Celebrating Fall Colors

Inspiration Avenue is all into fall, and so this week's theme is "Celebrating fall colors of orange, yellow and brown". Oh bliss. May I add a little bit of green as well, please.

A couple weeks ago Jo and I went to the National Heirloom Expo here in town. It was a feast for the eyes, the nose and yes, if we had eaten there, the tasting buds. There was one building at the expo that was dedicated to pumpkins and gourds - at least so it seemed when you entered the building.

The heart of the expo certainly was this pyramid of gourds, squash and pumpkins:

But when you walked around this building - and we did go into every little corner of it - you saw other things apart from pumpkins and gourds that showed the glory of autumn - all heirloom, of course.

Flowers were all over the place as well - and they fit perfectly the color scheme of orange, yellow and brown.

Joie de Vivre

"This week share with us what brings you joy!", Inspiration Avenue asks us.

"What a nice challenge", I thought. "That shouldn't be difficult."

And it wasn't.

There is so much in my daily life that brings me joy - little things, big things.

Like this black-crowned night heron that I see so often when I walk around my lake. Of course it's not always the same one, but I do think of him (or her) as my little friend, and it's a highlight every time I see this beautiful bird.

And talking about birds - I love the view out of my studio window. It goes right to the garden and the bird feeders, so that I can observe our feathered friends, and that brings me tons of joy.

Especially when an oriole lands here.

Or this little titmouse who looks so darn cute.

But there are more than birds - squirrels, of course. They enjoy chewing on the moose antler that I brought from Maine six years ago. They are pretty noisy chewers! 

I enjoy taking pictures of the moon and let her sit on the wire or be a pole dancer. If the pictures turn out pretty fine, that's an extra slice of joy!

Of course I enjoy my garden as you have seen in so many posts before. I felt tremendous joy when finally, at the end of August, my seeds of "Heavenly Blue" morning glory turned into the first flower. By now there are so many more of them climbing up the trellis that I feel like living in Provence.

Joy is to be able to bike to my favorite nursery and buy flowers. Priceless (well, not quite....).

Joy is to play with my family. One of the newer games we enjoy is Sumoku. Kaefer's best friend Becca is the real master of this game - she even beat the Geek!

Living off my garden - turning the harvested vegetables into delicious sauces, soups and meals - is a BIG joy in my life. Seriously, nothing tastes better than the food you grow yourself.

I don't always enjoy cooking, but most of the time I do. Especially - see above - if I can use super fresh ingredients, preferably from my garden. Then turn them into something delicious, like this tomato mozzarella gratin. Joy of eating... 

... accompanied by good wine. Ah, the joys of life!

A deep satisfying joy is the return of my creativity. Over the past two weeks I have spent more time in my studio than all summer long, creating tags for Halloween, greeting cards and journals. I haven't returned to painting, though. However, Kaefer requested a "custom order" - an elvish mixed media painting featuring Galadriel. Now, that will be a challenge!

Halloween Cemetery Coffin Tag

But what or who brings me the biggest, deepest, richest joy? 

She.

Autumn Splendor

I'm late this week for Inspiration Avenue's challenge, "Autumn Splendor". At first, of course, I thought about all the wonderful colors that autumn presents to us, like this crape myrtle in front of our house.

Or this beautiful sedum "Autumn Joy" in my backyard:

I thought of turning leaves, all those earthy colors.

But then I also thought of another side of autumn, the one that sets our table. I didn't have to get any further than into my backyard to find a richly set table.

Pumpkins...

peppers...

pears...

tomatoes...

Japanese eggplant...

our "volunteer" corn...

... and apples.

We also have a plum tree that this year was more than full with fruit. My friend Jo picked all of them, brought a whole lot to the food bank and made jam out of the rest.

Yummy!!!

.

August Break #3 - Lazy Days

Ah, the lazy days of summer.

It was a hot day today - we hadn't had that for quite a while. It's a weird summer this year. My tomatoes are still green. The peppers grow only slowly. The eggplants are tiny. Only the zucchini and pumpkins are doing really well.

I guess Northern California belongs more to the Pacific Northwest than to the rest of California.

Fine with me.

How's your summer?

Celebrating the Joy of Gardening

A couple of weeks ago, the local nursery where I usually shop for all my plants and gardening needs celebrated its 115th anniversary with a wonderful midsummer night. I love to go there because the moment you step into the nursery you are transferred into a different world - a world of color, scent and peacefulness. The staff is friendly and incredibly knowledgeable - there is no question they cannot answer. 90% of all the plants come from local growers and they offer a lot of organic stuff. Their vegetables so far have never disappointed me.

Being a regular customer, Kaefer and I attended their midsummer night, like so many other people. There were cookies and lemonade and some yummy fiesta food.

You could spin the wheel and win a plant (Kaefer did).

 You could look at beautiful roses and potted plants, and of course there were rows of veggies.

Water tickled from a fountain, and someone played the guitar nearby.

Toward the end of the evening we attended a demonstration how to plant hanging baskets for a shady spot and a big plant for a mainly sunny location - didn't they turn out beautifully?

Do you want to see my favorites? These guys - I just adore them!

The Abundance at the End of Summer

The veggies were hanging heavy on their plants. It was time to harvest. And since I was planning a seafood stir-fry for tonight I went out to get the red (Maroni Red, Italian Bull Horn) and orange peppers (Tequila Sunrise, Sweet Banana). I couldn't believe how many were ready - and there was so much more! The English cucumber (English Slender 'n Tender) had patiently waited for several days now, and there were many ripe tomatoes to enjoy (Roma, Early Girl).

The old colander that I had found in a thrift store filled up quickly. What colors!!! I could almost taste the flavors - oh yummy! There's nothing better than a ripe tomato straight from its bush.

Don't you get hungry when you see this? I look forward to cooking tonight, get out the wok, chop the seafood and the veggies, prepare a delicious meal for my family. What's cooking at your home tonight?

UPDATE: This is what the veggies finally looked like in the seafood stir-fyr. It was very yummy.