… because like an idiot, I forgot to put in my calendar that the latest Doodle Week started on the 25th. I missed the September one and particularly wanted to do this month’s with its Halloween theme.

Because I’m playing catch-up, I did yesterday’s and today’s doodles in Paint Shop Pro. Hopefully I’ll hand-draw the rest.

Yesterday’s theme was Pink Boobies, in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Today’s theme is also something large and round… pumpkins!

Also today, I am mostly … bemoaning the weather

… as usual, because it depresses me. On the plus side, the clocks went back last night, which I’d forgotten about when I got up this morning - so I’ve got an hour extra to do stuff rather than an extra hour in bed. Which is pretty damn useful as I need to get a lot of housework done before I go out today to a Halloween salsa party. (That’s salsa as in the dance, not the condiment.)

It’s not just the housework; I need to make a pot of chilli for Colin’s tea, and I also need to type up all the handwritten and dictated bits of the short story I’ve been working on, as I now have just five days to finish it before NaNoWriMo starts…

… because it’s the time of year when I’m most prone to becoming depressed, but also, paradoxically, the time of year when I feel optimistic and full-of-life and enthusiastic.

The depression isn’t that hard to understand. Days are darker, the weather is gloomy and I miss the sunshine and fresh air (not that I ever get as much as I should). Just having to get up while it’s still dark puts me in a bad mood, and all I ever want to do most mornings is to stay warm in bed. Even when I’m up, I’m pretty apathetic. Something about the change in weather leaves me prone to headaches too (three in the past week, although Saturday’s may have had something to do with what I drank on Friday night) as well as all stuffed up with a cold.

At the same time though, I love autumn/winter weather when the days are bright and cold and clear - I find them really envigorating. I always start to cook a lot at this time of year; not just weekend meals (often to be eaten while watching Strictly Come Dancing, that shameless addiction of ours), but lots of stews and casseroles and chillis and curries to go into the freezer as ready meals for both me and Colin. It’s sort of a pre-hibernation phase in some ways.

And of course, October means the lead-up to National Novel Writing Month (have I mentioned that before?!) which always gets me excited. I really enjoy being a Municipal Liaison because I love keeping lists and trying to organise things and meeting people; I also get pleasingly enthusiastic about the actual writing, as this is the one time of the year when I attempt to exercise non-stop creativity (even though I should be doing it all year round, as explained on my Sharp Words blog).

So I’m fairly sure that over the next three months, I’ll go through a lot of highs and lows, often in the same day (in the same hour, even). It’s been the pattern of years, after all, and I’ve more or less got the hang of minimising the lows and making the most of the highs. I’ll just keep on with it.

Also today, I am mostly … visiting Ikea again

… because I need to take back some prints I bought that are too big for the frames I have. And there are a few other things I want; Marion’s given me a list too. The downside of going to Ikea on a work day is that I have to drive all the way into Belfast, which means getting stuck in traffic and having to pay a small fortune for parking - this is the last time I intend to do it for quite a while though.

I need to visit B&Q as well, since it’s next-door to Ikea; Colin has got two-thirds of the loft insulation done, but we’ve run out of space blankets. And we might as well get it all done while they’re on offer. I can already feel the difference in how long the house stays warm once the heating’s been switched off, especially in our previously-chilly bedroom. Hurrah!

… or at least, helping Colin do the actual work by passing things up the ladder to him. We only have a stepladder and I’m too short and too unfit to be able to boost myself up from into the attic the way Colin can.

There is some insulation in the loft, but it’s old and thin and tatty, and since we don’ t have double-glazing and our house is detached, we do lose a lot of precious heat. So we’ve finally got organised, and with B&Q’s current 2 for 1 deal on rolls of space blankets, it’s time to insulate! We don’t yet have enough to do the whole loft, but we’re doing it as we go along - every bit of insulation that goes down is some energy saved. We’ve done over our bedroom first as it’s the coldest room in the house (a crappy single radiator), and it’s also over the living room where we’d spend most winter evenings.

Hopefully it’ll make a difference. We also want to look into cavity wall insulation - firstly, if it’s even possible!

Also today, I am mostly … celebrating the return of Roast Beef flavoured Monster Munch

… by eating a bagful. Roast Beef was always my favourite flavour of Monster Munch, way back when I was a kid, although I quite like the Flamin’ Hot ones that have been around for a few years. Can’t stand the Pickled Onion though.

But I have missed that pink monster…

… at the local recycling depot. So I suppose it’s not dumping, exactly. We cleaned out the garage yesterday - which involved moving everything out on to the grass, sweeping and washing the floor, waiting for it to dry, and then putting everything back - so there are a few things for Freecycling, and I took a fluorescent light tube, some cardboard, and a stack of empty and almost-empty paint pots down to the depot. Yay me.

I’m a good recycler, actually. We have a weekly bin collection, but one week is the blue bin for recyclables (card, paper, plastics, tins - glass has to go to the bottle bank at the nearest supermarket) and the other is the black bin for general waste. As much as possible goes into the blue bin, and all compostable waste goes into the compost bin at the back of the garden, including some paper and card as ‘browns’ to round out all the grass clipping ‘greens’ that go in. I try and throw away as little as possible, though I still get embarrassed sometimes by how much crap does get thrown away.

I can’t remember the last time I took a plastic carrier bag from a shop though. I always carry big reusable carriers, plus a fold-up fabric one in my handbag. (Ugh. Handbag. I always hate to think of myself as someone who carries a handbag as opposed to a general purpose rucksack or something, but alas - even as big and squashy and useful and denim as my current bag is, it definitely fits into the ‘handbag’ category.) Even so, we have a HUGE bag full of carrier bags hiding in the under-stairs cupboard. They do come in handy sometimes.