I love reading monthly updates on other people’s blogs, so I thought I’d give it a try myself. Without further ado, here is my monthly update for October, featuring a cow, Scotland, Eric Ravilious and a bit of back to university chat.

After September’s warm weather, October has really felt like the start of autumn this year. I was not ready for the end of summer. Then I put my first jumper of the season on, went for a walk and crunched some leaves underfoot. I instantly fell into cosy mode! 

Places I’ve been in October

Scotland

Scotland in October?? Yes.

I was blown away by the scenery in the North West of Scotland (we stayed just outside Kinlochbervie). There are pros and cons of travelling to Scotland at this time of year – we were not lucky with the weather, and saw a lot of heavy rain and wind. On the plus side, we avoided midges and the roads weren’t crowded – we travelled around the NC500 route a little, and quite a lot of the main roads up there are single track, so you have to duck in and out of the (thankfully frequent) passing places. I’ll be sharing more on my Scottish adventures over the next few months.

Following Ravilious – Newhaven Views

I’m a huge fan of Eric Ravilious, so I was really pleased to walk the Following Ravilious art trail in Newhaven this month. It closes on Sunday 29^th October, so if you’re interested take this as a sign to go this weekend! 

I won’t make a separate post about this since it finishes so soon, but I really enjoyed it. Creative Newhaven have taken four Ravilious paintings of Newhaven, blew them up on billboards and exhibited them in different locations around the town. These billboards also feature works by contemporary artists which were either directly inspired by the image or by part of Ravilious’ history. I enjoyed my time in Newhaven, which doesn’t always have the best rep. I’ve been posting some pictures of the trip on my Instagram.

Ravilious completed many works set in Sussex prior to becoming a war artist in WWII, and those on display are all pre-war works. He was the first war artist to lose his life during that conflict. 

If you’re interested in finding out more about Eric Ravilious, I recommend visiting the Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden or the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne, which both have excellent collections. There is also a beautiful and very touching film about Ravilious called Drawn to War. It was released in 2022, but is still on from time to time at various independent cinemas (we saw it at the Towner).  

Reading around the world in October

These posts take me a long time to put together, so I’m aiming for one per month, but I am slightly ahead of the game on the reading front. Any posts I make in the series will show up here.

• Brazil: The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha
  A sweet and gently amusing book set in Rio de Janeiro – post coming next week.
• Colombia: Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
  I’ve only started reading this book this week, and the post won’t be out till early December. So far I’m really enjoying it, but it might not be the best source of Colombian travel ideas since I’m not sure how much is actually set there.

I also read some other books:

• The Sleeping and the Dead by Anne Cleves (2 stars from me) – set in Northumberland.
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (5 stars from me) – set in Washington State.

And I gave up on a few others:

• A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd – I’m normally a fan of Boyd’s work, but this had too many unlikeable characters.
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire – I found this nonsensical.

A mixed bag on the reading front this month. If you’d like to see something closer to Laura reading in realtime, then we can be friends on Goodreads!

Back to student life

While I made an early start on my studies last month, the official start date for both my modules was 7^thOctober. I’m studying the following modules with the Open University this year: 

A223: Early modern Europe: society and culture, 1500-1780

This module is the one which is more in my comfort zone, and our first term will be spent covering individuals, lives and livings, which I’m finding very interesting. My favourite unit so far has been about medicine and illness. My first assignment is about religion, which is a bit disappointing as I feel like I spent quite a lot of time covering the Reformation last year (although that is partly my own fault for choosing the print revolution for my final project of the year).

A226: Exploring art and visual culture

This spans a period from 1100-2010, so we’re covering a lot of ground. My first few weeks have been spent discovering the visual cultures of medieval Christendom, and I especially enjoyed the units about Simone Martini and Crusader art. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t enjoy the Gothic architecture unit, but it was very much about sacred architecture, and maybe I’m just a gothic revival girl at heart. I’m working on my first assignment, and next week I’ll be ready to move on to the Renaissance! 

A lesson learnt: because I was on holiday this month, and had a few other plans, I allowed myself waaay too much time to get ahead with my studies, and then found myself procrastinating on one of my assignments, so I ended up having to write both in the same week, which isn’t fun. I’ll write more about my OU study experience at some point, but I think one of the main things I appreciate is the flexibility to do this, even when it doesn’t quite work out as I planned. 

Blog posts published this month

I’m trying to get in to a regular routine with posting now that I’m back at uni, but this month was a quiet one.

• You can read about my bostin’ weekend in Birmingham here

October Win

I fixed the white balance on my camera! If only I’d worked this out before Scotland! If you’ve got an Olympus OMD EM10 Mark 2 and are also struggling, then I recommend this helpful and entertaining video by Roberto Di Donato.

October Fail

I was due to attend a tour of the Turner Prize at the Towner Gallery put on by the Open Universities Arts and Humanities Society, but I was just back from Scotland, feeling rough and overwhelmed, and had work the next day. In the end I prioritised a self-care day, and it was the right thing to do. I’ll make it down to the Turner Prize soon, but I’m sad to miss out on additional context which I’m sure the tour would have provided. 

My Plans for November

My number one priority for November is submitting my first assignments. I also thought I would have a day school coming up in London in November, but they’ve changed the format this year, and aren’t doing module specific ones. There were far too many students trying to bag a spot, and because they batch send emails, it was fully booked before everyone received an invitation to register, and I didn’t get a space. I’m usually very positive about the OU experience, but it would have been nice to meet up with some other students. 

On the travel front, this month is probably a Sussex-based one. I’ve been doing some research on when Sussex and Kent National Trust properties will put their Christmas decorations up, and I then plan to spend as much time in local stately homes as I can! 

What did you get up to this month? Let me know in the comments.