clay ornaments, and walking around

The idea of pressing plants into polymer clay for tree ornaments has been rattling around in my head lately, and today was the day.  They are prettier than they appear here, and the ribbon added a nice touch.

I used rosemary on the bottom pink one, lavender on the top blue one, ragweed on the top pink one, and the rest are all juniper sprigs.  First I had to go GET the juniper and the ragweed.  I went out to the same meadow I took pictures of in May.  Back then, I couldn't have gotten near to the juniper - between the ticks and the underbrush, but today it was nearly flat.  Must be the dryness of the summer, because I've never been able to walk so easily through this particular area.

The juniper was just loaded with berries.  They are just barely getting a tinge of blue, still mostly green.  Behind this tree was a grove of staghorn sumac also loaded with the large red stalks of berries.

The milkweed pods are ripening and the fluffy seeds will soon burst from the pods and go flying in the wind.

The rosehips were bright red and the boughs were full.  Soon the birds and deer will take care of that.  You can see the sky in the background, and today was another perfect autumn day - gusty and cool.  Besides working on the ornaments, I also boiled the tallow from the bayberries we gathered a couple weeks ago.  Turns out the local berries aren't nearly as fragrant as the Delaware berries.  Must be the sea air!  Also got the desk pretty well cleared so that tomorrow is open to work on some new products for the holidays.  They'll be up on the website and in the Frog Hollow Holiday shop before you know it.