Salty Pumpkin Studio

October Along the New Haven River
Lincoln, Vermont

How often do you settle

instead of staying on course

with your first choice?

We decide much of what shapes our lives.

How much is from fate, outside forces,

adds to our view of self.

When you are at relaxing in the moment,

thinking of this and that, chilling out,

ask yourself what you are chilling about.

Are you the river or the landscape?

Day 278 of Week 40 October 2024

Please pray for those dealing with the devastation

from the hurricane

Donate what you are able

Read what agencies are helping

before you decide where to donate.

The scope of the devastation is horrendously wide

and heart breaking.

God Bless Everyone

Foliage Check In

Robert Frost Interpretative Trail
Ripton, Vermont
Georgie's Trail
3 October 2024

Rt 125, Ripton, Vermont
Just above Robert Frost Interpretive Trail
3 October 2024

A quick trip for lunch to the Robert Frost Interpretative Trail on a sunny afternoon to check on the foliage progress today was nice. I didn't walk around much.

At the higher mountain elevations there are more trees showing colors than middle and lower elevations. Along Route 125, there are colors in a tree here and there. At this stage, peak will take few more days. I expect this weekend and all of next week will be the best leaf peeping.

A Finished Painting

The Adirondack Mountains From Addison, Vermont
Acrylic on canvas hardboard
16 x 12 inches

The painting is finished.

It looks better in person than in the photograph.

Does that mean I'll change it? Probably.

For now, it is as it is.

I prefer to glue cotton duck canvas onto hardboard because it is easier to ship and frame. It can be heavier. Easy to frame because the profile is thin enough to fit into ready-made frames.

Same painting with smoother clouds and snow

Autumn's Healing Beauty

Vermont 2020

Imagine the number of leaf peepers multiplied by the number of times they gasp in awe of the beauty of Autumn foliage. New England, and Vermont (where the photographs were taken in past years), has a unique foliage beauty due to the climate of the area.

Scientific American, "How the Brain Responds to Beauty"

Psychology Today, "The Healing Power of Nature"

Ideas for fall fun:

Create a leaf atlas. Photograph, identify, paint a watercolor of various trees and their leaves. Note the location and date.
List local diners in your area within 50 to 75 miles. Photograph and note what's on the menu, including prices.
Make a photo album journal of the places where you like to stop, roadside farm stands, fall festivals, country stores and such.
Journal about your walks and hikes during the autumn
Find a large maple tree you can sit under. Invite family and friends for a foggy morning coffee and pumpkin bread. Listen to the birds, the wind, Nature.

Voter Registration Purges

The Voter Purge Project, State Score Cards

Brennan Center for Justice, Voter Purges

Voter purging is when a registered voter is removed from the voter registration list where they vote. It keeps the voter registration lists up to date.

In Vermont, for example, if you don't vote in 2 consecutive general elections, then your name is removed aka purged from that voter registration list.

I've been voting in Vermont for decades. This is the first time I remember my voter registration being purged. I've missed elections in the past, but never that I recall purged because of it. I re-registered online.

This is a Very Important election year.

Please, make sure you are properly registered to vote.

Update, Monday:

Today I received a confirmation email from Vermont dot gov.

My re-registration over the weekend has been received and approved by the city clerk. I am a registered voter!

Wild Apples & Creativity

Wild Apples

Are they though? Wild apples, I believe, grow outside an orchard or in somebody's yard. Along the roadside you can see shrubs that you know must have been planted by a house, but there is no house. The same is true of apple trees in a group. Then there's the issue of wildlife carrying the apple seeds into the woods by various means.

One morning on a slow walk the sunlight was catching a bunch of wild apples just right to make their rotting shapes look lovely, almost ripe again. I took a photograph to paint from. The canvas has been hanging around. The photo hasn't. There are folders labeled, ToPaint, that I use. Once in a while though, a picture becomes lost. Like the apples, it has gone wild.

Autumn is a season of reflection, I feel, more than the other three are. We harvest our knowledge, our memories, our expectations of where we have been and where we are going.

I'm thinking that way because I've been painting again, regularly on a few canvases at a time, old as well as new images. Depression isn't selective. It mows down much of what we enjoy doing in life. Being an artist that doesn't paint is not comfortable for me. The irony is that when I am in a severely deep episode, art is where I retreat from the pain. This time, however, it is the resolve to be Artist, not pain that brings me to pick up a brush.

I feel that there are times in life when we don't need to figure out why. It is better, when it happens, to just enjoy our creative selves.

Recycling Old Thinking Trash

Here I go again with the thinking...

Walden Pond Cove Woods 2004

The photo above that I took in 2004 is a favorite. It was the image on my calling cards back in the day when I hoped to sell my artwork. Alas, health issues took me on another path.

Is there a lot of change from early 2000 to 2024? I'm still old and dealing with depression and other issues. Then I realized, something has changed. I'm not as dumb as I use to be (with any reliable consistency). Even my phone and computer are smarter.

Why not look again at old ideas that went by the wayside for one reason or another. Our thinking trash can be recycled.

An issue that has grabbed my attention is all the (estimated) hundreds of cloud pictures I've taken. In one bin sorted by date and type, my cloud atlas will be finished.

Do you have old ideas you can recycle?

Hello Autumn 2024

From My Window 2019

Lincoln, Vermont October

Bristol, Vermont October

Vermont Early Autumn

Addison, Vermont Autumn

Going through photo files yesterday, I chose a few to post here this week.

The last image would make for a nice leftover paint painting.

Each year I like to take pictures of the same places for comparison.

Maybe a 2024 change is in order to venture out to new places.

Allergies this season have been a bother most days. Since I got the first shingles shot, I've been sleeping sounder than usual. It is weird.

I've been sadly looking at the soups when grocery shopping. My heart aches because I've decided to have homemade soup only. I might buy chicken broth though.

Are you a homemade souper or easy can person?