Of Autumn and Something New

And so Autumn finally arrives after a few false starts and this morning we are buffeted up the hill to school in a tornado of fallen leaves as above, a watery sun shines in a patchwork sky of dark grey and bright blue.

I must confess, after the hot weekend in London that we experienced, I'm actually relieved to be able to wrap up in layers and feel the energy of the storms that lash down on our village.  The high wind is invigorating and awakens the senses, leading one to suddenley notice Autumn in all her glorious technicolour.  I see scarlets, vivid and bright and dull faded reds; I see acidic lemon yellows and vibrant lime greens as well as amber, nutmeg, paprika and gold.  Nature puts on a rainbow of a display, yet it's so fleeting.  I enjoy it enormously.

So yes, where was I - London! Oh my, a bustling place if ever there was one!  It's not that I dislike London, in fact I think I quite like it - I just feel utterly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people, the constant, never-ending rush, the energy and the expanse of the place.  I find it a curious place too, one that I feel I'm a little in love with, but yet cannot wait to escape back to my peaceful little corner of normality from; where sheep graze in the nearby fields and pheasants land randomly in the garden.

We travelled to London to see a show - Mamma Mia (which was absolutley out of this world) - to celebrate my Mum and Dad turning 65 and 70 respectively and all the family travelled down for the weekend.  The strange thing was, that for mid October it felt more like mid August.  Many layers were shed as the day wore on and we bore the stifling heat of the underground begrudgingly.  At this time of year, as nice as the warm weather is, it also feels a little out of place.

So, this speaking of seasons leads me nicely towards sharing a very beautiful new product that is now available in my online gallery shop, and which I am so very proud of.  For the first time this year, I decided I would design my very own calendar, put together using carefully selected images that takes the viewer on a journey through each of the four seasons. 

I have never, ever done anything like this before and it took several attempts to get it just right....even then, just to be 100% certain, I had my graphic design chum look it over and put it in a presentable order for the printing people.

Well, I had the proofs back at the weekend, and oh my, how lovely they are too!

 

The paper is very luxurious, and the print of each image is bright and cheery - in fact, you would well be able to frame up some of these I think, once you'd finished using it as a calendar.

If you are interested in making a purchase of a calendar, they will be available exclusively through my website at the price of £10.50.  There is a pre-order facility set up in the gallery shop and I'm hoping to have the first batch ready to ship out by mid November.  If you live overseas, you too can order from the website, just remember to choose the correct shipping destination!  Please click here for more information on the calendars.

And so now, I look on to the next season - the Festive one - as I begin to create a handful of limited edition hand painted decorations that I've been asked to do.  These were very popular last year, and so I have agreed to create some new designs especially for 2015.

Back to the paints then...and to steaming mugs of tea, arm warmers, chunky scarves and wellington boots.

Have a lovely day.

Julia x