Arboretum in Fall

Arboretum in Fall
Originally uploaded by linfrye

Daily Practice

We spent the day outdoors yesterday under incredibly blue skies, a cheerful sun, and mild temperatures. I took my class to the B&B to dig up tree seedlings so we could repot them and grow them out for our spring sale. While there, we picked up a bucket of chestnuts from one of Rebecca's trees -- oh my gracious, prickly things when in their shells, but delicious roasted!

So many of the students were unfamiliar with the nuts, so we roasted some for tasting as I talked about the chestnut blight, the loss of the American chestnut tree, how our native peoples would use chestnuts in soups, stews, porridge, breads. After lunch, we put in two more vegetable beds and made preliminary plans for the pounds of lettuce we're expecting to harvest this fall and early winter. A good day.

I caught up on some paperwork and got to the B&B late last night. In my 'spare' art bag that I carry in all of my travels, I ran across this old photo of the back of the Arboretum. The photo was taken in the fall of the year, a few years before we had a gardener. The ditchside, now kept tidy and cut monthly, was overgrown, but with such a profusion of goldenrod and grasses that I captured it in a photo. The back of the property just glimpses a neighborhood church, seen here. I thought I had painted fromt this photo before, but couldn't locate it.

I am still so enamored with the roadside vegetation this year that I hope I'm not boring you! LOL The yellows seem so much more intense and the profusion of wild grasses and weeds seem more plentiful than in the past few years. I am having a hard time being inspired to paint anything else! LOL

Today, I'll try to get to some paper projects I've not had time to address. The weather this morning is a cool 60F or so .... my heater is going, my sweatshirt is on ... and we're about to turn the calendar ....

Have a great day!