How inspiring our garden is this time of the year! At the center of the picture below, you can see the Aralia elata, a multi-stemmed tree with its beautiful autumn discoloration and, in my view,  an indispensable tree for any garden. The white flowers  bloom  in late summer with large panicles and are quite showy and very attractive to bees. These flowers are followed by clusters of small black berries that ripen from late summer into fall and are quite attractive to birds. 

I started a small concertinabook with all of the gardening tasks I should carry out this autumn and maybe winter. Fingers crossed that it doesn't keep raining as it has recently. The garden is very argillaceous and therefore not fun to walk through! 

Cet été j'ai eu la chance d' animer un atelier dans un de mes régions préférées de la France, le Provence. Le petit village nommé Lurs était un rêve de paix en pleine nature provençale et, pour cela, très inspirant. 

Et oui, tous ces livres accordeon sont le travail de mes excellents étudiants. J'espère qu'ils ont autant appris de moi que moi j'ai  appris  d'eux! Chaque jour était un délice même avec la chaleur intense. Un très grand merci à cette compagnie internationale:  Jean-Luc, Suzanne, Françoise, Sylvie, Francisco, Aurélie, Philippe, Francesca et Sylvie, et une sincère reconnaissance à Philippe et Cristine pour la parfaite organisation du stage! 

 At the end of last year, for several weeks, I used an app on my phone to record bird songs. I was quite curious about how many different birds would come to our garden or fly over? Every day, early in the morning, I put my phone on the windowsill for about 15 minutes and I must say, I was rather surprised about the result: 34 different species until now. We are not so very far from a few nature preserves and the birds are not all coming into the garden but still! This was a good starting point for a new concertina book and ... I learned a lot about birds, their names and how they look!

I like to draw plants in a medieval way ánd I love this poem from Edwin Morgan about strawberries. And so, the two came together in my sketchbook. Don't know if I'm going to add some colors or not, what do you think?
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I'm always inspired by nature, by plants and trees. And I keep coming back to the poems of Emily Dickinson because she was also a lover of nature. Sometimes when reading one of her poems, in my mind, I immediately see  what the following finished page in my sketchbook will look like. This illustration was done in one day, couldn't stop drawing. It's not always going smoothly like this though, sometimes I start a project, only terminating it after a long time.
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The honey bee, the bumblebee, the butterflies and other pollinating insects are in danger. Some species have already disappeared never to return. Fewer pollinating insects will effect us more than we imagine right now, also in our daily economy. So it's best for all of us if there are more uncultivated places for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. I try to apply this in our own garden. It's a start if everyone with a garden should do the same! This  quote of Albert Einstein says a great deal about what we know now and shows what a visionary he was!

IF THE BEE DISAPPEARED OFF THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE

THEN MAN WOULD ONLY HAVE FOUR YEARS OF LIFE LEFT.

NO MORE BEES, NO MORE POLLINATION, NO MORE PLANTS,

NO MORE ANIMALS, NO MORE MAN.