AUTUMN WHISPERS

Golden, foil and glimmer outdoors. Magpies and Jackdaws flying over Rowan trees. Happy autumn!

An illustration for an article about urban nature, nature in a city, published in the 5th number of DOT magazine.

THE SAME, SO DIFFERENT

It is a windy and a rainy morning, quite mild air. Melodies of drumming on window sills. Days are getting so short and when the clouds hug, they seem even shorter.

Lingering in a few weeks back when frosty air covered everything in glimmer. How the day was so pastel and when the night turned on its lights, the landscape became so huge. 

Two photos from the same place, same day. Oh how small we are and how beautiful our planet Earth is.

Star shines and fresh winds!


(The second photo is taken by my brother.) 

BONFIRE COFFEE, IN FOREST

Autumn, so colourful, pinching nose with some colder temperatures. The sound of yellow and orange aspen tree leaves in wind. Handfuls of lingonberries on soft moss pillows.

Forest paths so inviting. Ceiling so high, walls not existing. Shadows and glimmer of tree and rock fields.

Bonfire to make it a real living room.

On the way, here and there.

Times of ice age and how it formed the landscape.

Secret codes, arrangements. New and old. Growing and fading again.

The stories about swamps and how everything could be lost inside. 

And then this moment. The smell. The taste. The slow rattle of fire. The forest in your coffee cup, the waving tree tops.

Slowly the aspen leaves are flying in the wind and the ceiling becomes more naked and higher. Before the stars are turned on, walking the forest paths back home.

Thank you so much for your kind comments about the Jacadi illustrations!

The mist has wrapped everything inside it outdoors today. Like looking at a white wall. Slowly it starts to open its curtains and colours appear from the other side of the small lake. 

Have a beautiful day!

ASPEN YELLOW

Black landscape to bicycle in the evening to a summerhouse. Rain looked in the light of my bicycle like snow. Long white lines from the sky. In the morning all the tones of yellow in aspen trees. Light playing and colouring them in neon, in earth and transparent tones. A morning swim of a moose calf, passing the dock and vanishing behind the lake tule.

Raking a bit, colouring the landscape back to green from all the yellows. This morning the rain greeted and the ground was yellow again. Nature likes its own order better. I like it too. First small dots of yellow all over, then a thick carpet.

Have a sweet new week!

POCKETS, BASKETS, BAGS, HANDFULS

Mushrooms all over. All size and colours. Some hiding with their colours, some waving with their brightness. Baskets, pockets, bags and hands full. Buckets of apples. Chilly autumn air that is filled with scent of apples and cinnamon.

Bicycle Caravan to friends. Available as a bit smaller print in my shop, too. 

How lovely to get home after long walks and bicycle trips, to feel the warmth of home while stepping in. To get nose and hands warm again and turn on lights. The mornings are traveling further, they come later. The traveling birds too, migrating. Imagining suitcases to them with swimsuits and beach towels. Au revoir, see you next year the winged ones!

Stay warm, have a calm week!

GONE ROWING AND BICYCLING

Oh, those rattling yellow leaves of aspen. Swimming under a starry night at a summerhouse. A lonely swan flying.  Sounds of firewood. A blueberry pie. 

Sunny autumn greetings!

AUTUMN FOREST WALKS

From dark to light green. All the different colours and their different levels in autumn forests now. Purple, yellow, red, orange are also appearing every day stronger. Wind rattles the leaves in a different melody. Plays them like different instruments. 

Lingonberries so sweet and carpets of moss so soft to sit on and touch. On a small moss covered rock, the last Twinflowers with their gentle scent. Magpies and their songs up in the blue sky.

Starry skied Sunday evening greetings from my balcony, wrapped in a blanket, have a good new week!

SOMEONE SWEET (AND FURRY)

During the weekend a small visitor took care of me. He took me around the lake, every step in yellow leaves. We barked to the small and waved tails to the big ones crossing our paths.

This autumn is the same time very busy and very slow. A lot is happening, the same time there are moments to breath deeply while napping. The town seems to be like that too when its inhabitants collect things and prepare everything for winter. Still no snow clouds in sight. Many candle lights.

Do you owe something to someone? I do. A hug to a friend. Who sent me tea from Iceland.

To you all, hearts.

WARMTH OF LAST WEEK

Sunsets, Le Havre, early mornings, print making with cardboard, winter birds on window sills, streets to walk endlessly, Bert Jansch.

On cold sunny evenings that lake monster wakes up. It is changing its form now, like the leaves in trees fly away. To winter fur. It is long like a dragon, such a foreign thought up here in the North. Surrounding the lake, as long as the reflection lasts, drawing its lines. Enjoying the sight, before it will all be covered up in a snow and ice blanket. Still a few rowing boats in the middle or on its edges. Is the lake monster sleeping after all, not caring of the rowers.

