funny poem or saying about November – if you do, for heaven’s sake, tell me please! Never mind NaNoWriMo, let’s have ‘write something witty, ‘cos November’s so sh***y!’
Right, I’m off to hibernate…
❤
Dreaming In Stitches 
not funny…but all i can think of – it’s Movember month…..depending on where you put the accent it can bring a smile to your face….and yes, the grass is definitely green(er) on this side of the hemisphere…;-)
I do find it strangely comforting to know that at least somewhere on the planet it isn’t cold and dark – it makes me understand the pre-historic people who put so much store in watching for the returning sun and lengthening days – they didn’t know about the southern hemisphere. There are days when I feel like worshipping the sun…
It’s been so grey, even the last glimpses of autumn can’t gleam … I feel deprived … And no poems, I’m afraid.
Deprived – yes. We went from mild end of summer to dark and wet early winter, without the glories of a golden autumn to set our spirits aflame. Oh well, there’s always stitching to distract us…
“The gloomy months of November, when the people of England hang and drown themselves.”
– Joseph Addison
You mean funny sayings like this one !!!
Precisely – and this at least is succinct – many revel in taking dozens of lines to communicate the same message.
the bracken in the foreground seems to float your oak tree off the ground, now that the leaves are all gone. Light let in, even if there’s less of it 🙂
Quote? How about
“November always seemed to me the Norway of the year.”
– Emily Dickinson
Yes, but it makes me wonder what Emily thought of Norway…
I love your tree pictures, Anny, but I know what you mean about the grey this month. We’ve had a lot of heavy cloud up here on the north coast, though thankfully we’ve missed most of the rain and there has been the occasional brilliantly bright day to relieve the gloom. I really would rather have snow than endless dreariness…
There’s only so much brooding weather I can take, even in that majestic scenery, it must start to impact on your mood too – but do keep the pictures coming!
Henry James wrote something about the sky being bigger when the trees were bare, which I’ve always rather liked but I can’t remember where it’s from.
And do you know the poem November, Remembering Voltaire. I find it quite comforting in an admittedly bleakish way.
I think perhaps we should just avoid poetry during November unless we feel mentally up to reading it – I just wish someone would write something entirely funny to lift the spirits.
Haha, I couldn’t agree more about November, Anny! I seem to remember having to study a depressing poem about it at school, but I can’t muster up the enthusiasm to go seek it out! Love your photos, though. It’s been a strange autumn and the oaks in particular (up here, anyway) have hung onto their leaves until they are brown and shrivelled – there has not been a great deal of spectacular colour this year. I’m not liking these short days, either – they always get to me – the sun is sinking at about 3 pm and it’s nearly dark by 4.
So true – same here, I actually loved the frost we had at the beginning of this week – it made such a change from DULL! Back to wet and dull again though now – arrgh!
That is a beautiful tree!
I don’t know any funny ones but I like this one: “It was November–the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines. Anne roamed through the pineland alleys in the park and, as she said, let that great sweeping wind blow the fogs out of her soul.” – LM Montgomery
I love the idea of letting the wind blow the fogs out of the soul – superb!