As ever, time moves too fast here, despite not much actually happening/being accomplished. Summer draws to a close, and everyone around me seems slightly frantic about getting the absolute most out of these last days of warmth and sun. It’s already raining more, and I’ve even broken out a few of my winter clothes on a couple of particularly dreary mornings. I love autumn though. I think it’s the best time of the year. When I was still studying, there was always something magical about the first few months of school. I don’t know, there was just this sense of excitement, and this almost tangible smell of possibility. I miss that. I love it when the air begins to be crisp and cutting sharp. When it’s time to put on an extra layer in the morning, and when the whole world becomes a giant flurry of oranges, yellows, and reds as the leaves start to drop from the trees. Now, however, in the last few suspended days of summer, the sun still shines more often than not, and right now I’m slightly too hot in a pair of cut-off jeans and a t-shirt. But I can sense things turning. It’s as if the world is holding its breath, and any day now, it’ll exhale and we will once more be plunged into cold weather and darkness. It’s been a great summer, though, with a lot of good memories, but as the season changes, so will my life. I’m sort of in a period of suspended animation as well. It’s time to make some more grown-up decisions, and as usual, I’m utterly terrified. My original contract here is coming to an end. I need to start paying back student loans, and so I need to find a job that will give me the income to allow this. I’ve been applying everywhere. I can’t even count the applications I’ve sent off. So far, I’ve not even got a ‘sorry we’re not interested’ letter back. I have hope though. I’ve been fairly lucky thus far, and things seem to work themselves out in the end. I’m also currently working on getting funding at my current job, which would allow me to stay on where I’m at now, and I’m still trying to decided whether or not I should go back to university. I never was one for making up my mind… Things are scary though. Another big change is coming, and this time I don’t have a safety net. I don’t know what the next season will bring. Hopefully it will be wonderful things.

Despite an unfortunate amount of web silence, I have been rather busy lately. Here’s some of the things I’ve been up to:

First off, I’ve been taking far too many photos of my cats. This is partly because I am obsessed. Slightly. This may also have something to do with the fact that my cats are both incredibly adorable/hilarious, and they are willing to let me take endless amounts of photos of them while they lounge. Why can’t my friends be that patient with me?

Even better, look what happens when my housemate gives Azreal her famous kitten scapular massage.

I have a few more fuzzy monster photos that I’m going to share despite the fact that I will not help my ‘I’m not obsessed with my cats, I swear’ case. It’s just that I find them in such funny positions…

In other news, my office took a field trip on a friend’s last day, to Chamonix. Chamonix is a cute little ski resort town at the base of Mont Blanc just over the border in France. I’ve never been there without snow and when the sun wasn’t shining. Until the other day….

Despite the weather, I think we had a fun time, complete with delicious cappuccinos, stinky cheese, and fabulous sandwiches. Of course, as soon as we left, the weather looked like this:

I also found some fun photos from the last beach party of the year, that none of us remember why we decided to leave…

There were more photos, but they all pretty much looked like these.

In other photo news, last weekend a few of us spent our Sunday tromping around in the Lavaux Vineyards near Lausanne. These are 13th century UNESCO World Heritage site, terraced vineyards overlooking the lake, and which wander through many villages. I’ve been here before, and I’ve surely commented on them before, but the day was absolutely gorgeous, and I really love it there, so of course many many photos were taken. Which I will now share:

So that was far too many photos once again. Hope you enjoyed!