November Marigold

I can’t remember ever seeing a marigold flower by mid-November. This one just opened in our front garden, after it hadn’t flowered (or even grown) all summer in the drought. 

Next week, the Christmas markets will open, and we would normally expect frosty nights and the first snow. But, as I am writing this at 6 P.M, in the dark, it’s still 12 degrees C outside. Even though it thankfully saves heating costs, this unusually mild autumn continues the record-breaking heatwaves of this year, and feels a bit strange.

I worked all day to finish my current project on time. At lunchtime, I walked to the supermarket to get some groceries and fresh air. 
On my way there, I passed the traffic island in the extra. I hope there was nobody on it when the traffic sign got flattened.

In other news, the world population passed 8 billion people today. I can remember the number passing four billion, and people starting to worry whether our planet could sustain the ever growing number of human beings. 

I guess we know by now that it can’t.