Friday, September 07, 2007

Autumn glow

The plums have been hanging and waiting a long time before being picked. The fact is that they were a bit passed their prime. Tzar is a cooking variety of plums and as where my DH was hoping he could measure their ripeness by their sweetness, it was no indication at all. We picked them together yesterday, separating good from bad and even ugly and what remained has been turned into jam, all 16 jars of it. It set incredibly well and has the most gorgeous dark red, plum colour. I only wish I could have used some of that colour to dye yarn with but that will be another year.

The autumn announces itself through changes in colour, texture and light. The evenings are cooler and the mornings ask for a little more covering than just a shirt and sandals. This is the time when summer leaves us ( the week we had) and we sense that autumn is around the corner. The sun shines a bit lower and the light is different, not darker but has a glow about it. Red, yellow and orange colours mingle with brown, dark greens and a spot of brightness so well captured in the Owen Thomas apples above.

Nature inspires me in different ways, I use the colour I see to create items that capture this and having taken the above picture, I painted a scarf with handdyed yarn. I dabble not in paints as such but by creating a palette in flowers in a marriage with nature. What results I think captures the autumn glow perfectly.

4 comments:

Willow said...

beautiful colors! Did you spin and dye the yarn yourself?

Downshiftingpath said...

I did not spin this yarn but bought locally sourced yarn and then dyed it with a variety of sources as a colour study...when I saw the apples I found out what the finsihed item was going to be.

Anonymous said...

Hello -
Lovely scarf - and apples, too! I have not been able to read much for a few weeks, and in catching up I see that you have sold your home and will be moving. An adventure! I will certainly miss hearing about the polytunnel, as it seems to me to be such a wonderful thing to have. Perhaps you will have another ... or can you take it with?
Weather here is still hot and very, very dry, even though other parts of the USA have had, disastrously, too much rain. We can also feel just the very slightest touch of autumn for a brief bit on some mornings, but it is yet too far away for those of us who don't care for this much heat.
Barbara in Georgia USA

Downshiftingpath said...

Hi Barbara,
Yes we have a buyer for our house and are hoping to move to a smaller property. The garden is walled and smaller and I hope to be able to improve the soil and grow the majority of our produce on a small scale. I intend to make raised beds with polytunnel principles. Stay with us and see what happens on the next step of our adventure. Its exciting to us, having found possibilities in our own backyard, we are about to take it to the community and see if we can engage more people.