A TIME TO FORAGE

The sun slants earlier and rises later, sending slivers of golden orange and red

across the horizon.

 settling-in 

mellowing

reminiscing

The last cuttings of hydrangeas are drying in baskets 

along side pods, acorns, fading roses and sunflowers.

The joy is in the finding, the foraging, the digging. 

 Berries are my favorite to find...purples, brown, red, green. They dry beautifully. I use inexpensive baskets, line with dish towel or paper towels. Cut off the really large or decaying leaves. Lay gently in basket, allow air to circulate. Then the fun begins: photographing, sketching or using in still life arrangements.  

Have you ever held Magnolia branches with their glossy-green leaves with velvety brown undersides, in your hands? Honestly they are the texture of, well, velvet!

We are fortunate to have two trees at the back of our yard.  Year long they give us offerings of beauty.

Elena Nuez, from Spain, paints amazing designs on leaves, stones, paper. Click here to visit her website. Bicocacolors.com  She does amazing, diverse paintings on foraged and found objects in nature, as pictured below. 

Bi

Have been on a roll painting in gouache. LOVE IT ! Filling sketchbooks and pads of watercolor paper. 

In the South, BBQ is a BIG DEAL.  We went to a nifty BBQ restaurant with our daughter, husband and three Funny Bunnies.  While others had Barbie ribs, etc. I opted for BBQ tacos...yep, tacos. 

They were fabulous!

We ate outside enjoying the sweater weather temperatures, blue skies and grass for the kids to play on.

Kayla, who had been exploring, ran up to me with a handful of HUGE acorns. Wow, what a find.

We wrapped them in a paper napkin to take home.  But that wasn't good enough, she led me to a magnificent old Oak tree, laden, totally laden with thousands of acorns.  Shaking a branch they rained down on us.  Hard knocks on the head! 

Okay, this was serious foraging. 

  I left adults and tacos, to get plastic bags from the car, to fill up, of course. You would think we had found gold!  Cheers for exploring. 

Are these not amazing?  This is a sampling. We filled jars and bowls with their nutty brown goodness.

And not once did we see a squirrel...they don't know what they are missing.

Did you see the HUNTER MOON a week or so ago? We were pretty excited to see it, the Funny Bunnies and I.  Unfortunately the the kids had to go to bed before it was really high enough to see. 

I kept running outside with my camera.  This particular night was a bit cloudy, my camera couldn't focus the distance, but did get one shot.  The entire bright spot is the moon.

This morning, at 5:30 AM,  I was driving to a church to help serve breakfast to some women.

I drove STRAIGHT into sight of an enormous Crescent Moon, stark and brilliantly shining.

A perfect way to start the day...gifts from the heavens and sharing a meal with some lovely southern ladies, in need of a hands up.

This is the season of wanderlust.  A time to be in touch with nature as she settles into a new season.

I hope that you are finding some moments in your day to fill your senses with Mother Nature's free gifts to all.

Smiles: Sharon