Since I came to Virginia, my impression of October has changed. In Englad I tended to think of it as cool and wet. Here, I think of it as bright blue skies and harvest colours!
October's Bright Blue Weather
Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)
O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;
The view while I waited for my meal in Aunt Sarah's :)
When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And Golden-Rod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;
A so called 'hardy orange'- not a citrus, but edible. We have oodles of them- which means it will probably appear again since I am not satisfied with this particular effort ;)
When Gentians roll their fringes tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;
When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;
Decorated with leaf prints- which came out a lot better than the pictures. Those were watercolour pencils, and the more I tried to correct the flaws, the muddier they got :(
When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;
When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;
Woolly Bears are all over the place- supposedly predicting the weather. In our case they were posing for pictures ;)
When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.
O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.
And the latest EDM #246- picked up on our nature walk today :) I love autumnal colours ;) My first choice for something October would be my birthday- but it has been and gone so I can't draw it now (the cake was delicious too ;)). This is my second choice ;)
My artist's notebook is a lovely size- with my usual mixtures of paper in it. I like the 'deckled edge' effect so I tend to rip it to size :)
The advent one is Christmas themed- because I plan to use it throughout the Advent and Christmas season. I have just read Hannah Hinchman's "A Life in Hand: Creating the Illuminated Journal" and so intend to both journal AND draw in it :)
My first entry in the new artist notebook- my wriggling son. He is reading- but he is still not still!
The ever present artist's model- the foot. It and the hand are often seen in my notebooks ;) This one was an experiment with Derwent pencils- which I lack the colour I really need to get my English paleness. Oh well! You can also see my menu and shopping list here- as Hinchman suggests. I have to admit I prefer looking at my shopping list in my notebook as I shop- it is far more interesting ;)
Next up, EDM #249: Draw a Coffee Pot. Ours is rather new, though old fashioned- makes a lovely cuppa and was fun to sketch :)
Not every artistic effort is a success. This is one of them. Apparently trying to talk to my son and draw at the same time does not work. Especially if I am trying to draw an Advent Basket and he is talking about a Crow called Silverspot. They don't work well together. Never mind!
