October Splendor and the Beauty of Off-Season Seaside Resorts

When I met up with Swedish textile designer Birgitta Hahn for an interview some time ago, she told me about an autumn stay in the Italian town of Treviso.

As she walked aross the local market place she saw the most stunning purple vegetables. They were the cabbage-like, leafy vegetables raddicio. Laid out before her, cut in halves, they revealed the most intense purple.
She instantly knew she wanted to perpetuate the sight of them in a painting. Capture the beauty of the raddicio in a textile pattern design.

I have a bouquet of autumn asters in a vase on my kitchen table. I picked them this morning. These autumn beauties also carry an intense purple color.

So does the sea rocket flowers growing on the sand dunes at the beach. I studied these tiny flowers during my walk on the beach yesterday. Their purple color is of a different hue. They carry a soft-spoken light purple color. Pastel. They are beach mustard plants and they are edible. Highly nutritious and considered a delicacy. I brought a few of them home. They smell amazing. Whenever I walk past them I catch a whiff of the most exquisite scent.

I bask in the colors displayed in vegetables, fruits and flowers this time of year.

Where I live in the Northern Hemisphere I still enjoy harvest time. The weather is gentle and mild.

Everyday before dinner I pick tomatoes growing on my terrace. They are deeply red and delicious. I pick some leaves of my kale plant too. The kale plant leaves are crisp, tender and delicate. I eat them as a salad.
My plants enjoy the mild and misty weather. They grow lusciously. Sprout forth with eager joy. It’s a pleasure to watch.

I find October weather stunning.

Each morning I open my window to take the new day in.

Some days rain is drissling down. I find it romantic.

Other mornings the sun is shining and there is a chill in the air. The drop in the temperature makes the air feel clear and clean. The sunlight on the autumn leaves paint a colorful palette. Hues of gold blend with orange, yellow and red.

Some October days are delightfully misty.

I adore watching fog covering up the landscape in a gentle veil.

Fog is a cloud that touches the ground.

I find foggy and misty weather intensely beautiful.

I enjoy visiting summer seaside resorts during this off season time of year. Popular locations in nature that are bustling with life during summer and that are all empty and still now.

I like renting a cabin on an isolated island offshore this time of year and do my writing from there. Early in the morning a misty veil surrounds the island as I go for a walk along the shore. To me, this is October at its most delicious.

There is something alluring about abandoned summer resorts. Once after I had done some interviews in Gdansk, in Central Europe, and was writing as couple of stories, I took a room at a hotel by the sea. It hardly cost anything. Far less than a room at a backpacker hostel would in other countries.

The hotel looked like a medieval castle. It was old, large and had pinnacles and towers. Everything was old-fashioned and authentic. The furniture. The dinnerware. The curtains. The bedspread. A residence of beauty from foregone times.

I was the only guest.

I stayed in a room upstairs. Since business was so quiet the staff brought up a pot of tea to my room several times a day. Just to be kind. I felt like Agatha Christie, writing my stories in this atmospheric setting.

I had a beautiful stay.

What about the month of October do you like?
How would you like to celebrate this time of year?