october

• norway

november

• ardennen
• finding some nice books at the charity shop - a book on philosophy, ovid's metamorphoses and buddhist fairytales.
• sweden
• going to the book club meeting wearing my "introverted but willing to discuss books" pin and talking about the handmaid's tale. we were nine women this time! it was so much "fun" re-reading the book in english (i loved it even more this time) and discussing it over carrot cake and moroccan coffee.
• augsburg. browsing one of my favourite bookstores (kolonial). buying black candles at søstrene grene.

december

• realizing how much i actually love the dark season.
• deciding to live more with the seasons. appreciating winter even though it's not the snowy/aurora in the skies/nordic winter i dream of. decorating for yule in the beginning of december. fairy lights, candles, listening to frank sinatra - the first noel and it came upon a midnight clear are my favs. buying weihnachtssterne at my favourite gärtnerei, going on walks, writing christmas cards. the mistletoe and always making sure to kiss underneath it. choosing, buying and decorating the christmas tree together. the christmas tree ornament we bought at the christmas market in vienna - a small hedgehog wearing a mushroom hat. i also bought ornaments for dad - one gingerbread man and one amanita.
• daydreaming again. something is shifting...something has shifted, inside of me.
• vienna
• c. and i taking a morning walk and taking photos of the highland cattle in the fog. finding a small madonna statue lying in the grass - very weird and kinda creepy.
• visiting five different christmas markets: two in vienna (one at the rathaus and one at karlsplatz), the one in k. (aka the most beautiful medieval fairy tale christmas market in the world me thinks), the one in my hometown and the one in my birthtown.
  • hometown: the church choir singing the first noel; it really touched me and made me feel incredibly sad. buying christmas cards from a local illustrator. seeing my old kindergarten teacher.
  • k.: i didn't buy a lot of material stuff in the past few years since i want to save most of my money for travels but i really wanted to treat myself this time. i bought two secondhand books - türkische märchen and märchen aus tibet - and some jewelry (one hair bead, a ring and a bracelet). and i almost bought some jewelry made out of bones. we actually went a second time even though the entry isn't that cheap. but it was completely worth it imo, i enjoyed it so much and felt like a child again (forever chasing childlike wonder). we had the best garlic bread in the entire world and baumstriezel for dessert - something i haven't eaten in like twenty years.
• finding a huge bücherschrank in the neighboring village - they had so many nice books in good quality!
• making a spice cake for dad's nurses. setting up the small christmas crib in his room. some of the nurses put gifts for him right next to the crib, and seeing it actually broke my heart - i could cry just thinking about it.
• c. gifting me beautiful books! he's insane. nowadays i usually buy secondhand books so getting new books feels very special. he got me the beautiful minalima edition of frankenstein (i'm obsessed, i think it might be the most beautiful book i own), the collected works of edgar allan poe, a book on bavarian folklore, the haunting season and grimm's fairytales. hilariously i gifted him the same copy of grimm's märchen. it has a different cover but besides that, it's the same. i also got him tickets for the augsburger puppenkiste next year! experiencing childlike wonder together is so wholesome and it actually soothes some of my never-ending nostalgia.
• this is actually the winter of fairytales for me. i can't stop reading fairytales, watching fairytales, thinking about fairytales, thinking about fairytale inspired photoshoots i wanna do. c. and i did the jigsaw puzzle we bought in september, the grimm's märchen one, and it's the most beautiful puzzle i have ever seen. love the forest green/mint combo. it came with a poster i'm going to put on my wall. we finished it in less than a day, listening to the lord of the rings soundtrack and the celtic fantasyland playlist.
• re-reading a christmas carol.
• playing cast n chill in bed. it's very meditative and i'm completely in love with the pixel art and beautiful scenery. you can even choose a little dog companion.