Autumn – a time for creating

Closing down the garden, that could be a sad time. But my experience is that every season IMG_0512has its beauties and pleasures. The last few days have shown us magnificent weather with blue sky, bright yellow leaves of all kind of shades and a soft temperature. Yesterday I took a walk by the lake, admiring the huge trees by its side.

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Perhaps that walk got me going, because this morning, while the morning light was still at its IMG_0526best, I started making a wreath to put on our front door for the season.

I have this base structure made of willow I once made and that I can use with different components depending on the season, to make a wreath of the season. For October and November it felt right to use lichen and lingonberry leaves.

IMG_0527I put a piece of lichen and some lingonberry leaves together and bound them to the wreath with ordinary sewing thread. A few turns with the thread, and then a new “bouquet” of lichen and lingonberry leaves. Until the whole structure was completed.IMG_0529

To finish it off I tied a nice ribbon “With Love” at the top and put it on our front door. Hopefully a welcoming touch to every guest.IMG_0528

An experiment…

My parsley was a gold mine last winter. I had covered it with blankets against snow and ice, and whenever I wanted some fresh parsley for cooking, I just went out and looked under the layers of blankets and could pick some. It was really amazing.

When spring came, I soon saw the parsley wanted to go blooming. Then I decided to make an experiment. What do they look like when blooming? I followed the plants developing into flowers. In the middle of the summer I had parsley flowering all over the planting place (see photo).IMG_0296

The flowers of the parsley are very, very small, and they were a gift to all the very small insects. It was sheer pleasure standing near, hearing the buzz in the air and seeing the small ones enjoying their meal šŸ™‚

And no, I did not get any parsley to eat this season. Well, the experiment continued, and by autumn the pollinated flowers had turned into seeds. Some weeks ago I cut off the long stems and put everything to dry on the veranda.IMG_0463

IMG_0464Yesterday I saw the seeds had dried and I carefully cut off the top of the stems, with the “seed flower”. An easy way to get the seeds from the “flower” is to put the whole “seed flower” in a plastic bag. When you have filled the bag you shake, press and rub the content for a few seconds – and all the seeds fall off so you will have a nice little heap in the bottom of the bag. I learned this trick from a Norwegian writer, Annemarta Borgen, and her book “Urtehagen pĆ„ knatten”.

I got so much parsley seed that I can give it away as gifts, in addition to planting parsley next season. See to that the seeds are dry, when you put them away for the winter. A nice way to store them is to fold your own “envelopes”. That is also a nice package if you want to give away seeds as gifts. Here is how to make the envelopes:

IMG_0475Choose a nice piece of paper, it should be square in size. Fold it in the middle.

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Fold the right and left corner into the middle, so that they overlap. IMG_0469Then insert one corner into the other, this makes the envelope hold together.

IMG_0472Open up the top angle (which consists of two layers of paper). Now you have an envelope to put the seeds in. Then fold the top angle into a lid. Fold it so that a little part of the top reaches below the bottom of the envelope. IMG_0471There you tuck it into the bottom to close the envelope.

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And here is your envelope, ready to give away as a gift or to store the seeds for future planting.

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