October Wrap Up
ID: Graphic with a burgundy coloured background and the words October Wrap Up written in white surrounded by a couple of stars, an illustration of a cup of tea and a book.
Hello Friends,
I’m beginning to struggle to find new ways to introduce these Wraps Up. But it’s that time again and I’m so sad that October is over as it’s one of my favourite months of the year. It’s the month where Autumn really kicks in and the leaves are in their peak colour change. Sadly, this year, even though I know it’s not over yet, I do feel like I’ve missed Autumn and my only glimpse of it has been seeing my neighbours tree showing off it’s glorious yellow leaves before the stormy weather blew them all away.
I was hoping to maybe have a little car outing to see some trees but now England is going back into another Lockdown, I’m probably not going to be leaving my house any time soon.
But enough of that, let me tell you about some of the things I’ve been enjoying in October…
Health / Life Update:
First things first, let’s get the health update out of the way;
The 1st of October marked the first time I left me house since December 2019! I went with my mum while she took something to my brother’s house but as they little way away from us, it’s a lovely drive. I felt like I was rediscovering where I lived because I hadn’t left my house or garden for so long. It was wonderfully exhausting.
Now onto the life updates;
Some of you may know that I have a photography website where I sell some of my work. However, I have made the difficult decision to close it to sales at the end of December. One of the reasons for this is that I simply cannot justify the amount of money it costs to keep it. The second reason was that trying to make a living from photography has honestly taken the joy out of doing it as I found myself constantly thinking about what other people would like to buy rather than what I would like to capture. I need photography to be a hobby again.
My first thought was to close the site completely but at the end of December, I’m going to turn it into more of a gallery website and then just see what happens in the future.
This leads nicely into the next little life update regarding my photography Instagram account;
I decided to help take the pressure off my photography and make it more enjoyable again, I’m going to go back to posting my photographs when I feel like it on my main instagram account. However, rather than simply deleting the account, I have decided to turn it into an Animal Crossing Account. This idea came from wanting a dedicated place to share any of the pictures I take of my Animal Crossing Islands.
So I spent some time clearing my photo account and changed the name to Lo’s Little AC Life I’ve only posted one picture so far as I’ve only just set it up this morning {2nd November} If you love and play Animal Crossing, please feel free to give the account a follow, I’d greatly appreciate it.
ID: A book with a shiny blue cover with Carve The Mark written on it in cursive writing. There is also a fox planter next to it on the left, with a stack of books behind it.
During October I read a couple of books and finished one I started a little while ago. I read and reviewed The Midnight Library by Matt Haig That book left me feeling that I wanted to read spend time with some of my favourite characters and so I picked up Carve The Mark by Veronica Roth. I’ve read this book three times now and each time I have fully enjoyed it.
I know I have mentioned this book a few times but let me just give you an overview of the plot in case you don’t know what it’s about:
The story is set in galaxy of nine nation planets, with most of the it taking place on a planet named Thuvhe/Urek. Everything within the galaxy is effected by something call the “Current” and this enables every person to have something called a “Currentgift”. Most people find their gift beneficial but Cyra and Akos, the main characters, have gifts that make them vulnerable to being taken advantage of.
Although from the two waring nations on one planet, Cyra and Akos are thrown together and have to decide whether to help each other and their nations or remain on opposing sides. Roth’s world building in this book is the main reason why I’ve read it so often because her writing is so wonderfully immersive that when I need a big break from reality, I always find myself pacing up one of her books. I also find Cyra in some ways quite relatable as she lives with chronic pain due to her currentgift. {I talk more about Cyra in my “Most Relatable Book Character” article}
So I’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Cyra and Akos again and when I need to read something familiar in the future, I’ll be picking the sequel The Fates Divide”.
T.V ~ Downton Abbey
As well as wanting something a bit more comforting with my reading during October, I also wanted something to watch along the similar lines. My go to is usually Pride and Prejudice but I decided to browse Amazon Prime and came across Downton Abbey and basically binged watched it all over a two or three weeks.
Although there a many difficult moments to want within each series, I really enjoy Downton Abbey and it’s one of those programs that you can watch over and over. I think one of things I enjoy the most about it is that it highlights a number of things that you just don’t get taught in history lessons when you’re at school. Although I studied history for my GCSEs and learned about the big things in British History, the impact of many of these events wasn’t taught in a lot of detail. For example how WW1 effected the running of stately homes and how that impacted their future, along with many other things.
I know many of this series is completely dramatised but I feel like you do learn a lot about Britain during time period each series covers. So I’m really glad I decided to watch it as it' had been a while since I spent time with the Crawley’s and Downton.
I’m going to leave this Wrap Up there regarding what I’ve been enjoying this month as everything else I normally share, such as Skin Care has been the same.
I do finally just want to share that I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo again this year. As with last year, rather than using to write a novel, I’m going to use it to help write articles for this site and to hopefully get my writing routine back a bit because it has slipped a bit this year. I’m hoping I might be able to get myself a little bit ahead and finally have some draft articles ready to publish so I’m not having to push myself some week’s to writing and publishing something within the same week, which has admitted been happening over the past month.
I wrote all about my first NaNoWriMo experience last year and hope I coped doing it while trying to make sure I didn’t cause myself to have an M.E flare.
I know England going into another lockdown is going to be hard for many people, but just remember that you survived the first and you are strong enough to survive this one. Please stay safe, follow the rules and hopefully this time round things will be better.
Take care,
L x
