Nothing says Christmas quite like an abundance of colourful lights. Whether on your tree at home, adorning the exterior of houses or an official display, they lift the spirits and set the mood for a joyful festival. For those of many religions, or none, such displays symbolise the triumph of light over darkness, bringing warmth and hope during the winter season.
-
-
While a photo can tell a story without the need for words, and words can do likewise without any illustration, the combination of both can be more powerful than either. Each month Paula challenges us to find photos to match her chosen words. Some seem easy to ‘illustrate’, others I genuinely find challenging. But it’s an exercise I always enjoy!
-
September has been a lovely month, in several ways. The weather improved considerably compared to July and August, with a mini heatwave at the start of the month. I had two fantastic trips abroad and some fun activities closer to home too.
-
Summer has been in rather short supply this year, although August has given us some nice days. On the whole, however, it has continued July’s pattern of unseasonably cool and damp weather, again due to that stubbornly stuck jet stream.
-
We’ve had more than our fair share of cooling showers this month, not to mention the odd downpour. But heat has been in short supply. After June’s heatwave our weather seemed to flip and many days this month have felt more like October than July!
-
Yes, London can be different things to different people, and different parts of London can be different to each other. Contrast Mayfair with Camden Market, or Soho with the South Bank. As a Londoner I have lots of favourite areas of course, and love to visit all of them. But I always enjoy a walk in London’s Spitalfields and Brick Lane areas, and even better when I can introduce a friend to this lively area.
-
For me this past June has been one of more than usually changeable weather. I started the month inside the Arctic Circle where in the first few days of meteorological summer the temperature didn’t rise above six or seven degrees Celsius and was often colder than that. I then returned to a London going into its first heatwave of the summer, hitting thirty degrees on a couple of days. Towards the end of the month the temperature dropped to the more usual, and comfortable, low to mid-twenties.
-
May is an especially lovely month in England. At the start of the month spring is at its height, while by the end there are hints of the summer to come. With spring being late this year, the early part of May felt more like April, with chilly winds and frequent showers. But the trees were green at last after the winter bareness, and there were flowers everywhere!
-
When the Shard opened in London in 2012 it did so to quite a fanfare, and to a rather damp squib (in my view) of a laser show. But despite the laser show disappointing, the tower never has. Although not to everyone’s taste (the fractured ‘shards’ at the top that give it its name divide opinion), I have always found it striking.
-
As well as being a successful novelist and poet, Vita Sackville-West is known for the beautiful gardens she created at Sissinghurst in Kent. She will have welcomed April as all gardeners do … but maybe not the April we have had this year.
