Islander, A Shopping Trip, Parkrun and Autumn Everything – September’s Little Loves

It seems like forever since I shared my last little loves update on here. September was such a busy month, with lots of Autumnal adventure, and also plenty going on at home. I’ve been beavering away on the second draft of my novel and trying to stick to my weekday target of 500 words daily. Over the last month or so, I’ve got into quite a good routine in terms of writing in the morning and leaving e-mails, blogging and basically anything that might distract me until a bit later in the day. It does mean that blog stuff has taken a back seat of late but I think sometimes priorities have to shift a little don’t they? I feel like I’ve been wittering on about writing a book forever now and I’m getting to the stage where I just really want to get it DONE!

Funnily enough, just as I’ve switched the balance up a bit, a lot of blog-related stuff has started coming into my inbox. I’ve had some really interesting emails lately and a couple of nice projects lined up for the winter months ahead. I’ve also got another radio stint on the horizon, and have been asked to help out with some local Book Week Scotland events in November. Added to that, my writing group has restarted for the season and we’ve been tasked with a 20,000 word project to complete by Easter of next year. I’m very happy to have so many lovely projects on the go but I think I’m also suffering with a bit of overwhelm. I mean there are also the little matters of life, cooking dinner, admin, after school clubs and a million dog walks to fit in. Parents of the world, you know what I’m saying, right?!

Thankfully, the school holidays are just around the corner here and there’s plenty of family time to look forward to. I do also partake in plenty of recharging activities in the form of my monthly little loves. So grab five minutes and a cuppa and settle down to what I’ve been liking and loving in the month that’s just left us. You never know, you might find something that becomes a little love for you! 🙂

READ

You can find out all about the books I’ve been reading lately in September’s reading update. I also enjoy reading about what other bloggers have in their reading piles and loved Sarah and Hayley’s latest round ups too. I must admit that between everything going on lately I haven’t been as good as normal at reading and commenting on other bloggers’ articles and social media. I did enjoy this piece from Suzanne on keeping the plates spinning though. I think it’s a subject to which all parents can relate!

WATCHED

Oh, it’s been such a good month on the watching front! From Bodyguard to X Factor, we’ve been glued to the TV post-dinner most weekends. My husband and I have been watching Killing Eve, which is dark but utterly compelling. And all the heart eyes for Vanity Fair of course – British period drama at its very best.

We also watched Christopher Robin at the cinema -if you like Ewan McGregor as much as I do you’ll love it. And we’ve all been enjoying Saturday night Harry Potter re-runs – my eldest son now *almost* has me convinced to get started on the books. We also took the kids to see Islander at our lovely local arts centre. It was such a beautiful play that starts off with a whale calf washed up on a remote island and turns into a story of friendship, forgiveness and folklore. If you get a chance to see it as it tours the country I can highly recommend!

HEARD

I’ve been listening to all sorts on my daily dog walks this month. One of my latest discoveries has been Bryony Gordon’s Mad World, a fantastic podcast on mental health.  They’re oldies now, but I loved her interviews with Prince Harry and Matt Haig – (who’s incidentally worth listening to on anything). I loved his interview on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place not so long ago. He talks so openly about his own mental health issues and his social media is really inspiring. I can’t wait to read his books Reasons to Stay Alive and Notes on a Nervous Planet. Both high up on my library reservations list as we speak!

This month I was also really affected by the You, Me and the Big C podcast and the death of presenter Rachael Bland – so much so that I wrote a whole post on the subject you can read about right here. On a lighter note, I also dipped into the Desert Island Discs archive after my friend recommended them. So far I’ve listened to Davina McCall and Ed Sheeran but the backlist is massive. If you have any recommendations for particularly good episodes please do let me know!

WORE

This month I’ve been donning my running gear and, along with my 11 year old, taking part in our local 5K Parkrun event. It’s years since I’ve done any running, but we’ve actually really been enjoying it. Well, ‘enjoying’ might be pushing things a bit…but we do feel good about it when we’re done! I was a bit concerned it might be ultra-competitive – which for me is a real turn off – but I’m happy to report it’s not like that at all. Everyone is really friendly and there are lots of calls of ‘well done/good run’ (often from the people overtaking you 😉 ). It’s a fab way of starting the weekend (even at a yawn-inducing 9.30am on Saturdays). If there’s one happening in your area it’s something I’d definitely recommend!

MADE

Lately we’ve been making the most of Autumn’s treasures – brambles, apples and conkers. Generally, just enjoying everything the season of colour has to give. At the weekends, we’ve been walking and making crab apple jams and yummy crumbles (check out this post for lots more Autumn ideas). Thank goodness for all that running, eh? We have rather a lot of eating to balance out.

At the start of the month, I also made a trip to Inverness with my lovely friend of 20 years or so. Over the past couple of years, we’ve tried to have some sort of annual outing to spend some quality time together and have a good old catch up. This time we did an overnight stay and some shopping – although I think we both agreed the highlight was just having some time together to ourselves. We managed to make our way through 8 hours of train time, a 6 mile walk, 2 coffee stops and a dinner out without any lapse in conversation. I think that’s the measure of a good friendship isn’t it? A friend who just ‘gets you’ is a very special gift.

So that’s it for my (rather lengthy!) September round up. When I write next month, we’ll have just finished our half term holiday and (fingers crossed), our first road trip outside the UK in our van. For now, though, it’s back to a couple of busy weeks – and a lot of counting down to the holidays. However your October is looking, I hope it’s a month filled with the loveliest of things 🙂 .

G x

* This post contains Amazon affiliate links which mean that I will receive a small commission should you purchase something via them.

As usual, I’m linking this post up with Morgana’s monthly linky over at Coffee, Work, Sleep, Repeat.