the smell of blackberry wine

I’ve disappeared for a while.  It was needed but it doesn’t really mean I’m gone.  Life sends us challenges, and there is a dozen inspirational quotes to tell us how to deal with our challenges the reality is that for better or for worse we work through them as best we can.

It’s October – there is frost on my windows in the morning, the mornings all include a fight with my tow year old about having to wear a jacket (he says “no suit, no suit!) in his most adamant and bossy little voice.  The last of the leaves are clinging tenaciously to the trees and the stores are starting to get their Christmas decorations on the shelves and move the Halloween inventory to the back corner.

But then it’s been a year of running ahead of season.  I was visiting what I call “the island” in August,  and there had been no rain for months, the grass was dry, the leaves were starting to turn those shades of bronze, of old rust and polished amber just because those poor trees couldn’t get enough water.  The pumpkins were orange and ripe.  I went for a walk.  I pushed the stroller, the air smelling like blackberry wine.  The berries were overripe, fermenting unpicked on the vine.  I cleared my head and set my heart free. 

And just like that summer turned into fall.  With the coming of fall, it’s almost like a new year – Fall is the time of change – be it bears getting ready for winter, or kids starting school it is far more the turning of a leaf than January first with it’s cold winds and cheap glitzy champagne.  

I developed two more spice recipes to add to my collection of packets.  I signed up and will be selling them locally at the medieval market.  If you can’t catch me there you can either contact me through Facebook or through my website at www.riverwalkerarts.com.

I teamed up with a company called Blooming on Canvas to facilitate social painting parties; these involve wine, friends, a canvas, and some kind of step by step as to how to paint the selected scene.  My fun little component is creating those scenes and then showing folks how I did it.  The people that come out are happy, excited and really love the whole event  (although the wine might help) . 

   

Here is one of my latest creations for Blooming on Canvas: