Day 243 of Week 35 August 2024 Autumn is in the Air

Dew On a Maple Leaf

A Vermont Country Road

New Haven River

Robert Frost Trail

Frosty Morning

The foliage season is only a few weeks where it is near and at peak. Planning where and when to take photographs is the key to capturing the best of the leaf peeping season.

This year I have a 7 x 5-inch spiral notebook to write down the subjects I want to photograph as well as where, and when (aka the time of day). My theme of Embrace Nature helps me focus on those parts of the natural world I don't want to miss.

Traveling is an issue because I do not want to go far. Thankfully, living in a rural area gives me access to a large view of the fall personality.

Packing up a backpack for a walk down the street isn't the same as for a drive across the state. Thus, the lighter the load, the more attractive it is to me. Walking brings a lot of the aromas of autumn to the senses.  

The only destination event I am keen on is to have breakfast at a quaint diner. That is the meal I like most to have out and about. Why this year a diner, I have no idea. I have no idea even where that diner will be.

Are you planning a fall excursion? Places to photograph?

A Monday Pondering Something

Wild Grapes 2016

As development takes hold of a community, habitat loss may go unnoticed. A huge area of wild grape vines was chopped down years ago when the area nearby, (where horses use to graze), became apartment buildings. Housing is badly needed. (Update, recent look, not all the vines are gone.)

We are in the time of Find Another Grapevine, as far as birds go. I think about the bears that are showing up, (since the separate compostable trash rule began), and I see the grapes as a big attraction for the bears. Ugh. Balance isn't always as easy as it might seem.

Have a wonderful Week!

 

Surveying the Summer of 2024

Birthday roses

Open Summer Fields

Lake Champlain

Town Beach

Tiny Deck Garden

Otter Creek Falls

Fields Days

Lunch Time Along Lake Champlain in August

Well, here I am now, in the last full week of August 2024 on a sunny Sunday afternoon, thinking about what this Summer has been. Overall, these months have been more interesting than previous years because I put effort into making sure I did not stay indoors so much or let depression drag my down so far. I cannot claim this year that summer went by too quickly or I didn't experience a real summer.

I had a fairly nice summer. Heat, rain, storms, are all part of the season's Earth wardrobe. I wore it well. I may not have achieved everything I planned, but I did well with what I accomplished.

Being so positive is rather a shocking experience for me. I'm not sure how it fits in with the depression episode I have been struggling to get out of. I think it might be a situation of emotional isostatic rebound going on.

Isostatic rebound is the movement upward, back to the normal shape after being compressed. In glaciology, the weight of a glacier on the Earth compresses the ground. When the glacier melts, the ground is released from that weight and uplifts. (Earthquakes can be a result as the Earth adjusts.) Think memory foam impression returning to smooth.

As my depression weight lifts, I feel lighter in spirit. This summer has been a period of uplift for me.

Now, onward into the fall with the same attitude to embrace the season as well as I can whether I go anywhere or not. There are trees and views to the mountains. No matter where I go, Nature is available.

Day 237 of Week 34 August 2024

 Spring Sunrise Along Route 125
Ripton, Vermont
16"x20" Acrylic In progress 
M. Flannery

 Frames. 

It is very expensive to have artwork custom framed. This artist, and I believe many others, have to push our creativity to find inexpensive framing methods. An alternative is to sell artwork without a frame. 

Unframed and without a mat, watercolors can be rolled and shipped in a hard cardboard mailing tube.

You can glue cotton canvas to hardboard. Hardboard is thin, easier to ship, and, will fit the thinner depth pre-made frames from big box stores or from rummage sales, and yard sales. Remove the print for your paintings. You can cut the hardboard to fit an old frame that isn't a standard artwork size.

Painting on solid primed wood is another alternative.

Yesterday on the way back from a thrift store donation drop off, I bought a nice wood decorative frame at yard sale. It fits my painting except for one wonky corner where the canvas is folded in thick. I can adjust that to fit.

