Saturday 23 August 2008

Autumn Sunflowers

It's official, Autumn arrived at 12.30 on Friday morning, I stepped out of the office and there it was, a split second in time when all the elements came together in an instant. The sun was shining, but lacked any real warmth, a pile of golden leaves swirled around the car park in the breeze which carried a faint smell of damp and decay and bonfires. It was a fleeting moment and then it was gone, blown away but imprinted in my mind.
The drive home appeared normal, and it may have been my imagination but... was there was tiny change in the colours of the leaf canopy? Almost invisible when looked at face on, but from the corner of the eye a slight fading perhaps? A hazy sunshine, the caw caw of a rook loud and unatural and slightly disconcerting. He obviously knows.
At home the garden is still verdant from all the recent and continuing rain. But there are signs, red rosehips, crab apples, seed heads and elderflowers that seem to have ripened overnight! An then there is this:-
Majestic is the only way to describe it. 7 foot 2 inches of pure summer sunshine, but peel away the centre buds and the seeds are formed and starting to ripen.


Isabel has fed and nutured this beauty for weeks now from pushing the seed into a damp pot of earth, to the planting in rich soil and the magic ingredient, (which is a carefully guarded secret!) She has watched it grow as high as herself and then overtake her on it's way to the blue, blue sky above.




The seeds will eventually be shared between the chickens and the doves and all the wild birds that visit the garden. A few will be saved for next years plants and then the main stem will be chopped and composted and it will gradually rot back into the soil from whence it came, a full circle of life and death as nature intended.

Here our thought are now turning to Halloween and all that entails. The lovely Heidi has arranged a vintage swap so if you are interested then contact her. I am also toying with the idea of my first blog giveaway as well, not sure what to actually give away and when to do it, but watch this space anyway!

Dev X

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, I love the beautiful garden! What a magical place! The sunflowers certainly have done well, they are tall and beautiful.

Marja Kristiina said...

Another fabulous post, Dev. Please write a book :-)

Autumn is by far my favorite season. The colors, the scents, the candle light.. Lovely! And to hear that the loveliness has in fact already commenced truly made my day!

Cheers, dear friend, and take care!

HerzBlatt said...

Hi Devina,
although there was a lot of rain, your garden looks magical and gorgeous!!!
The following weekend shall be sunny and very hot here...28 grade.....hopefully the 6th of September will be fine and dry!!!
Be very excited....dream about the wedding every night....
have a nice week,
Iris

Funkymonkey said...

Everything is really beginning to feel autumnal isn't it? Mornings are darker as I get up to go to work and the evenings are really drawing in. It really is my favourite time of year. Thanks for the Tesco bag tip off by the way. I hadn't realised more had been released and I've managed to get one thanks to you.

Merruli said...

I enjoy your beautiful use of English language, you captured the feeling of autumn so nicely.
Your garden looks wonderful. I would like to have a green house in order to make the growing season a bit longer- this year I don't even seem to get my tomatoes to ripen on open-air.
Sunflowers have always been my favorites, they are such a color burst, they are easy and edible, such a useful flower.

Heidi said...

Hi Devina, Oh, what a lovely account of the slight, but notice-able changes from Summer to Fall! I am so ready for it!...& thank you so much for the sweet mention in your post! I have been so busy with the Halloween swap, trying to make it very organized & all that I have had no time to visit all my favorite friends!....So am enjoying reading some of the posts I have missed!...I wanted you to know you have a dear friend of mine, Kay, as your partner for the swap...She initially was a client of mine, but now her & her daughter are also wonderful friends! I hope you enjoy getting to know her!....I also have a little award for you on my post today!...you deserve it!...Heidi XO

BailiwickStudio said...

I've been watching (and sniffing) to detect the same change, but haven't come across it yet. I'm glad to hear it might be making it's way toward California now! It's absolutely my favorite time of year. ::Jill

Curlew Country said...

Hello Dev, sorry not to have called in on you for ages, life's been whizzing past. I've been feeling just the same things as you in the air. I went riding with a friend today (first time in 10 years - ouch!) and up on the moors autumn is absolutely here already.

Thanks so much for your recommendations on Miss Read books. I bought her Christmas one last year and fell in love with the style and atmosphere. There's a book stall in the Butter Market in town that sells them for £1 so rather than putting you to the trouble of posting books up to me, could you recommend your favourites and then I can pop along and treat myself. Thanks so much Dev.

Hope you've had a good summer, I love Isabel's sunflower (we didn't get around to planting ours). Roll on Autumn, October Country Living out in 2 weeks - yippee!
Thanks for a fab post.
Stephx