I really don’t understand why people get bothered about leaves on the floor. Of all the things to clean up, they are the easiest and most pleasant. A quick sweep and everything is as good as new.
Plus, the crunching sound of an autumn leaf underfoot takes me straight back to my childhood, throwing myself into the mounds of fallen leaves piled up on the footpath.
After cotton harvest in autumn, I like to zip tie some bunches of it to the overhead beam in my kitchen, undulating up and down and in and out.
At this stage of its life, cotton does not need to sit in water which makes it the perfect material to be bunched up. Not only does it look like something out of a Seussian dream, you also don’t have to fuss about to keep it looking its best.
The bunches of cotton will stay for several months, until I feel like a change!
Equipment
Cotton branches
Dried leaves
Zip ties and/or string
Scissors
Ladder
Method
First, create 10 or so bunches of cotton at ground level, securing each bunch together at the point where you would naturally want to hold it with a zip tie.
Then shimmy up a ladder and tie each bunch to the beam with string or zip ties – some higher, some lower, some pointing diagonally left or right.
Occasionally, a little ball of cotton will fall off but, just as with the leaves on the ground, a quick sweep will bring everything back into order.
This is an edited extract from A Tree in the House by Annabelle Hickson published by Hardie Grant Books AU $50.00/NZ $55.00 and is available where all good books are sold.
