It is that time of year!
P.S.
They will be on CBS news this Friday, 1 November!
Day 299 of Week 43 October 2024
The above photo, for example, is a view from the parking lot at the Robert Frost Interpretative Trail. There is an unfinished painting of the scene among my too many other unfinished canvases.
It is good that I am painting again.
Also, I'm presently learning how to crochet a winter hat. Thus far, my effort looks like a mini sun hat with a pronounced dome. That is the result of not reading the directions. I will take out the stitches and start over.
The idea is to have a knitting and crochet project handy to work on each day. Waiting for laundry or dinner in the oven is just enough time to do several rows.
I've sat outdoors during the beautiful warm weather we've been having here in New England. I take photos of clouds, watch birds fly by and daydream. As with blogging, a subject I try to not think about when enjoying Nature, is the current political landscape going on in America.
Please, do not under value the danger America is facing if the felon is elected. Many may like his policies, but at what price.
I am resolved to accept whoever wins the presidential election.
It is important that Americans stand strong and united.
It is important that Americans stand strong and united.
Stop the bickering. Help America remain great.
Remain...because America has always been great!
Vote!
🍁
Have a Great Weekend!
🎃
Dance outdoors to the radio
Read about the history of fiber
Have tuna sandwiches & chocolate milk
Sketch your dream cabin in the woods
Draw your hand cream container
Wash your vehicle's interior windows
Write a scary story
Crochet something
Day 285 of Week 41 October 2024
 |
| Robert Frost Interpretative Trail October 2022 |
Well folks, this is it, foliage time, leaf peeping season, the peak of all that is autumnal. Coffee on foggy mornings, frosty cobwebs, pumpkin spice muffins, and birds flying by that don't have time to stop and chat. With all that is going on in the World at home and abroad, embrace the Nature of your heart to enjoy the fall.
My thoughts, after taking out winter clothes and putting away most of summer fashions, are on sweaters. I browsed online this morning. I found two I really like on sale. I thought about the extra load of laundry, and, the fact that I do not need another sweater. I didn't buy. I went on my merry way.
Have a Very Merry Fall Weekend!
Bake a squash with cinnamon
Read a funny short story
Draw a pumpkin patch
Attend a local festival
Shop leather gloves online
Check your vehicle winter kit
Watch the Hocus Pocus film
Sing to a falling leaf
Reflection Monday October 2024
 |
| 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?
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.
Voter Registration 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.
Oh That Tree!
 |
| East Main Street Along Rt 22A 11x14 inch acrylic ~The After version |
Over, (I estimate), 15 years ago I started a series of paintings for places I see on my walks around town. The above is the first and only artwork I've done. Projects get put aside for other projects.
The small painting has been hung in various places over the years until today. The large tree on the left has always bothered me. I intended to add more branches. I mixed the colors. And then got lost on other areas. The house behind the tree, I didn't even notice I was covering it up.
 |
| Main Street Before |
I see now from the Before version, what my mistakes are. At one point, I signed it as I was determined to leave it as is. The tree will go back to being smaller, the house more visible, and the shrubs on the left less shrubby.
As that's all going on, I look up to see another painting that I planned to finish hanging on the wall. Mostly because I liked the way it was except for the sky.
 |
An October Morning at the Field Puddle 16x20 inch acrylic on canvas |
As I was painting, to my surprise I remembered the original idea for the image. It is taken from several watercolor sketches I did in 1999 of snow geese landing with the sunrise to their backs. The sketches are missing. I have no idea where they are. Thankfully, I have the pencil sketches in a sketchbook. More painting to do, this time I hope I don't lose sight of what I'm trying to achieve.
Update: The sky is getting there. The tree had to go. It would be in the way of the snow geese landing.
Reflection Monday September 2024
There is, I believe, absolutely no way in 2024 a presidential candidate can appear at the Arlington National Cemetery to be filmed,
release the pictures,
and not be about politics.
Campaign stunt, IMHO.
==============
Honor the fallen.
Please,
Think about Honor
when you vote
5 November 2024
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)