Big time

Autumn approaches, with its treasure of fruit and vegetables. At the moment I have pears and nectarines, and a whopping great marrow. Usual story, you leave the garden alone for half an hour and the little zucchini turn into pods fit for bodysnatchers to hide in. The Washo tribe of California called the autumn Big time or Gumsaba, so I too think of autumn as Big time, it seems an appropriate name. (The Washo tribe were the first North American natives to be totally exterminated by the whites. There is a wonderful novel called "Rabbit boss" by Thomas Sanchez that details the demise of the tribe through several generations - I've been trying to get it for ages but it's out of print). Shakespeare called the season "the teeming autumn big with rich increase", and Keats described a "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness", so autumn has always been an inspiration.

      These tomatoes I bought at the market today are Oxheart tomatoes. I was not initially thinking of eating them, but painting them, they are so attractive. Part way through a coloured pencil drawing at the moment, but it's difficult to get real intensity of colour with pencil, for such flamboyant subjects as these. Once I've immortalized them in pencil and paint, I'm going to cook them down into passata. Yum.