The End of Summer...

...the beginning of autumn. Yippee! This time of year always feels like a new beginning for me. I suppose it does for everyone, what with new school terms, football seasons etc. In fact, that probably explains why my lack of progress in the employment area has been getting me so down recently; I feel really rather lost and useless having no solid work to be returning to. *sigh* But enough about that, I’m not here to moan. I’m here to usher in my favourite season!

I know I’m not alone in Blogland when I say I’m in love with autumn. I mean actually in love. The reasons why are many and varied, but I think what stands out the most is the way you can literally see the wheel of the world turn. And so quickly. Just a couple of days ago the sun was splitting the rocks here, people were swimming in the sea and sunbathing on the beach.  I was wearing a tee-shirt. Then it started to rain on Sunday and the wind picked up. Last night we put the heating on and today I wore my winter coat for the first time. The change is in the air and I’m so excited!

I hope to be a better autumn blogger than I was a summer one. If I’m honest I have been quite lazy with my posting and commenting over the past couple of months. I only realised how bad as I was looking through my photos yesterday and remembered about all the ones from various days out and stuff that I never got round to sharing. So many posts that I put off till another day then forgot to come back to. That’s why I’m sharing these ones from my wanderings over the past week now while they’re still relevant. The trees haven’t yet started to turn here but toadstools are sprouting, flowers are wilting and berries ripening; little glimpses of the coming season with all its wonders of decay and rebirth. 

p.s Just a warning: I didn’t have a camera or a blog last autumn and so don’t be surprised if I go a bit mad with the fungi photos over the next wee while. I just hope I can hunt down the same amazing specimens I  came across last year!

I Want One!

It’s an ‘Anax Imperator Machina’ or, in other words, a solid gold and silver functional mechanical dragon fly.  In fact I want lots of them so I can set them to fly around me while I type; it’d be like being in a Guillermo Del Torro film!  At $15,000 a pop I doubt that’ll be happening anytime soon though. Still, what a beautiful little object.

Storybook Style

If you’re a regular at this blog you’ll know I have a tendency to fantasise about quirky cottages and fairytale homes. So I won’t need to tell you how excited I am about a certain web project I stumbled upon this afternoon called storybookers.com. The first image I came across was enough to get me going, and that was before I read the introductory paragraph:

“This page is devoted to the appreciation of what has come to be called storybook style architecture: those charming, whimsical, often one-of-a-kind structures which defy and transcend standard architectural conventions to achieve something entirely new: a unique blend of art and architecture, whimsy and practicality, fantasy and reality.”

How excellent does that sound! The site’s still somewhat in construction mode at the minute but I think it has the potential to be amazing. They author, John R Marlow, has put out a call for contributions  and is asking people who know of any storybook homes to send in their images and descriptions.  He eventually hopes to build up an online collection of such buildings that will detail their history, construction and anything else that may be of interest. So get out there and get snapping! His contact details are on the website. In the meantime, here are a few wee examples of the type of thing he’s after: