Tuesday, October 23, 2012

mellow fruitfulness


It's pretty - beautiful even, but after so many days of rain one longs for blue - an autumn day spiked with gold.  Still, the trees keep giving according to their natures.  There are chestnuts lying on the ground waiting to be found.  Mr. Signs fills his pockets with them and eats them raw.  I buy mine ready-cooked and vacuum packed, to eat with sweetheart cabbage dressed with olive oil and black pepper.  Even so, it is in the spirit of the season.  When autumn comes, so does the desire for chestnuts and shiny conkers lined along the windowsill. The leaves have not quite turned, but when they do I will gather some to press between the pages of heavy books (I used to have an ancient bible for this but now use old recipe books and a history of Anglo Saxon England which I bought as an English undergraduate but never read, it was expensive so good to feel it is being put to use).  When the leaves are dry I will fix them to the edges of the windowpane with dots of glue. 

When my children were young I made a space for a nature corner, as parents of Steiner school children often do.  In autumn there might be acorns, berries and leaves.  There would also be a knitted gnome or two, crystals and a beeswax candle in a wooden holder.  I might create such a space again this year.  First I must go out and gather something.  When the rain lets up I will.

3 comments:

Anna MR said...

Hei you shining soul you.

There is a word, an expression in Finnish, I'm not sure whether it exists in English (hollow brain day, you see). The word is elämäntaiteilija, artist of life. As in, a person who maketh art of life, life being the medium of their art. You are such a creature (as well as A True Poet, natch), that much has always been clear to me. Just not certain I've told you this before.

Now I have. So there. (Word ver Dvainio - not only does it point towards "divine" but also vainio is Finnish for meadow.)

x

upnorth said...

Looks lovely, although I know what you mean by feeling socked in...it's been the same way here.

Reading the Signs said...

Well thank you, Schwes, one does one's best innit and it takes one to know one. I love that word - elämäntaiteilija - and imagine it sounds as good as it looks. It has to be said that I am not making much art - but -

upnorth, good to see you :)