A morning in the autumn garden
We are really in the midst of autumn, the grass is covered in leaves and apart from the evergreens, the other trees are sporting bare branches or autumnal leaves that are falling off daily. However on a positive note there are still things growing. The living compost that we put down on 10th October now looks like this ……
Twenty days after germination
We have five squash growing from one plant and we picked the first one today, so I hope to make soup a bit later.
Hiding its light under a large leaf
The purple sprouting broccoli are also doing well. The fig tree is full of figs, that I think we should have pruned earlier, but Sue suggests we leave them because if we don’t have a hard winter they may survive, otherwise the frost will get them.
An autumn fig tree still full of fruit
As we are in the garden I have chosen as today’s ‘make’ a wind chime.
A copper Piping wind chime
This wind chime is the perfect autumn colour, particularly as the copper ages. It makes a beautiful noise. I hope you can see it in the photo below as it is camouflaged by its surroundings.
You will need
*22ml copper piping
Copper piping wind chimes
*plumbers pipe cutter
*4mm drill with bit
*1.5mm reel of thin copper wire
wire cutters
A circular piece of 9mm ply with a diameter of 115mm. Get the D.I.Y shop to do this for you
Acrylic paint and brush to paint the ply
Instructions
1. At even intervals drill six holes into the ply 10mm in from the outside edge. Drill one hole in the centre. Paint the ply and leave to dry.
2. Using the pipe cutter cut the tube into 7 different lengths: 620, 530, 440, 350, 260, 170 and 140mm.
3.Cut 3. 50mm down from the top of each piece of pipe drill a hole through so you have 2 holes opposite each other.
4. For each tube, cut a 300mm piece of wire and thread it between the two holes. Bring first one side of the wire up and over the top of the tube, and then do this to the other side. The result will be a piece of wire stretching across the tube 10mm from the top. These are for hanging the tubes so that they will touch each other in a wind and make a chime.
5. Cut seven pieces of wire each 200mm long.
6. Thread the wire through the ply, one piece of wire for each hole. Pull the wire so there is 45mm on one side of the ply disc and the longer piece on the other. Turn the shorter ends up to form 15mm up-turned loops.
7 Twist the longer sides of the wires together in pairs and then twist them altogether including the central wire to form a big loop from which to hang the chimes.
8. Attach the chimes, by hanging the taut wires across the diameter of the tubes to the hooks, with the smallest on in the centre.