Frames make a difference. As I return to painting regularly (or try to), I will begin with the painting in the photo above that has been waiting all these months. It needs the sunrise light added. I like it as it is, but a deal is a deal with my brain to continue with my original image. 

The frame is thick wood with no dents or nicks in the frame. It is easy to find yard sale frames that are thin. The canvas depth on the frame in the photo is deep. I feel very lucky. 

Ah, not lucky. I still remember arriving late to a big yard sale circa 1996 when I saw a man walking away with a very large gilded gorgeous ornate frame. My heart sank that I didn't get there before he did. 

Old wood frames that are ornate are precious finds. If they have pieces missing or the wood is marred, restoring them to an acceptable appearance is, I believe, worth the time. The missing decoration sections can be replaced by making a mold from elsewhere on the frame and using that mold to make the missing piece.  

Frame Your Weekend With Fun!

Play a board game with friends

Read about cartography

Cook a boiled dinner your style

Clean a junk drawer

Tell a teaspoon a funny story

Browse home weather stations online

Attend church

Pray for World Peace

Old Illustrations

Book illustrations

 

Hand colored

During the change over to the winter furniture arrangement, I found in my stuff the little black and white illustrations I cut out from  falling apart 1800s grade school primer. (I researched the book and the value first.)

I glaze, color, glaze, and add coats of clear sealer. Matt or shiny sealer has yet to be decided. I'm leaning towards shiny because it will lighten up the artwork better. I will add a stiff felt back and jewelry hardware.

I'm undecided on pin or necklace pendants. I rather fond of the idea wearing the fox as a pin on a tweed jacket this fall. The Old Mill is best as a pin because at 2 x 2.5  inches small, I think it would be lost as a pendant. Other illustrations that are larger will definitely be pendants. 

3.5 inch hand colored book illustration

Flowers in August

At Cape Cod Massachusetts near Marshfield, the pictured type of roses here, were everywhere. We call them Rock Roses. I forget their other names.

They are very hardy, even here in Vermont. The rose hips are large with a lovely dark coral color. 

Do you have a favorite summer flower?

The chill in the morning air has convinced me to not resist the end of summer drawing closer. Instead, I daydream about autumn being spectacular. Soup Season is a delightful time of year. I sort of look forward to feeling soft socks on my feet. Even seeing Halloween decorations no longer makes me cringe that they are out so early. 

Have a cringeless fantastic week!

Posted using my cell phone 

Lunch, Autumn & Reading

An August Lunch Break
Canada Geese along Lake Champlain

The last two days here in Vermont have been lovely with a nice breeze, warm air, and just the right amount of humidity. Good outdoors weather is always a welcomed gift from Mother Nature.

Planning is what I like to do in order to make Spring and Summer feel (to me) like they are lasting longer than the passing of days shows. My 2024 Summer plans have not all been realized. The windstorm last weekend tossed stuff all over my deck. Instead of putting it all back together, unfinished summer arrangement and all, I'm going to change it up for the cold weather. Yesterday I even made notes for the fall. 

Knowing what you want, I believe, can get you closer to making it happen. Thus, this Autumn season my theme is: Embracing Nature. Posts will include botanical notes, geology, geography and whatever science branch fits the tree of fall excursions I hope to draw from.

Canada Geese resting on the shores of
Lake Champlain

This morning, I was fortunate to get called to fill in on a cancellation for a bone density test. The results are not perfect, but not as bad as I feared. When you are in a depression slump, health can suffer. Exercise is not easy to embrace on a regular basis. I'm on track now, taking vitamins and such. Sweets are off my menu. Exercise, especially weights, will replace some of the hours of sitting in my chair daydreaming.

Not all is lost. I've had some good blog ideas. I've had a lot of laughs on X. I've started reading again. And... I just forgot what else I was going to type. 😂

Anyway, one of the books I'm reading, Code Dependent, Living in the Shadow of AI, by Madhumita Murgia, is fascinating! The introduction alone opened my eyes up to thinking of how AI (artificial intelligence) is so pervasive in everything on the Internet. 

