My Month in Numbers 2012: November

Hello.

To paraphrase John Lennon ... so this is November ... and what have you done? Another month over and a new one just begun ... all together now ... No? Anyone? OK, let's start again ...

It's the end of another month so, without further ado or reference to any more Christmas songs .. let's see how my numbers stacked up this time round.

[For more info on the My Month in Numbers project visit here].

6 [7 including this one] = the number of blog posts published.
Looking back over previous years it would seem that I've always had a dip in blogging around this time of  year. But this month has been quite spectacularly low in comparison to the rest of the year.

For this I'm blaming my laptop [which had a virus] and, truth be told, what has been a general lack of inclination to sit still and focus on squeezing the words out of my head. Yet I have not run out of things to blog which makes my lack of blogging even more anxiety-making. I've got several months worth of plans and ideas trapped in a blogging back log, a blogging log jam .. a blog jam!

What I really need is to find someone who can follow me around coaxing out the ideas from my brain, bashing them into coherent sentences, taking dictation, photographing finished projects, editing the photos - on a virus free computer - and who can then blog them for me. That's all.

*Puts 'Blogging fairy' on Christmas wish list*

minus 3 =  the temperature in my garden right now. And this sudden cold turn has brought with it a very pretty and festive feeling frost. It's like December just kicked November out of bed and yelled at it to start doing something wintry-looking.

Now let's take a big leap up to some larger numbers ...

10,000 = the approximate number of starlings we watched carrying out their 'murmuration' in our now annual visit to the local RSPB reserve's 'Soup + Starlings' event.

I say it's an 'approximate' figure as I couldn't quite count them all myself ... so I'm going by what the bird-expert who led the event said. And he seemed pretty confident!

And on a related note:

20 = the number of individual items of clothing I dragged onto my body to keep the November chill at bay whilst standing on the aforementioned reserve for an hour and a half.

2 = the number of sandwich bags I wore on my feet - in between two pairs of socks...

...  just in case my much-adored-but-getting-on-a-bit boots let in any water I might have to tread through following the recent rains and flooding. Fortunately I didn't get too wet [and better still ... the extra pair of socks on top nicely deadened the crinkling and rustling noise they made ... ].

323 = the number of footsteps it takes to climb up the 10 floors at work which I mentioned in my Month in Numbers post last month. I counted the footsteps [not the stairs] early on this month but since then I've started supporting another student immediately before having to get up those 10 flights so now I have to get the lift instead. Which would be OK ...

... if, on the first time I had to do it [with no time to spare] someone hadn't pressed all the buttons for every floor, 1-10 on their way out making me have to stop at every floor in between. Student japes eh?

And finally ...

235 = the number of tomatoes left to ripen on the kitchen windowsill.

Looking at our little greenhouse early on in the month we had to give in and accept that, as it was now November and the days weren't likely to get any sunnier anytime soon, all of the perfectly lovely fruit was never going to ripen naturally on the vine.

So James brought them in from the greenhouse in two big bowls which he left them on the worktop ... but I thought that the tomatoes - like me - might benefit from a little more access to sunlight so I cleared everything off the windowsill and tipped them all out so they could get the most exposure possible.

[For the record: I've never actually tried to access more sunlight by personally laying on the windowsill to soak up a few extra rays. Well ... not up to now I haven't ...]

Later in the month I noticed him looking ponderous at them all laid out there ... scrutinising how they somehow seemed to transition, 'ombre' style, from bright glossy green at the lefthand side all the way through shades of yellow, orange and right up to the most ripe reds at the righthand side ...  and I could guess what he was about to say next ... and indeed he did:

"Why do you think they're all going ripe first at that side?" he asked, no doubt trying to gauge whether the quality of light was different at one end or something scientific like that.

Yet ... what had apparently momentarily slipped his mind was ... that he lives with someone who finds arranging things things in colour order the very height of entertainment.

Frankly ... it's almost like he's never met me!

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OK then, that was my November 2012 ... now I'll hand over to you.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in. If you're a number newbie - you might find  it useful to read through the tutorial I made and for new and old number crunchers alike, here's a quick reminder of  the Month in Numbers 'etiquette':

If you write a post and want to leave a link for myself and others to visit and/or for me to pin to the Month in Numbers Pinterest board please bear in mind that this part has a shared element to it.

• When you swing by my blog to drop off a link to your Month in Numbers post - please leave a comment for me while you're there. Not because I'm needy ... but because it feels fair. Reciprocal.
• Please link to my blog in your post. As much as I'd like to think that everyone who reads your blog already knows what 'My Month in Numbers' means... the truth is, they don't. So unless you explain where the idea comes from and how your readers can join you in doing the same next month, they are none the wiser.
• Please take time at some point in the month to visit and comment on a few of the other posts too.
• Dropping in on the Pinterest board makes this last bit simple as you can see all the participants in one place - then hop on to their individual posts from there.

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Right then let me leave November behind with one final statistic ... 25 = the number of days 'til Christmas! 25!!!

Now, where's that Christmas music CD? All together now .. and so this is Christmas ...

Julie :-)