November Days

 Dull November brings the blast,
Then the leaves are whirling fast

(Months of the year by Sara Coleridge )

November takes its name from the Latin novem because it was the ninth month of the Roman year. The Anglo Saxons named November "Blodmonath" meaning Blood Month, maybe because this was the month when any older livestock would have been slaughtered before winter, so as to save fodder for the younger animals.

The November page from An Illustrated Country Year by Celia Lewis is a Woodcock.

 A wet November, a plentiful year

 Today, All Saints Day, is said to bring with it a short burst of summer..........
.

All Saints Summer lasts three hours, three days, or three weeks.

Seed-heads from the November pages of The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady

November 11th is St. Martin's Day or Martinmas  -  the day with most weather lore

If the wind is in the south-east at Martinmas it will

remain there 'til after Christmas

Another spell of glorious sun

Should with St Martin's season come.

In November the trees shed their leaves, usually in the following order: Walnut, sycamore, horse chestnut, lime, ash; then elm; then beech and oak; then apple (sometimes not until the end of the month); and lastly young beeches and pollarded oaks, which may retain their withered leaves until pushed off by the new ones in spring.
(From March Winds and April Showers by Ralph Whitlock)

November can be a grey month with fog and rain which is probably why Tomas Hood wrote his well known November poem which starts

No sun, no moon,

No morn, no noon

No dawn, no dusk, no proper time of day;

No sky, no earthly view,

No distance looking blue.

And ends with

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no trees.

November! 

Perhaps we should be grateful for the early appearance of Christmas lights and decorations in the shops to cheer November! We can enjoy the colour without joining the buying frenzy. Well, that's my plan. 

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday and  welcome to another new follower.

Back Tomorrow 

Sue