Last year, two days ago, the first snow landed.

How was your week?

Kind whispers, warm thoughts to your new week!

SECRETS OF WIND AND RAIN

The first autumn storm is singing as a melody of rain and wind. Bringing many warm colors from their journeys. Long walks to welcome all those yellows, oranges, reds and purples. If a few coins in a pocket, a rendezvous in a café is guaranteed. Some of the baristas come and wrap blankets around if sitting outdoors. In some other places people look inside, me outside. Some hide behind their newspapers. Some behind windows. Some behind their cups.

What kind of secrets there might be to hide. To put into a tea cup, or get forgotten inside a newspaper. Or just mention to a stranger.

A small yellow birch leaf, it did not hide anything. It was in the middle of a street next to an apple tree which had dropped all its fruits down.

So I feel the autumn being, everything is revealed and secrets are told. Then it is time to rest, hide the colors and blush away.

Just the beginning of an autumn, where it will still take me.

Melodies of raindrops to you.

IT LOOKS LIKE SPRING, YET IT IS AUTUMN

One can get confused of the colors outside. The greyest tree, going to the winter´s sleep had pink dots hanging like strangers in its branches. Tree, the winter is coming and you cannot scare it away with your beautiful colors. On Tuesday it might be snowing. Or not.

A weekend of my favorite radio host playing records. A weekend of an inspiring lecture by Halldór Úlfarsson and the instrument he is building. A weekend of street musicians. A girl playing in winter clothes, picking strings and singing. A bit further a boy and a bagpipe. A bit more further a boy and a guitar. Happy home-coming of pedaling.

The most fragile, still very strict handwriting of my grandmother in a postcard thanking for remembering her 90-years birthday in the summer.

Now brushes, paper and watercolors. A bit of the cold wind through a closed window. Later bicycling up a hill of colorful wooden houses.

How has your weekend been?

Apple pie and tea,

Anna Emilia

BROTHER AND HIS LITTLE SISTER

There is a secret message between a wall dividing our rooms at our parent´s. It is written on a piece of a cross-ruled paper with a pencil and it was a try of our safe plan if another one of us would become bored with friends visiting. I have forgotten what that message says, but it was supposed to be a secret help shout to the other one to come and rescue the situation. "It is just a sound of a mouse", when pushing a note to the other side of the wall. Next time I will pull it from that secret hole and read it again.

Weekend was a pretty one, mist layering everything most of the times. Relatives, food and sauna in the darkness. In candle light, wrapped in towels with lady relatives, we sat outside of the sauna. In a sudden all the chatter was gone. A lonely swan was crying while flying over the black lake. Something had to have happened to the bird as the voice was so sad. The saddest sound I heard in a long time. Maybe the bird´s loved one was gone.

The timber summer house was snoring, I slept with earplugs on.

Happy new week, sounds and scents of a moss green forest!

(Second picture taken by my brother.)

MIXTURE OF LAVENDER, HONEY AND SMOKE SCENT

Dear Wednesday, dear you,

How are you?

Bicycling under rain showers, wind gusts and very grey clouds. I wonder what those are humming on their way. Where do they start and where do they end. Orange, yellow, red and purple are clothing trees and bushes. Dots of these colors are glued to the streets. Polka dots of leaves. Early mornings are very dark and breakfast can be eaten in a candle light. Sometimes just after the paper woman has dropped the newspaper of the day. Yesterday I asked what the rain does in my shoes on my way in the town. I thought to own the shoes but seems the rain rented them away.

Thank you once again for your comments and emails. They are always a surprise to make me smile.

News of today, Forest Tearoom is a print and available in my shop. A painting from the summer, Apple Blossom Meadow is also available again as a print. Many have also asked about my original paintings. Yes they are also for sale, many are already sold. Please send an email to me if you are interested.

Whispers of the wind and lunctime love,

Anna Emilia

AUTUMN HOME

Time to hide from rain and cold days. To make a fire in the fireplace (or smell the fire from the neighbors´). Walk in forests to see how everything yawns, repairing themselves for a long sleep. Just mushrooms are about to wake up. In a corner of a small forest and near a tiny pond is this tent, would it be fine as a roof for the autumn?

This tent is part of Small magazine´s Small draw project. You can download the image, print it and color it together with the small of yours (or why not yourself too). A few pages about my work on page 29 till 32. Thank you Olivia and Christine for including my work to your beautiful magazine!

Saturday baking, (my own translation from ohraryynirieska) vegan barley galette is in the oven. A slice with margarin and then ready to bicycle to the town. To smell the cold air.

Stay warm and smiling.