Autumn Approaches
Updated: Sep 25, 2020
It is that time of the year when our thoughts turn to preparing for the winter months. This strange year will bring even more challenges to us all as we face a covid 19 winter, but let's not get anxious and turn our thoughts to something positive.
In the next few weeks the harvesting of the vines will begin here, known as the vendange. Our very quiet area becomes a frenzy of activity in not only ours, but the surrounding vineyards. I love to watch the enormous mechanical grape harvesting machines as they meticulously collect the grapes row by row with their enormous scissor like cutters.
We have been picking our own harvest here at Escrimis, we have an abundance of figs !. Jars of homemade fig and lemon jam are now all boxed up ready to take back to the UK for presents. There is something so satisfying in picking your own fruit and then producing a delicious end result. My favourite bit is decorating the jar with pretty fabric and ribbons.
This week we should have been welcoming the textile artist Lucy Levenson to host the first of our 5 day courses in the Chapelle Atelier. Sady this course, and the botanical watercolour course with the amazing artist Julia Trickey, have had to be cancelled due to the current travel and pandemic problems. We hope that by next spring we can look at some new courses and get back to some sort of normality. In the meantime the studio has not been empty. This week I have been experimenting with making collages out of leaves in the garden here. Using acrylic paint I carefully pressed them onto an old wooden board for a lovely result that will always remind me of the various trees and shrubs we have here. Once a week we also try to get together with some local friends and sit and paint, draw and sew in the Chapel whilst catching up with local gossip.
The weather is still warm at this time of the year and the sky and the soft light is magnificent. We often wander through the vineyard and down the hill as the sun sets across the valley, you feel so at peace with the world. We are so very lucky.
Hopefully you are all finding some way to adjust to the new ways of life at the moment, our very best wishes to you all. Back soon. Jayne and Alan