Data mining is very scary. 

AI is not a subject you don't pay attention to. I highly recommend knowing the scope of AI in your life. 

Afterall

An August Sky Over Vermont

Multiple projects are a certain indication one's mind has been active. There is a difference, however, between have (the project) and doing (the project). Creative ideas grouped into one interest like art, writing or poetry can become overwhelming if they are left to build up as new ideas emerge.

Belief is the fuel that keeps the oldest project going.

Inspiration is the fuel that a new idea rides on.

When both run out, then one can end up where I am today.

Deliberately distracted by other things like reading or doing laundry. Any mundane task is good enough for me to be busy not looking at what I want to do. 

I began a novel a few years ago, Cornsilk Moon. I posted about here on this blog. Yet, since last winter it (loose-leaf notebook) has followed me around my living room because I'm always feeling that today is the day I begin editing to write the last draft. Writing is a scary process when you get close to the ending. I'm not good with endings.

This week, starting today, I'll be telling myself not to be scared. Afterall, Halloween is 78 days away.

Day 222 of Week 32 August 2024

August 2022 Route 17
Addison, Vermont

 At peak summer, the heat creates a haze that places a pale light over everything. A simple tree in hot sunshine for no particular reason reminds me of summer more than a sandy beach or butterfly does. I can almost hear the June bug's buzzing sound piercing the stifling air as the sun stings my skin. I can almost smell the gravel stones cooking as the dark shade calls me in for a moment of cool relief.

This summer of 2024 has been the definition of what summer is, hot, rainy, and muggy with weather as delightful as a country fair. I am grateful that I have been able to sit outdoors under an umbrella to have my lunch; and moments to think about nothing special. My list of summer plans may have few things crossed off, but what has filled my days is much appreciated.

Appreciate Your Weekend!

Tell a pair of flip flops a funny story

Sing to a moth

Read about grasshoppers

Browse summery wallpaper online

Watch a lemon slice float in ice tea

Draw a sailboat

Play catch with a friend

There Are Those Days

There are those days when you 
feel like it isn't worth getting up.

Days when rolling back 

into the covers feels right.

Welcome to Today

My day began with my favorite, Mark Kelly, not being chosen the vice president running mate of Kamala Harris. Tim Waltz sounds like a nice guy. Time will tell how well he will do. However, he doesn't bring the strong aura, rank or balance to the ticket that Kelly could.

Next is running into glitches using the Brave browser. I log into Chrome, all the glitches leaving comments and photos disappears. I'm not a big fan of Chrome. It looks like, though, it is the safest place to use. Brave has been uninstalled.

As I go along, up earlier than usual, another downer is my plan for today has given way to wanting to stay inside to clean and read. It is mostly cloudy, dull white sky. I'm not sure to get out and about or just get out the vacuum.

Wishing Y'all a Wonderful Day!

I did go out for a short while. I walked around to take pictures of the rides and food places for as far as my bad knee would go. Unfortunately, my iphone put the sent pictures in a weird place that makes it a hassle to send pictures via email.

Going there is a major deal for me as I like to avoid crowds.

Reflection Monday August 2024

If you feel alone,

then consider reaching out 

into your family, friends and/or community

to build positive relationships.

Have compassion for yourself

as well as others.

 

Day 215 of Week 31 August 2024

Small Petunias in a Vase

Bringing flowers indoors is something I was taught to do as a child. If there were violets around, then mother wanted a bouquet. I was heart broken that dandelions don't last well in water. Going by a fancy house with flowers in the yard was magical. I envied not their wealth. I envied having a yard where gorgeous blooms can grow.

Have a Flowery Weekend!

Marvel at a meadow of wildflowers

Read a scary novel

Browse salad bowls online

Take a nap

Baked peach cobbler

Watch a funny movie

Call a dear friend