Fall Fun: Autumn Nature Mandalas

Having seen some natural mandalas on Pinterest as I continue my exploration of Zentangle and mandalas, I took a little time today to find some colorful leaves--all but the purple ones are from the nursing home where my current hospice patient lives; the purple ones are from our Japanese maple.  

The following photos are just my first attempts.  I can see collecting more leaves, fallen branches, and other items.  The white rocks are kind of "cheating" since they were bought and put in our garden.

You know the most remarkable thing about these mandalas?  I sat on the ground to make them!

Can't wait to try it with the kids . . . .

(Vague memory:  I used to build designs and even little structures on the beach at the bay house.  One time, my Aunt J asked what I was doing and I replied, "Building a temple to Poseidon."  I was really into classical mythology then.  She then asked if I believed in the Greek god of the sea and, while I didn't answer, I realized that I believed he was as probable as any Christian God, prophet, or saint.  Usually my memory of this event focuses on the discussion, but today I had a clear sense of the house made of driftwood, shells, and such.)

Fall Fun: Leaf Peeping

After our usual morning of kung fu and ice skating (plus a visit to a friend's tag sale where Sis scored a lovely old portable art box and I got a little picnic basket with a divider to protect pie), we headed way north to the Icelandic Affair, a festival Mama had heard about from work.  It's a small festival with a lot of interesting foods and features.  We mainly went to see the furry ponies, a special Icelandic horse breed.  We arrived just as they started showing off the horse's gaits.  Sis was fascinated and hopped, quite literally, at the chance to ride one of them.  She grabbed hold of the mane, put her boot in a stirrup, and hoisted herself up like a champ; the horse's owner was impressed and let Sis walk around the green without guiding her.  Sis's face just lights up when she's near horses or almost any animal (she enjoyed meeting an Icelandic sheepdog from the RI search and rescue.)

Bud liked the food:  a hot dog with Icelandic-type mayo and mustard and fried onions, trout and Icelandic butter, gravlax on rye, a special seven-thin-layer pastry called Vinarterta (with almond and cardamom flavors and some thin layers of jam and lots of butter cream), some chocolates, a thick vanilla yogurt called Smari, some caramels, and a cardamom sweet roll called something with an S. Mama liked all the food, too.

And I scored with a beautiful sweater.  I had walked past the table when we arrived and saw the black and rainbow-colored hand-knit sweater out of the corner of my eye.  When I went back it was still there, marked "Large Sweater Dress."  And it fit me!  Perfectly. Not as a dress, but as a long sweater (I have a very vague memory of a later 1980s long, multicolored sweater trend--I had several dark ones with rainbow patterns, machine knit, though.)  As I paid the lady, I heard someone turn to a friend, "You snooze, you lose."  I guess someone hadn't quite committed to the sweater.  I loved it.  And I got several compliments as I walked around.  Mind you, hand knit!  It took 36 hours and it's not variegated wool--those are all individual color changes!  And you can't see where the knitter changed rounds.  It's beautiful.

After the festival, we went to a nearby state park for a little leaf-peeping.  A dramatic, cloudy sky and some near-peak foliage made it a perfect day for taking in the scenery.  I love fall foliage and rock walls, of which we saw a lot.  And took copious pictures, after which we stopped by one of our favorite shops, Nodine's Smokehouse, and picked up some ham, meats, and other tasty goods.  It really was a glorious day, from beginning to end (actually, the real end was the kids playing a Beta-test of a new Zelda game and my baking an Apple Bourbon Bundt Cake for Applepalooza tomorrow.)

Battle of the Yards

Let it begin:  the annual pursuit of the neighboring men--mostly, though some egged on by women--to clear their grass of every single golden or crimson leave.  With their arsenal of lawn mowers, leaf blowers, rakes, and bags, they spend many man hours sucking up every leaf as it falls.  Something about protecting the grass, which they expect to still be green, even in November, even in New England.

And I don't care a jot.  I love these colorful leaves--on trees, fluttering through the air, gathering on the ground.  I wait til the last minute to remove (or more specifically, pay someone to remove) them because I like to crunch in their color. Maybe it's because I didn't really have fall colors the first half of my life.  The kids like them, too--they rake piles and jump into them over and over.

This year has been an amazingly long peak season.  The trees are holding onto their colorful leaves longer than usual.  Three of our trees haven't even started dropping yet.  It could be another month before our trees are bare.

When I posted this picture of the golden glow of our yard on FB, one of our leaf-phobic neighbors replied that her son was available to rake that weekend!  No thanks, we'll be keeping it like this a bit longer.