20 Things I do like about autumn:

1. Pumpkins and everything you make from them
2. It’s not so awfully hot anymore
3. You can wear more than one layer of clothing
4. Hot tea and a good book
5. The smell of mushrooms

6. The warm, golden light of autumn afternoons
7. Apples and apple tart (and apple strudel)
8. Autumn leaves
9. Cold mornings and warm afternoons
10. Gossamer strands covered with dew

11. Rosehip bushes
12. Taking a walk in the woods
13. Chestnuts of course!
14. Fog in the valley
15. The sound a heap of dry leaves makes when you walk through it

16. Indian summer
17. black crows and an overcast sky
18. Wearing ringed stockings and boots
19. Blackberries
20. ... and squirrels!

As of today it is now officially autumn.
The season I love the most.
A lot of my drawings are inspiered by autumn colours, lights and plants.

O! What are you doing,
And where are you going?
Your ponies need shoeing!
The river is flowing!
O! tra-la-la-lally
here down in the valley!

O! What are you seeking,
And where are you making?
The faggots are reeking,
The bannocks are baking!
O! tril-lil-lil-lolly
the valley is jolly,
ha! ha!

O! Where are you going
With beards all a-wagging?
No knowing, no knowing
What brings Mister Baggins,
And Balin and Dwalin
down into the valley
in June
ha! ha!

O! Will you be staying,
Or will you be flying?
Your ponies are straying!
The daylight is dying!

To fly would be folly,
To stay would be jolly
And listen and hark
Till the end of the dark
to our tune
ha! ha!

(from 'The Hobbit' by J.R.R. Tolkien)

While unpacking one of the last boxes (there are still n+1 left (n beeing the number of boxes I know about) I came upon a jar of dried elderberry sap.

On an sudden impulse I filled it up with water and a few moments later:



After a couple of hours and some vigorous shaking I had a whole bottle of elderberry sap.

I pomptly heated it up and put in some hydrous clay.
The result looked something like blueberry youghurt:



And after a few days the thing was totally dry - and looked like some lavender miniature of a dead, sunbaked desert. (I had a great picture for you - but I lost it. Shame on me)
And it behaved exactly like rock. Meaning: I could do nothing. Absolutely nothing.

As a last resort I added again some water and put it to dry, not in a saucer, but as a thin layer on a plastic bag.
The future remains exiting!

Sorry to bother you with this sort of trifle, but I want to share todays xkcd-comic with you.
Providing you don’t know him alreaddy.

It’s huge! Bring time! Plenty of time!

Erwachsensein wird völlig überbewertet says Soda who is one of the main components of Natron&Soda and author of Blog Hole Sun. (Take a look at her Blog - I especially love the titels she gives her posts. They are very creative and cool, mostly sounding like the titel of a 70’s rock song, while beeing still remotly connected to the theme of the post)

And because she’s right, of course, I’m still having the little blue elepant from the "Sendung mit der Maus" keeping me company when driving through hilly areas - which is nearly everyday.

I spent last weekend meeting up with some dear friends, playing frisbee, eating cake and sitting around a campfire doing some sort of a spontaneous coalbiting.

It was really great! We sat ’till late at night, reading our favorite stories to another, listening to poetry and song (me, I don’t sing).
And all of it with a minimal amount of planing involved. We just did it .

Thank you guys, you are so great!
And since we did’t take any pictures - here’s one of a previous one.



Here’s the recipe for the pumpkin soup (should have read it to you):

You buy one small pumpkin. You need 700g of pumpkin flesh, so it’s best to buy one that weighs about 1kg.
Chop the pumpkin into medium cubes of approximately 2cm.

Also chop one onion into smal cubes and hackle three cloves of garlic and 3cm (or more) of ginger.

Fry the onion lightly using some olive oil.
Add garlic and ginger and fry for about one minute.
Now comes the pumpkin cubes which are fried for five minutes.
After that you add 1 teaspoon (or more) of ground cumin and stir-fry for one minute.

Then you add 1 tin of coconut milk and 700ml of vegetable broth and let everything cook for abour 15-20 min. or until the pumpkin is tender.
Let it cool a bit and then blend it.
You may add some more salt. But then again, you may not.


On a side note:
I started collecting walnut shells (the green ones) for brown pigment.

Let me tell you something about goldenrod.



It’s amazing! I put it in a pot, added a bit of water and some alum, and: puff!



YELLOW



I’m doing shell-paint at the moment and later it will be pigments again. Haven’t decided about which method to use but it looks promising.
More promising than the sunflowers ever did.