Trying to capture some of the amazing autumn colour outside my back door by pressing acer leaves (already hardly any left on the tree by the time I type this).

I made a first attempt at hapazome - the Japanese technique of creating prints from plant material by hammering with a mallet. Not overly successful – there was a lot of squashy splodges not shown here – but I could identify what has potential… hydrangea petals and leaves of acer, herb Robert and nasturtium...

Couldn’t quite bin what was left of the brush cleanig gouache strips, so I made another collage of the tiny offcuts (getting smaller!) I also received some wrapping paper back from the printers featuring a repeat pattern of my original collage of offcuts. Lovely job by printed.com

I grew dahlias for the first time this year... lost a few early on to ravenous molluscs, but the gorgeous black blooms made an appearance in July and have only just stopped flowering last week. I’ve been saving deadheaded flowers in the freezer and made this dye batch with them last week. A strong range of browns. Next year I’ll freeze them in an airtight container though... the musty smell taints ice - not a welcome addition to my G&T!