Matthew Mead’s Blog

I am so in tune with  the seasons… and it all changes so quickly. 

I saw a swampy area today off the highway. It was filled with orange and red leafed trees.  Now I know that the wet lands are the first to change in the onslaught of fall, but it certainly caught me by surprise.  I was out looking for things again. Nature often provides the props that help me tell my stories, and I couldn’t help but be engaged by the changing sunlight and the way blue skies create such a brilliant backdrop.  The clarity is unmistakably fall.  I haven’t seen a pumpkin yet, but I did find some orange squashes and gourd-type ornamental vegetables at our local co-op.

We have had a very rainy and humid summer and I have to report that my time in Rochester, NY, working for Wegmans was a real vacation from gray days.  It was a monmumental shoot with lots of demands, but I was working with some very good frineds - Quentin Bacon, to name one - and I had Jenny with me, which always makes for the best trips.  There were some great restaurants and good times to be had, but I am glad to be home and glad that the craziness is over with.    Wegmans is very interested in carrying my new book ENTERTAINING SIMPLE in their stores and I hope it happens… it would be very good to have my ideas so closely associated with a store filled with such high quality products.

My new Halloween magazine will be hitting stores any day now.  I am really looking forward to seeing it on the news stand for the first time… it has been a real labor of love.

I photographed some zinnias this work for publication next summer and am working on hydrangeas tomorrow.  And I actually have a bumpber crop in my front yard to choose from.

Here is a shot from a local pyo cutting garden… I adore the striated shades of apricot.