I love autumn leaves. In Australia, only the exotic species have autumn colour, most of the native plants remain grey-green throughout the year, and only the new growth on the gum trees is crimson. I remember a glorious autumn in Scotland the year we lived there when I was 8, and I ran about catching coloured leaves as they fell -- I'd read in a story that to catch a leaf meant a day of good luck, so I wanted 365 leaves to give to my mother. I got them, too. I expect it gave Mum one day of good luck at least -- a child fully occupied the entire day and exhausted at the end of it.
One day I'll be in eastern North America to experience the full glory of deciduous Fall. But it won't be this year.
For me, Easter means barbecues in the bush, in particular the north east of Victoria, where we lived before we started moving every couple of years. The foothills of the Snowy Mountains. I wrote about it here once. No barbecues this year, alas. I'm working through the Easter break. Everything is very quiet - most of my neighbours have gone away because it's the last break before winter.
Buying bulbs on line is not quite as much fun as driving up to the bulb farms in the Dandenong Mountains, an hour's drive from here, but still, such a pleasure to plant papery brown things or small waxy lumps and a few months later a tentative gorgeous spike or two of green and then... flowers.
Have a fabulous Easter.
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Anne, I love your pictures, especially the red leaves among the green. And speaking of leaves, what an adorable story about you gathering "lucky" leaves for your mother. That should make it into one of your stories!
ReplyDeleteOver here in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., we had a cold and windy Easter. I had a yummy ham dinner with scalloped potatoes, home grown green beans, and homemade herb rolls, at my sister's. For dessert we had a pineapple pound cake with a frosting of Cool Whip and crushed pineapple.
We then waddled into the sewing room where my sister helped me make a dressmaker's dummy. We had a hilarious time, laughing our heads off as Lori covered my entire torso in layer upon layer of duct tape. I'd found the instructions on the Internet when I was pricing dressmaker's dummies. I was dubious, but it worked really well. You wear an old T-shirt and then a helper starts layering duct tape. When finished, Lori cut the dummy off me by slicing the back of it open. After removing the dummy, I taped up the back and stuffed it, to maintain its shape. (You can read about the process and see pictures of the finished product on my blog.)
Now I have an excellent--if unconventional--dressmaker's dummy, thanks to an afternoon spent at my sister's on Easter Sunday.
Thanks, Sherrie. I love autumn leaves and it's such a pleasure to watch as the Virginia Creeper slowly turns from green to crimson. And yes,
ReplyDeleteI might put that lucky leaf-catching thing in a story one day. I'd forgotten about it until I was thinking of a post about autumn leaves.
I love your home-made dressmaker's dummy -- saw all the details on your blog. Brilliant idea and it sounded like you and your sister had fun, as well.