Autumn Garden colour

Last Saturday was such an unexpected treasure! After a week or so of unrelenting rain and miserable skies, Saturday was sunny and bright!

I was out in the garden for a while whilst hanging some washing out and had a look to see what was still growing and giving us colour in the garden.

Mum gave me a tiny cutting of her Myrtle plant a few years ago.  It has flowered once in that time but has mostly sulked, looking sickly!

I am very pleased to see it has been looking happier this year and it flowered this week!

We had two fuscia plants in pots. One of them seemed to give up last year and the other one has been a late developer.  We ended up buying another one in our local garden centre's end of summer perennial sale and has been looking lovely! Apparently the flowers and berries are edible. I tried eating a petal but it tasted of very little!  They are beautiful ballet dangers though! One stem got severed. I put it in water and it seems to be budding so I am hopeful for another plant!

We bought this Osteospermum during the Summer and it is looking very pretty! I hope it lasts the Winter!

We have two Seedum plants.  These are a sure bet for Autumn growth!

Here is the other one with some Verbena Bonariensis in front too! You can see the Nandina Domestica leaves behind.

Mum dug me up a Marigold from her bed a couple of years ago and they seem to have spread in my raised bed. Originally planted as companion plants, I may have to dig some up and relocate!

Mum gave me some Borlotti beans this year to grow and here they are, drying out. They are really tasty! You can dry these as well to save and use through the winter.

I regrew the ends of two sweet potatoes which have grown very nicely in pots. The heart-shaped leaves (which are edible too!) are very attractive,

This Star-begonia is another new addition and I LOVE it! It's so much prettier than my previous Begonia! I must bring this in for Winter as I really want it to last!

What is growing in YOUR garden?

xx
 

Colourscape- Clapham Common 2021

My first proper gig of 2021 (AKA performing to the paying public) took place last Saturday on Clapham Common at the Colourscape festival.

If you're not sure of what Colourscape is, I have taken the liberty of  borrowing some information from their website:

Cwmni Colourscape is the partnership of Peter Jones and Lynne Dickens, who create Colourscapes. Peter Jones developed the first Colourscape structures in 1974. Colourscapes were preceded by 'Spaceplaces' from 1963, which were installations of coloured surfaces made inside buildings. In 1970 they became open-air structures. Experiments with air-inflated sculpture gave new possibilities of working directly with colour. Early structures used large primary colour chambers interconnected by tubes. Subsequently, many different Colourscapes, have been made, growing more complex in colour relationships. Cwmni Colourscape have several Colourscape structures, which they show at festivals and other events in the UK and abroad.
Cwmni Colourscape also creates and makes other structures - tensile canopies, wind sculptures and giant bubbles, all of which have generated and been part of many events. Many people have been trained with Cwmni Colourscape to make structures, to develop colour workshops and to run Colourscape shows

Eye Music:

Eye Music Trust (formerly Nettlefold Festival Trust) was founded by composers Lawrence Casserley and Simon Desorgher. In 1984 they founded a contemporary music festival in south London, the Nettlefold Festival, which was particularly dedicated to live electroacoustic music and music theatre. In 1988, seeking to expand the scope of the festival and to reach new audiences, they formed a charitable trust to oversee their work.
One of the most significant moments in the development of their work was the start of their collaboration with Cwmni Colourscape, which lead to the first Colourscape Music Festival, which took place on Clapham Common, London, UK in 1989. Since then the Trust have presented many Colourscape Music Festivals, numerous other events involving structures created by Cwmni Colourscape, and hundreds of educational workshops for people of all ages throughout the UK and abroad.

In 2005 the Trust was restructured as a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee (Reg No. 05466017) - and the name changed to Eye Music to reflect the connections between music and visual art. In 2008 Eye Music Trust became an Arts Council Regularly Funded Organisation.

Info from the Eye Music website 

I was performing with my Balinese Gamelan group- Lila Cita, on a beautiful Balinese Gamelan Angklung called Kembang Kirang which is owned by SOAS. Angklung is actually ceremonial music for Cremation but it is the most cheerful, bouncy-sounding music.

It's about the 4th Colourscape festival I have performed at, but it's been a good 10, possibly more years, since I did one, I suspect.  I forgot HOW amazing it is to walk and play in those brightly-coloured structures.  The colours are so mesmerising and you go on journeys throughout the chambers and see different shapes. As you can imagine, it is a joy to photograph.  We had a really appreciative audience who sat and listened to us for their allotted times as well as dancing through the chambers and delighting in the colour and light interplay.  A couple of times, I turned round from my suling (small Bamboo flute) to see a group of people in a far off chamber...or not so far off.... making up their own dances to music, I saw a small child leaning comfortably against an inflated wall looking content as he listened to us and when I smiled at him with my eyes, whilst playing, he smiled back in a way that suggested all was well with the world.

We played about 4 sets of music and paraded through the structure twice with our Baleganjur (street parade) music.

If you ever get the chance to visit, I strongly recommend it. It's wonderful.  I had a break where I leaned against a wall and read my book and it was so relaxing. I feel so lucky to have been able to take part in this performance.

And now, I will leave you to have a look at my photos of different views from Colourscape.  You might even find a video in there! Enjoy!

Style Imitating Art- the Girl with the Pearl Earring

 This week for Style Imitating Art, we are welcoming a new host called Terri! It's really lovely to have a new host and if you had time between now and then to put together an outfit (even a flatlay of clothes you would choose to wear would do) inspired by this painting, it would be lovely to welcome her to the job by having lots of entries for her inaugural post.

She chose that wonderful, well-known painting, The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer.

I'm very happy to have the chance to dress up inspired by this outfit! There's some obvious colours here, opulent fabrics, hair accessory chances, jewellery chances and the chance to do something totally off the ball but if you can justify your choices, I say DO it! It's much more interesting to see a slightly less obvious interpretation!

Here's my outfit:

 I will talk you through my sartorial decisions. Click on it if you want to view it larger.

I began with my wired headband. I bought this wide-wired headband from Battlesbridge Antiques centre back in August and on the reverse side, is a lovely mustard-floral effect. This side has a grey and white-patterned material. I loved wired headbands so I knew I wanted to wear one for this challenge. I DO have a blue one the colour of the painting but I chose to go slightly lower key with my headband.

Next, I added a dainty pair of pearl earrings.

I originally chose a slightly more yellowy sweater to wear but changed my mind this morning to wear this more ochre cardigan instead (from White Stuff- present). Underneath, I had in mind to wear a ruffled collared cream shirt that is part of my Clara wardrobe but I couldn't find it anywhere- no doubt it will turn up later. Instead, I wore a charity-shopped simple white Tu top.

I added this charity-shopped Fat Face blue and white patterned skirt (leggings worn underneath for warmth) and added my tan-boots- I did want to wear my blue boots but again... couldn't find them without unearthing the understairs cupboard.

I did contemplate a pearl brooch but decided to leave the outfit fairly simple-unusual for me.

This slightly enigmatic smile stands for what, I wonder?

If you think that you could rustle together an outfit, send your picture, here's what Terri would like you to do:

Send me your picture of your SIA inspired outfit along with a small blurb on how you were inspired to meadowtreestyle@gmail.com by January 12th. I’ll share the submissions on my blog on Wednesday January 13th.

Anyone can participate and you certainly do not have to have a blog.

If you do share your inspirations on Instagram use the hashtag #StyleImitatingArt so we know you are there. You can also tag us in the images. Our Instagram names are: @terrigardner_meadowtree, @daenelt and @14shadesofgrey.

You've got till tomorrow night!

What do you think?