seven things i learnt in october

october - the month where british summertime ends, where trees dazzle us with their colour changes before their golden leaves become autumns red carpet and where long shadowed sunshine filled days are a gift not a right. 

i was certain this month i hadn't learnt a lot but when i looked at what i'd jotted down i was surprised by how much attention i had been taking when i thought i was too busy to notice. so here goes seven things i learnt in october:

1. this month i loved the film sunshine on leith but what i didn't know was it was a play before it was made into a film. i have no idea how this passed me by. if you haven't seen the film yet - go - you won't regret it. and speaking of films:

2. the great gatsby actress carey mulligan is married to marcus mumford; lead singer of mumford and sons. 

again, i don't know how this passed me by either. what i love about their story? they were pen pals in their childhood and apparently passed letters through their churches. and speaking of childhood:

3. children's writer roald dahl has his own museum and story centre in his home town of great missenden, buckinghamshire. think you know all there is to know about charlie and the chocolate factory? try this "splendiferous quiz." fancy taking a peak at where he wrote? click here. and speaking of writing:

4. one of my favourite food bloggers; molly wizenberg at orangette wrote this month about hedgebrook. hedgebrook is a literary non-profit who support female writers. located on whidbey island in the usa, it sits on 48 acres and offers writers the opportunity to stay in one of its few cottages affording them the space daily to write and meet with each other every evening for dinner. dinner is cooked for them mainly from produce grown in the gardens and in an effort to be able to maintain this arrangement they have released a cookbook. and speaking of food:

5. rhubarb was first considered a laxative not an edible fruit.

6. while watching a documentary this month i learnt that one in four people in the uk have a tattoo. i googled and found that as of mid 2012 the uk population was 63.7 million - that means that almost 16 million people in the uk have a tattoo. 

7. ever come across the word pogonophile? according to the urban dictionary it means "the love of, or attraction to, beards." i stumbled over this on my (bearded) brothers facebook page. this is a picture, taken by my sister, of her son trying to look like him. it made us all laugh. a lot.

however this is my brothers picture, showing what they really look like.

and no, they are not two of the one in four people in the uk with tattoos - they are proudly showing off temporary tattoos of my brothers' company logo. got to love the creativity.

Emma