Friday: Brown

Happy Friday, y'all. I wish I could report that my upcoming weekend held some time for sewing or painting (I have new watercolors I bought with birthday money a month ago, still untouched), but we are flat-out again both days, and I have a feeling it will be like that through the holidays. My craft supply procurement this week has been all about the Halloween costumes--I told the kids to figure out what they need to put their costumes together, and I'd hunt it down. I ended up buying three pairs of black pants, a black shirt, a red shirt, a green shirt, and white gloves, and I still need to find another green shirt, a Green Lantern ring, and some green ribbon for the prince's pants. The crafty tasks for this week are going to focus, I think, on helping the kids embellish their costumes.

But--back on task! Today is the final day of Autumn Colour Week. Perhaps because the colors are linked to seasons, or (probably) because of my own preferences, I tend to look for the colors in nature. These two pictures both were taken in my yard.

Oh look, a salamander! Did you know I love salamanders?! This is a red-backed salamander. He hangs out in the moist dirt under the happy Buddha statue in our front yard.

And this is a close-up of some sort of fungus growing on a tree stump in the side yard. To be honest, fungus isn't something I generally look at up close, but aren't those stripes beautiful?

Happy weekend, everyone! I hope yours holds some time for relaxing.

"Grey Day. Everything is Grey."

("I watch, but nothing moves today." From My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss.)

View of the Newport Bridge from Jamestown

Today is Grey Day over at the Autumn Colour Flickr Group. And that is why I was so excited that yesterday's forecast called for rain, rain, and more rain. Wednesdays are also my day to cross Narragansett Bay on two bridges to go to my daughter's Music Together class. It was so grey yesterday that, much to her delight, the lights were lit on one of the bridges. (She is always hoping for a lit-up bridge, even on sunny days.) I, on the other hand, often grip the wheel tightly on even the calmest of days; I can't close my eyes over the bridges, like I did as a child, when I'm the one driving.

View of Narragansett Bay,  Jamestown

The views off the bridges are stunning no matter the weather, but of course I couldn't pull over and take pictures while crossing. Still, I pulled over several times during our trip back and forth and ended up with some photos I liked to add to the one grey picture I'd already taken, of a late afternoon sky in our backyard. (You can see all my Autumn Colour photos here.)

Worden's Pond, South Kingstown

I'm enjoying this exercise--anything that can make a grey, rainy day exciting is good. But I couldn't resist this shot of raindrops on Asiatic bittersweet--a shot of color in a grey, grey day.

Happy Thursday! I'll be back tomorrow with some lovely browns.

Yellow and Orange (& Hands)

Thank goodness for Autumn Colour Week, because the only crafty thing I've been doing lately is knitting, and while I think Hitchhiker is a terribly clever pattern, it's not very exciting to photograph in progress. So I'll share my favorite of my yellow (Tuesday) and orange (Wednesday) photos instead, with the caveat that I really think it's time for a digital SLR. I'm getting frustrated that I can't control the exposure, focus, and especially depth of field the way I want to. I learned on an SLR way back when in the Dark(room) Ages, and I'm sure I'll have to re-learn so, so much, because it's been so, so long. If anyone has suggestions on a good digital SLR, I'm all ears. I know I need to do some research. For instance, will my old lenses work with a digital? It would be so great if they did.

At any rate, photos! Yellow, in my backyard:

And Orange, in my front yard:

Part of what I enjoy so much about these color weeks is that I end up paying attention more, because I want the photos to be current. I think, once I get that digital SLR (Santa?), I'll be setting myself photo challenges. I've been better about not leaving my camera at home, too, which is why I'm sharing one last photo, not of a color, but of hands. (And again, I wish I'd had more control over lighting and focus here. Ah, well.)

Those are my grandmother's hands, a month short of 96 years, holding my daughter's hands, which will be three this week. They were singing together, and I wanted a photograph of their hands.

I hope you all are having a beautiful week! The next two colors are grey and brown, and oh, I've been finding some lovely browns. Can't wait to share them!

Red Leaves. (And Black Pumpkins.)

Today is for Red over at Autumn Colour Week. This is my favorite of the pictures I added:

I think this might be woodbine? Some sort of creeper, anyway. Sigh. I'm not really sure. I've mentioned before how hard field botany was for me, yes? It was so much information, presented in such a hodge-podge way, I never could keep it all in my head at once. I'm sure if I learned it in a logical way, more of it would have stuck. It all made me feel so stupid at the time. But, I know a pretty red autumn plant when I see one, anyway.

And I mentioned we'd have a couple of crafty items for my daughter's birthday party--not just her shirt. We also had chalkboard pumpkins for the kids.

The full post about these can be found at my kids-n-art blog here.

Happy Monday!

Coming Up: Autumn Colours Week

Poppytalk is hosting another seasonal colours week, this time for autumn colours. (I feel kind of bad that our Southern Hemisphere friends are left out; is anyone down there hosting a spring colours week anytime soon?) Here's the information from the site:

Please join us by uploading your beautiful fall colours to our Autumn Colours Week flickr pool.  I will post and favourtie heaps each day here on the blog in the process and the more the merrier if you care to do the same!  Here is the colour schedule:

Monday, October 17th - Red
Tuesday, October 18th - Yellow
Wednesday, October 19th - Orange
Thursday, October 20th - Grey
Friday, October 21st - Brown

Be sure to upload the next day's colour after 6pm Pacific only (and please no product or images you've uploaded to previous colour weeks). Come join! It'll be fun!

Around here, the experts tell us to expect less fall foliage colors than usual, because of Tropical Storm Irene at the end of August. Besides ripping down loads of leaves (and, um, trees), she sprayed a bunch of salt around, too. But just because the color isn't all over the place at the moment doesn't mean it's not there. There are flashes of orangey red that make me gasp, they're just so perfect. And the oak tree at the end of our driveway has deep, red leaves mixed in with the dried-up brown ones. We are maybe looking a little harder for the color right now (and who knows what it will look like later on? it's early yet), but it's there. I have to remind myself to watch the road when I'm driving instead of the trees!

Thursday I was just cranky, no other word for it, so after lunch I put my daughter in the stroller, grabbed my camera, and off we went, a right, a left, then a right down a less-traveled road (because cars go so fast in our neighborhood; it's good to duck down a quieter road). All the way to the end we went, rewarded with a pond on one side and a horse and two alpaca on the other. Along the way we stopped to take photos and collect leaves--and race the stroller, fast, through some puddles left over from the morning's rain--such fun for the girl! Over an hour later we were back, only slightly less cranky, alas, but with lots of photos, and leaves to press, too.

I plan to post some photos here, too, like I did with summer colours week, but since the list above doesn't include pink or green, I'll leave you with this photo of pokeweed getting all flashy for autumn.

I admit, I had to be dragged out of summer kicking and screaming. I'm still a little put out by the fact it's over, but I'll enjoy the final glorious shot of color we get before winter arrives...