Hair New Era

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In January I created this mixed media canvas for an Inspiration Avenue challenge. Today, I've put it in my Etsy shop for sale. It is still one of my favorite works - I just love the warm colors of autumn (I really don't know why I prefer the word "autumn" over "fall", perhaps it is more poetic. Is there a difference between the two words?).

I'm quite excited about the season change. Many trees in my neighborhood are turning leaves, it looks beautiful. The two crape myrtle in front of my house are glowing in a deep pink, it's marvelous. I simply love this stunning display of bold color.

I hope all of you - at least in the Northern hemisphere - enjoy the earthy colorful season.

Finally I'm back to the challenges at Inspiration Avenue, and this week's theme is "poetry". So beautiful. Reading poetry in another language than German is still difficult for me as I think too much gets lost and I am not able to understand the entire meaning, which is a real shame. However, I do love poetry in my native language, German. One poet I read over and over again is Rainer Maria Rilke. His poem "Herbsttag" (Autumn Day) is one of my favorites. You can find a translation at the bottom of this post; this one I like better than the one I found back in October and that I posted here. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find out who did this translation, I found it here. If you're interested in how many translations exist of this one poem (and thus show how difficult it is to translate poetry into another language) you will have a ball at this site.

November had never been one of my favorite months. I experienced 40 Novembers in Germany, and what I remember is grey, grey, grey. The first frost, the first snow.

Chaos on the roads in the early morning on your way to work. Going to work in the dark, coming back home in the dark. The sun played somewhere else. It was just the beginning of the long and dark season, while completely lacking the warmth of Christmas and being burdened down by somber holidays, only lightened up on Martinstag (I blogged about that special day on Vision and Verb).


Then I moved to California, and suddenly November became something different - often the first rain, desperately needed after months of drought, and oh how lovely is that sound of rain! No more heavy religious holidays, but a celebration of gratitude, a gathering of family and friends. Stunning autumn colors that always amaze me. Autumn at its almost best (nothing can beat October, though).


And through the viewfinder of a camera, both Novembers can look fabulous and give both their very own right. Grey and color, frost and sunshine.

Herbsttag. This is my favorite poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, describing autumn in incredible beautiful and rich language. In our public library I found a translation of this poem - unfortunately it doesn't reflect Rilke's amazing lyrical language, but I think you can grab some of the atmosphere.

On Sunday we went to the pumpkin patch. It's one of our favorite things to do in October.

It was a brilliant day, with a deep blue sky, bright sunshine and the temperatures were pretty high as well. It always seems to be hot when we visit a pumpkin patch - hot, dusty and dirty. And lots of fun.

Kaefer brought along her friend and both girls took off happily - first into the corn maze, an excellent one this year that kept us occupied for the better part of an hour. Our rule in a maze like this is to always stick to the right which really works, although I sometimes thought "hey, I've been here before". But can you really tell among all those high stalks of corn? This time, our rule worked again and we made our way through the maze.


There were farm animals to visit and hay bails to play on, but we headed straight to the patch and while the girls went on the search for the perfect pumpkin, the Geek and I were in photography heaven. The bright light, though, was quite a challenge! But who can resist that orange?

Rhonda's Art Walk Friday this week is all about fall. How much do I love those fall colors. While walking around the neighborhood a few days ago, looking for some nice autumn subjects, I suddenly saw these leaves in the beautiful light of the sun. I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but the colors really captured me.

Yesterday was the first day that really felt like autumn. What better thing to do on a day like this than making pumpkin bread? It's easy - and the smell, that slowly fills the house while the bread is baking in the oven, is to die for. It tells of shorter days, hot chocolate, a book and a blanket. Cinnamon and Jack-o-lanterns. Bright pumpkins and funnily shaped gourds, golden days and crisp nights.

As I mentioned yesterday, October is my favorite month. Temperatures are cooler, but still very comfortable during the day. The nights are crisp, the mornings often quite cool. The light gets softer and the colors bolder. Warm, earthy colors - my favorite colors that I love to work with and also love to wear.

That's probably why my tag for Kard Krazy's Tag Tuesday challenge is all in these fall colors. The challenge was to include some kind of calendar or at least something with a date. I included one of those little calendars in credit card size , used different papers and some stamps with lots of Distress Inks - and I was done. When the tag was finished I thought that it is also perfect for the Geek's birthday, which is today!

Today is also the first day of the month-long online photography class by Tracey Clark and Big Picture Classes, Picture Fall. It looks like it's going to be a great class and I'm really excited about it. October is such a wonderful month for taking pictures!

The last day of September...

The past days have been pretty toasty here with temperatures topping 100, but today it's way more comfortable and even though it's still very much like summer, autumn is definitely on its way. Tomorrow starts my favorite month of the year - I simply love October with all its colorful abundance.

So here comes autumn - this week's theme at Tuesday Taggers. I'm a real sucker for pumpkins - hey, they're orange! - and of course I had to contribute something pumpkinish. I saw these pumpkins in the garden of a winery up in Mendocino County.


October also means pumpkin patch - oh, I can't wait! All the beautiful color this months gives out with full hands, and at its end there is the best holiday ever. Did I mention that I'm also a BIG fan of Halloween?