Now that it is November a lot of things have changed. Most obvious of all is of course the weather: two weeks ago it seemed winter, it was icy cold during those nights. It was weather for spicy chai, hot water bottles, woollen sweaters and good books.
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The beauty of the beast |
So during the autumn holidays I moved a few extra stuff to my tent, including a mattress and a cooling box (the pretty blue thing that is standing outside). It's a lot fuller now, but not suffocating at all as I was afraid it would. All the items are in a way necessary, apart from some hobby things, but they're small and mostly take up empty space.
As you can see in the following photos it is a mighty difference between summer and autumn. I vividly remember the morning I woke up and my nose was cold as a can of Coke fresh from the fridge. My breath formed small clouds in the air and my blankets were covered in small drops of water. Everything was moist, naturally I was annoyed, worried about the consequences, but this all disappeared once I opened the entrance. I was welcomed by an amazing sight, completely quiet nature presented me with a field of frozen dew. The first few seconds I thought it was snow.
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Summer |
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Autumn |
Every so often there waits a surprise for me when I wake up. It is as if nature is a deck of cards and every morning it picks one and prepares a different kind of view. But unlike a normal deck of cards nature has an infinite amount of cards as every moment it is quite different from before.
I noticed this on several occasions and thus came to realise how quickly nature changes. For example, one morning I could not see the opposite of the small lake separating me from the rest of the camping ground. I walked quietly, but heard and saw almost nothing. When I came back, only a couple of minutes later I could already see the opposite bank quite clearly and saw the ducks resting on the water.
Even more astonishing is the power of the sun. Waking up cold makes it very hard to get warm. I at least need two fresh hot water bottles, two blankets, a sheep skin to sit on and a cup of piping hot tea - I kid you not, and I'm not even mentioning the clothing I'd wear. Not often, but I do remember a few mornings, the sun would suddenly break trough the clouds and shine straight trough the entrance... the first few seconds are accompanied with feelings of glee, soon followed by the action of setting my tea aside, then putting away one blanket, then two. If I'm lucky and the sun keeps shining for longer then 15 minutes I'm able to sun in a tank-top while it's only ±13 degrees outside!
But the last few weeks were days filled with rain and wind, and I was not able to sit outside. Even though it is just a tent and not being able to open a window because of the wind, it is big enough for me not to feel as if I'm being locked-up. This evening was the first night since all the rain that the sky was clear, the wind was gone and I was home to catch the last light of the day.
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The last light turned the trees black and the horizon orange |
As the final light faded away the moon grew brighter and the sky darker. Countless stars showed themselves as the clouds kept away. I enjoyed all this with a nice cup of tea and some welcomed silence after a festive weekend and a hard day of work. As the moon moved towards the horizon it coloured from silver to yellow to a final almost red shade of orange. Unfortunately I do not hear wolves howling or owls hooting, but I do occasionally hear weird sounds coming from any side of my tent. After watching the first few episodes of Stranger Things this weekend, every little unknown sound startles me. Yesterday evening it were the cows that 'howled'.
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Reading: Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
Listening: Notorious - Malaa
Keywords of the week: Truffels, magic and music
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