Summer’s End

I know summer isn’t officially over for another three weeks or so yet….but we‘re just two days from the end of August.  When September arrives and the schools start back it always feels like we’ve shifted into autumn.

I totally and abjectly failed to take the proposed summer break from this blog!  And not only did I keep to the regular posting schedule, I’ve also been hard at work on a VERY BIG PROJECT about which I’m SUPER EXCITED!

You’ll have to forgive the jig-dancing capital letters.  This really is something special and I’ve been longing to share it with you.  I’m gonna let the cat out of the bag on Thursday, so be sure to check back here then!

Liberate Your Art

I’ve been participating in Kat Sloma’s postcard swap this summer. 

Liberate Your Art was designed as a way to connect artists….and to get little pieces of art flying around the world.

It’s been a delight to find some new treasure dropping onto my doormat every few days.  And I’ve ‘met’ people I would never otherwise have come across.

This is the first time I’ve engaged in an internet exchange that has actually worked out.  Previous experiences have all been bad ones so I almost didn’t sign up for this.  I’m glad I did!

Thanks, Kat, for masterminding the whole thing and liberating all that art.

From left to right, artwork by: Geri, Kat, Deborah, Wanda, Chris and Janice.

Images of Summer (8)

The Cherry Plum Tree

I am a flagrant fruit fiend!  As anyone who knows me even the tiniest bit will testify.  And, as such, this is one of the best times of the year.

Shops and gardens are still flowing with summer berries….but now autumn’s harvest is there for the picking, too.  Quite literally.

The hedgerows are offering blackberries and crab apples; whilst the moors are usually scattered with late bilberries (sadly, not this year).  Daily, I’m passing trees laden with apples and pears; and secretly hoping the fruits of a certain damson tree might come my way.

As a total fruit-case, I love to taste anything I haven’t encountered before….but that happens all too rarely (‘cause I’ve already sunk my teeth into pretty much everything on offer).

Today, then, was a bright red letter day.  A very nice lady invited me to help myself to her cherry plum tree.  Cherry plums?  Never heard of them!  But the description was pretty exact.  The shiny fruit looked like oversized cherries; but the taste was pure, sweet plum.

I may well have to pass that garden again ‘by chance’ at the same time next year!

The Nature Table: August

August has been, for the most part, a dreary month.  I’ve worn my winter boots more than my flip-flops; my raincoat and umbrella have done sterling service.

The gardens are still flaunting summer colour but the hedgerows seemed resigned to the early onset of autumn.  The flowers have mostly faded; grasses and seed heads predominate.  And now the berries are appearing….the tart, shining blackberries and the vibrant red fruits of the rowan tree.

But combatting the grey in the most spectacular fashion – and consigning to oblivion the fading elsewhere – is the purple of the moors.  Flamboyant and wanton purple.  The purple of the rampant heather and the swathes of rosebay willowherb.

Summer’s not over yet.