Random things in October 2022

Unseasonably warm weather seems to have continued well into autumn this year. Although this is no bad thing, it has perhaps contributed to a slight lack of autumn feeling and the arrival of snow this weekend — the first in November — is the first foreboding of some welcome colder, fresher weather.

Last month began superbly with a stay in English Lake District: one of the best ever, despite a shitty arrival, slightly wetter weather than we’d hoped for, and an unexpected dose of COVID on our return. I took particular pleasure in a couple of walks straight from the gate at the bottom of the rental cottage’s garden, including one across the fields to a nearby Wainwright fell, and just as much from the open-hearth log fires I learned how to build properly whilst we were there.

Back in Switzerland, I returned to Bern to work in a friend’s office for the first time in quite a while. I had long-planned to do so, but it was only when I was returning home that I realised how much I’d missed being in the city.

Autumn walks rounded off the month nicely: a short stroll for photography in the vineyards above Ligerz after a longer walk at Cudrefin; a contemplative hike between two high valleys above Kandersteg; and an unexpectedly hilly walk during a first-time visit to the arboretum at Aubonne, near Lausanne.