The Energies of Fall
he idea of drawing the Energies of Fall using psychic art came as the leaves were turning in 2018. Fall is my favorite time of year. My wedding band was selected because it has three gold colors, like fall. News shows include peak color changes. The air changes. Cool temperatures touch the body signalling greater skin cover.I always thought that my expression would be in color, of course, but the media was completely different.
With Clem, Third Drawing by Allison L. Williams Hill
I saw Yarn Harmony at Smiley's sale while visiting Manhattan. No taxes. And the prices were less than online prices. I saw it online and was not impressed at all. I saw the sign,which was not in the sale advertisement, looked in the box and picked up a pack. I was amazed by the colors.Bronze with gold! Gold! Orange! A little violet! Pumpkin!I saw adding color chenille to it and creating solid color items with this multi-colored yarn for accents.A yarn's colors turned out to be my expression for the Energies of Fall.
I resumed knitting after reading an article headline "Knitting Believed to Relieve Stress."I laughed because I needed the reminder. I completed two sweaters for my sister, promised years ago.Next is a sweater for a friend using my hybrid method. Others have asked for items. I doubt they will get them until the latter part of this year.
The Physics of the Energies of Fall
The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture details some of the science of how the various tree species change into incredible colors.They are honest enough to share that they do not know all of the facts. I loved biology and physics in junior high school. One of the things I remember of biology was the flora release oxygen in the evening and absorb carbon dioxide during the day. The process was called photosynthesis. The process that occurred in the evening did not have a name when I was in school. I looked for information to see if it changed. The night process was named: it was called "The Absence of Light."The following from the Forest Service webpage may change later, but for now, I will include it here with a link.
"Three factors influence autumn leaf color:
- leaf pigments
- length of night
- weather
"The timing of color changes and the onset of falling leaves is primarily regulated by the calendar as nights become longer. None of the other environmental influences – such as temperature, rainfall, food supply – are as unvarying as the steadily increasing length of night during autumn. As days grow shorter, and nights grow longer and cooler, biochemical processes in the leaf begin to paint the landscape with Nature's autumn palette.
"Leaf Pigments
A color palette needs pigments, and there are three types that are involved in autumn color:
- Carotenoids: Produces yellow, orange, and brown colors in such things as corn, carrots, and daffodils, as well as rutabagas, buttercups, and bananas.
- Anthocyanin: Gives color to such familiar things as cranberries, red apples, concord grapes, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and plums. They are water soluble and appear in the watery liquid of leaf cells.
- Chlorophyll: Gives leaves a basic green color. It is necessary for photosynthesis, the chemical reaction that enables plants to use sunlight to manufacture sugars for food.
"Trees in the temperate zones store these sugars for the winter dormant period.
"Both chlorophyll and carotenoids are present in the chloroplasts of leaf cells throughout the growing season. Most anthocyanins are produced in the autumn, in response to bright light and excess plant sugars within leaf cells.
"During the growing season, chlorophyll is continually being produced and broken down and leaves appear green. As night length increases in the autumn, chlorophyll production slows down and then stops and eventually all the chlorophyll is destroyed. The carotenoids and anthocyanin that are present in the leaf are then unmasked and show their colors.
"Certain colors are characteristic of particular species:
"Oaks: red, brown, or russet
Hickories: golden bronze
Aspen and yellow-poplar: golden yellow
Dogwood: purplish red
Beech: light tan
Sourwood and black tupelo: crimson
"The color of maples leaves differ species by species:
"Red maple: brilliant scarlet
Sugar maple: orange-red
Black maple: glowing yellow
Striped maple: almost colorless
"Some leaves of some species, such as the elms simply shrivel up and fall, exhibiting little color other than drab brown.
"The timing of the color change also varies by species. For example, sourwood in southern forests can become vividly colorful in late summer while all other species are still vigorously green. Oaks put on their colors long after other species have already shed their leaves.
"These differences in timing among species seem to be genetically inherited, for a particular species at the same latitude will show the same coloration in the cool temperatures of high mountain elevations at about the same time as it does in warmer lowlands.
"Length of Night
"In early autumn, in response to the shortening days and declining intensity of sunlight, leaves begin the processes leading up to their fall. The veins that carry fluids into and out of the leaf gradually close off as a layer of cells forms at the base of each leaf. These clogged veins trap sugars in the leaf and promote production of anthocyanin. Once this separation layer is complete and the connecting tissues are sealed off, the leaf is ready to fall.
"How does weather affect autumn color?
"The amount and brilliance of the colors that develop in any particular autumn season are related to weather conditions that occur before and during the time the chlorophyll in the leaves is dwindling. Temperature and moisture are the main influences.
"A succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights seems to bring about the most spectacular color displays. During these days, lots of sugars are produced in the leaf but the cool nights and the gradual closing of veins going into the leaf prevent these sugars from moving out. These conditions – lots of sugar and light – spur production of the brilliant anthocyanin pigments, which tint reds, purples, and crimson. Because carotenoids are always present in leaves, the yellow and gold colors remain fairly constant from year to year.
"The amount of moisture in the soil also affects autumn colors. Like the weather, soil moisture varies greatly from year to year. The countless combinations of these two highly variable factors assure that no two autumns can be exactly alike. A late spring, or a severe summer drought, can delay the onset of fall color by a few weeks. A warm period during fall will also lower the intensity of autumn colors. A warm wet spring, favorable summer weather, and warm sunny fall days with cool nights should produce the most brilliant autumn colors." 1
Yarn using simple crochet.
This is the finished crocheted sweater jacket.
Sweater in progress with a wonderful yarn using stockinette stitch.
The knitted sweater, knitted from right wrist to left.Chenille and gold yarn were added.
Did you guess that I LOVE this yarn? It's YarnArt Harmony A-3. It's from Turkey, a wonderful yarn, indeed..
The Energies of Fall in Shades and Shapes
Autumn1 by Allison L. Williams Hill
Lovely, wonderful colors! This is inspiring. I cut the ones above and below from a magazine, hence the folds. The colors are brilliant and repeated in the water increasing the beauty they possess.
Autumn2 by Allison L. Williams Hill
Trees in Orangeburg, South Carolina along North Road by Allison L. Williams Hill
A Meditation
Center. Relax. Take a deep breath. Let it out. Do it for as many times as you feel you need.
Say in your mind:
“Creator, I have a problem. I place it in Your energy to resolve.”
Take a deep breath in. Let it out through the mouth or the nose. Take another.
Say in your mind,
“It is resolved.”
Breathe.
If there is more than one problem:
Say in your mind:
“Creator, I have several problems. I place them in Your energy to resolve.”
Take a deep breath in. Let it out through the mouth. Take another.
Say in your mind as you release the last of the breath,
“They are resolved.”
Breathe.
I find it difficult to accept that the Creators can only handle one issue at a time. There could be common elements within the problems, besides yourself, that we do not see. All would not exist as it does if one thing was done at a time. Therefore, I ask that ALL issues, and I do think they are related, are contended with simultaneously.
North Road Trees-2 by Allison L. Williams Hill
To Autumn by John Keats
I
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
II
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
III
Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Resource
1 Science of Fall Colors Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Links
The above meditation mandala will be available soon.
