this morning..... seeing the rainbow through the rain

This morning my alarm went off really early. At 6am. That is early for me. I know some of you jump out of bed at 5am or earlier - but I don't. And, most importantly, neither do my kids (yah to that!!). Sam and I got up and wondered why, oh why do people actually get up at that time of the day. I looked at the sky; yes, yes. I know why people get up that early. Beautiful to be awake in the morning when the early colours are starting to shine through, and the morning birds are calling.

I was up early for a breakfast business meeting in town. For some ideas to spark and start things happening. And yes - oh yes. Some good things. We'll see, of course, if it all gets caught up in red tape of local council, or if things can move along and make some changes in this town of mine. I'll talk more about it at another time.

For now I just wanted to show you my view while driving into town this morning. I felt like I could almost reach out to touch the pot of gold in that shimmery field.
It was also lovely to see Ms Helle - in all her vivacious cynical glory!

colour playing

I just found this, from a link on Pinterest. I really do learn so much from Pinterest - don't you!!

How to generate your own colour palette from an image. I don't use photoshop - but if you do, then you probably already know how to do this is. If you don't - then visit here for the tutorial, then here to get to the color palette generator.
So much fun. I'm addicted already. I have seen these around the web, but never knew how to do it. Yah!
{The image does have to be online - but all my good ones are mostly on flickr or my blog or instagram(search petalplum) anyway - so that's no worry for me.....}. 

{books} colour inspiration

Going through the shelf of library books; making sure I've read them all before they go back.

Lots of beautiful rich lush full colour and pattern inspiration here. Images above are from Shannon Fricke's book "Sense of Style - Colour". Images below are all from Tricia Guild's "Pattern".

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

{collecting} fuyu

this beautiful tree sits quietly in our garden. 

going through it's seasonal changes moment by moment.

providing cooling shade during the hot summer months.

loosing it's leaves to allow sunlight for winter.

it's autumn now.

the leaves are turning.

the colours changing.

the fruit.

oh the fruit. 

we sit at our kitchen table 

and spot bright orange balls of colour 

amongst the leaves.

some too high to reach. 

left to the birds.

 {Sam's going to hate me putting this photo up, but I do think it's fuzzy enough to be ok? Plus, I just wanted you to know the fruit picking help I have around here!! The fuzzy in the centre of the photo is my camera being cold in the humid/cool/wetish mornings around here; she takes a while to warm herself up. Some of the fuzzy photos are turning out with a beautiful moodiness.}

We got out our ladder and climbed up to pluck the firm round fruits from the branch. Persimmons. This is the variety known as fuyu. Can be eaten firm, or soften more. None of us here in this house actually like persimmons; but I must admit that I have been thinking of the other variety (known as hachiya), which is squidgy and stringy, and not at all what I like to put in my mouth. So - perhaps I really do need to retry this fruit. Not now, though. These few we collected we taken this weekend past to Grandma's house (Sam's mum), as she does really like them a whole lot. I hope she gobbled them up with a smile on her face!

If you happen to have a glut of persimmons, you could make them into a jam, I believe. But we had only a few fruits on the whole tree, and even less that we could reach with our ladder. 

This tree will turn from green to yellow to orange over the next few days and weeks. Even now as I look, I can see more yellow leaves on the bigger tree, and the little tree has less leaves than last week. For some strange reason, the little/younger tree has shown it's colour earlier; Sam told me he saw the other day a big gust of wind come along and shake a big handful of leaves from the little tree. Isn't that a lovely little image to this about. {Have you read this book? We love it, a good one to add to your Autumn reading list.}

pomegranate

i bought this yesterday, with the intention of photographing it alongside some amazingly purple potatoes.

instead i took it the studio, and ate it. i took these few photos before my camera ran out of batteries. (of course, on the day i remember to take my camera and to take photos it decides then to run out of batteries. they're on charging now - so hopefully there'll be some studio images this week).

this tea pot (coffee pot?) is Nina's. it sits in the kitchen in our studio. soon she will take it away with her, when she leaves on her overseas adventure. i forget who it's by - the artist. but isn't the design just quite lovely. and the colours. 

i've got a geranium in my sketch book from many years ago, that i've been looking at this weekend past. perhaps there'll be a geranium print in our collection. most probably, in fact. but not quite yet. 

i thought a few things about pomegranates, while i sat on the back steps at the studio. in the quiet. and the hot hot day (it's rained now, this evening, so the night has cooled down).

i gobbled the precious little jewels of colour, the bursts of popping juice. threw them into my mouth in quick handfuls, and enjoyed the lusciousness of them. and the colour. 

i even stamped a print onto the kitchen (linen) tea towel. that bright intense jewel red actually printed purpleish violet. we'll see tomorrow if it stuck, or is only a faint impression of colour.

i dreamt of planting pomegranate trees on the land, but perhaps it's too wet there, so i can have them to pluck from a tree. to eat at the jewels. to mash them into my summer drinks. to sprinkle them over my salads. to use them to dye my fabric. to photograph them. to sit and think about the beauty of the pomegranate fruit. 

do you know the story of Persephone and the three pomegranate seeds she ate in the Underworld, when she was kidnapped by Hades? i surely would have spent the rest of eternity in the Underworld, and not running in the spring fields, based on the amount of seeds i ate today. (some interesting reading here, here, and look for Bullfinch's Golden Age of Myth & Legend at your local library, an absolute favourite of mine.)

arquitectos del aire

This is where we will be this weekend.

Amococo is part of Out of The Box festival that has been running all this past week at Southbank, The State Library and Art Gallery in Brisbane. 

If you live near to Brisbane, then I suggest a visit to this place this coming long weekend. If you don't live nearby, head on over and watch the video.

I love the name Arquitectos del Aire :: Architects of Air. 

The luminaria are inflatable sculptures filled with natural light. Coloured plastics filter light in, creating a womb-like environment. Influenced by nature, geometry, light, cathedrals, the design....

 "… takes Moorish architecture as its starting point and then, as Gaudí did in Barcelona a century or more ago, turns it into something highly organic and distinctly ambivalent. Not that Gaudí would have recognised it.  What Parkinson has done is treat the inflated object as an immersive art experience, in which light, sound and architectural form combine.”
Hugh Pearman, Sunday Times*

{anything that relates to Moorish, Gaudi and Barcelona must be something truly special}.

*quote from AOA site.

~

I've been tumbling lots these past days.

Not feeling much words.

Mainly 'cause I'm working lots on business planning and such things.

Of course, there's a million images that are making me happy and content and uplifted and inspired.

All over the place.

Do check out my tumbling, if you feel like.

{I'm really loving Nannette's tumbler page; Chutzpah. All these images are from there, but if you click on each image it will take you to the original source}.