The Changing Seasons – September 2019

 

It’s time again for the wonderful challenge The Changing Seasons hosted by my dear friend Su from Zimmerbitch!

 

So what have I been up to in September?

Quite a lot actually, though for some stupid reason or other I forgot to take pictures most of the time, like when I went to work on my favorite Adidas Superstar sneakers and gave them a make-over because the rubber soles showed definite signs of aging after – drum roll, please! – about 10 years of wearing.

Which means that the once white rubber had turned into that very unattractive yellow that plastic likes to take on after a couple of years, no matter how thoroughly you scrub it, and that looks just ghastly compared to the still white leather.

So I simply painted the side of the soles and the cap in the front with white acrylic paint (about 2 or 3 layers) and then applied an acrylic finisher so the paint wouldn’t come of at the first instance a careless shopper decides to drive his or her trolley/cart into my heels.

But did I make a photo of it? NO! (Stupid! Stupid!)

It really would have made for such a nice before and after image. Ah well, next time, I guess.

 

Getting Ready for Halloween!

 

Apart from that little fiasco I spent a lot of time creating Halloween decorations with my pottery students this month.

(In case you’re wondering why so early: clay takes a bit of time to properly dry before it gets fired, and then you might want to glaze it which of course requires a second round in the kiln – oh, and then there are our Autumn holidays to consider as well which start in two days and will last for two weeks.)

For those of you who have already seen the following pics on my Instagram account (@art_photography_and_ceramics), please feel free to scroll down.

Here’s some of the amazing artwork by my students that I’m totally in love with!

 

artwork by Alma (Sept. 2019)

 

artwork by Benno (Sept. 2019)

 

artwork by Maillee (Sept. 2019)

 

artwork by Sarah (Sept. 2019)

 

artwork by Alma (Sept. 2019)

 

 

The One Thing I Love About Autumn

 

Having grumbled about summer coming to an end recently, I feel somewhat compelled to acknowledge that some things are actually quite nice about Autumn, like the food. 🙂

And by food I mean of course pumpkins!!

Apart from the obvious soup, I love eating pumpkins in cakes, pies, bread or simply grilled in the oven, like in the following pics:

 

Hokkaido pumpkin slices seasoned with salt, red and black pepper and a dash of olive oil (Sept. 2019)

 

Hokkaido slice (Sept. 2019)

 

I haven’t tried pumpkin juice yet, but always wanted to. Can you guess why? 😉

 

Summer Left-overs

 

Since the food is the only thing I grant Autumn to be nice about, I notice this year that I rather cling to every flower that’s still blooming at home.

 

My hibiscus took its time this year, but compensated me with this glorious flower (Sept. 2019)

 

My gentian starts turning red at the tips (Sept. 2019)

 

My pomegranate tree is in full bloom (Sept. 2019)

 

Another pomegranate flower about to open up (Sept. 2019)

 

Pink roses (Sept. 2019)

 

I think these are coreopsis or calliopsis, and if my memory of Ancient Greek doesn’t fail me that means either “girl’s face” or “pretty face” (Sept. 2019)

 

And the bumblebees are stilly busy – hurray!!

 

Bumblebee at work (Sept. 2019)

 

Although this one actually took a nap and kept still for about 15 minutes which gave me enough time to switch from phone to decent camera. 😉

 

Bumblebee taking a nap in my trailing snapdragon (Sept. 2019)

 

Also taking a nap was this cute spectacled owl in the zoo:

 

Spectacled owl (Sept. 2019)

 

Spectacled owl detail (Sept. 2019)

 

And this was it!

 

If you’re interested in participating, here are the guidelines for The Changing Seasons Challenge:

The Changing Seasons Version One (photographic):

• Each month, post 5-20 photos in a gallery that you feel represent your month
• Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots.
• Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them

The Changing Seasons Version Two (you choose the format):

• Each month, post a photo, recipe, painting, drawing, video, whatever that you feel says something about your month
• Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material!
• Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so others can find them.

If you do a ping-back to Su´s original monthly post, she can update it with links to yours.