Monthly Archives: August 2022

But wait, there’s more!

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As promised I’m adding a Zinnia blossom to this month’s sketch.

I planted the California Giant Zinnias with the express purpose in mind to use them as subject matter for this project and my own personal journals as well. They’ve taken over the back corner of my yard with their cheerful exuberance after a very slow start. The first batch got mowed down immediately by either slugs and snails or earwigs. A second planting was more successful. Perhaps too successful.

And you can also see that I’ve been doing some embroidery at my drawing table. See the little green origami ort box and my tool block at the back. It’s dangerous when I start mixing metaphors and artistic pursuits. You never know what might happen next. I could put stitches in my artwork or paint on my needlework. Simply shocking!

Sketching away…

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Adding to this beautiful initial sketch and title page from Ellen Blonder made me very nervous at first, but then one of my botanical illustration buddies mentioned that if my sketch was, well, sketchier, that would actually help the person who comes after me on the exchange list. I think it was Lee McCaffree who said this. Thanks Lee! That simple thought was a game changer for me.

Remembering that while people had 2 months to create their initial pages, we are more likely to have just 2 weeks to get future sketches done and in the mail if we are to keep this project on time has helped me get back to basics and do what I love to do: walk out in my yard and sketch something that’s there that no one would notice if I didn’t sit down and draw it.

So here’s a branch from my Crape Myrtle that’s setting seed. Next I think I will add a zinnia blossom. I grew California Giants this year and they are giants! Here are a few posing with my vintage Kamaka Ukulele.

Of course the true giants are my 12 foot tall sunflowers! But they won’t fit in a 4″x 6″ sketchbook.

Pumpkin mania

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While there’s no frost in sight, there are pumpkins galore in our fading garden.  This is about half of the first harvest and there are about this many more remaining in the garden yet to be harvested and set out to cure.  We hope they will last until Halloween, safe from rot and pilferage.  Vile pumpkin thieves multiply and grow bold as Halloween approaches, as we know from sad experience, but this year we have so many that even if a few went walkabout, we’d still have plenty of Halloween dècor.  And all this bounty springs from only 4 hills of pumpkin plants, basically ignored all summer.

The tomatoes are finally coming in to their own and the sunflowers are just now setting blossoms at about 10 feet high but everything else is slowing down to manageable proportions.  The aphids and the ladybugs are in a fight to the finish.  The aphids are winning and sapping the energy from the corn, squash and cucumbers, but the ladybugs are giving it their all bless them. I’ve never seen so many in one place since I witnessed an aggregation of ladybugs on a hike in Redwood Regional Park many moon ago, and that is a different, winter phenomenon.  Possibly I will photograph some of these industrious little aphid-munching factories at work and participate in the Cornell University Lost Ladybug Project. 

 

High Sierra Hijinks

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Well hiking in the mountains with kids is just the best way to spend a summer weekend!  But that’s not all, folks.  We fished also:

Here are the boys on Caples Lake, where the fish were not biting at all, but then neither were the ubiquitous mountain lake mosquitos either, and the weather was fine so at least we were comfortable in the boat while we were NOT catching any fish.  Also, none of the other fishermen on the lake were catching anything so we didn’t feel too bad about getting skunked.  And finally, if you catch no fish, you don’t have to clean any fish.

During a rest on a conveniently placed log while hiking the Kirkwood Lake Loop, Ryan (age 6) composed this little sketch in his nature journal showing a small wooden dock on the edge of lake and the surrounding trees:

He’s going to have to get a set of Faber Castell Albrecht Duhrer watercolor pencils for his birthday.  It’s currently his preferred artist medium and while you always think of mountain lakes as sparkling blue, this color combination is quite accurate to depict the swampy-looking water we saw.

Connor was a trouper on the hike:

Daddy only had to carry him about half of the way.  Not bad for 3.