Now it most definitely is autumn :). The trees are getting more and more colourful, the days are getting steadily darker and the weather has mostly been miserable. Well, that last one doesn't have to be a thing in the autumn, but more often than not it is... so what can you do.
Luckily it wasn't entirely horrible the whole of the previous month, so we've been out a bit. Only one proper cycling trip mind, but better than nothing :). And of course with the dropping temperatures, there's been the rising Covid numbers, which has had me reconsidering the whole commuting in to work a couple of days a week thing. Yes, the trains are still pretty empty because I avoid the regular rush hour, but still.
In the mean time, I finally, finally, managed to finish The Goldfinch. In case anyone's wondering, the reading didn't get any faster :|. It was a really weird experience, this one! I mean, without a doubt, the writing is absolutely awesome! There is a kind of desperate beauty to the way Tartt paints the scenery around the characters. Not just the scenery, there is a feeling that the characters' moods and thoughts stain and colour their environment, the pages, and eventually the reader's mind.
Despite all that though, the overwhelming feeling I had was one of foreboding. One that ultimately, despite all the clearly horrible things that do happen to (or are done by) the protagonist, was never really fulfilled! In some ways I'm left wondering, if I hadn't understood enough Dutch to read "unsolved murder" in the first chapter, how the whole reading experience might have turned out. I do feel though, that much of the oppressive sense of impending doom I had to jostle with came from the story itself.
And then there was that last chapter! What was that?! Well, to be fair, I was just happy it was over. And since then I've been detoxing with Death :).
So far this year we haven't headed out of the country even once. Highly irregular situation, that, but hardly surprising. What's sad though, is that by the looks of things, this is unlikely to change for the rest of the year. Which kinda sucks in some ways, not getting to visit family, a potentially strange Christmas. But I suppose it also means we should try and plan some more holidays in-country :). Better to try and make the best of the situation I suppose.
