Snow in Spring

The Space between Summer and Autumn

The small space between the last days of summer and Autumn have 

inspired me to linger longer when I'm outside doing chores.

Feeling the last warm days and smelling the dry leafy air as I hang laundry

on the clothesline, I can hear crickets in the grass and a Bluejay call overhead.

Late summer and Monarch Butterflies

"The butterfly and I had lit upon,

Nevertheless, a message from the dawn",

Robert Frost

From the egg laid on the leaf of a milk weed, to a tiny larvae, to an adult caterpillar. The exciting stages of a Monarch butterfly.

The Monarch butterfly used to be abundant but now their numbers are declining.

This summer I learned how to help increase their chances of survival by hand raising.

Because the small egg is vulnerable at this stage it is easy to help 

ensure survival by bringing the plant with the egg into a protected area and raise the small larvae to a full grown caterpillar.  When the caterpillar reaches maturity it forms a perfect jade green capsule..a chrysalis....a perfect container for the miracle that happens next.

Now the chrysalis is formed and begins to transform the body of the

 caterpillar to a butterfly.

Here she is, an exquisite female. 

Butterfly letting go.

A drawing in honor of these beautiful silent creatures.

Late July

Blackberry lilies with Misha painting in background.

 When the bloom has faded, it coils up like a spring, later, the plant
produces it's seeds which resemble blackberries.

summertime images.

I'm spending more time in the garden now, for
the wheel is turning and I can already feel the cooler times ahead.

Borage, Pansies and Bumblebees are part of the rhythm of the day.

The light is changing and colors are softer.

"this is the garden:colours come and go,

frail azures fluttering from night's outer wing

strong silent greens silently lingering,

absolute lights like baths of golden snow.

This is the garden:pursed lips do blow

upon cool flutes within wide glooms,and sing

(of harps celestial to the quivering string)

invisible faces hauntingly and slow."

                                                 e.e. cummings This Is The Garden

Painting on Tin

Small painting on tin, completed today.

That moment when the creature is still and lets you behold her beauty.

Pastel cat on brown paper

The Encounter

pencil drawing-Ramona Felse

Pencil drawing shows a woman and a fawn together on top of a hill.

Metal painting for March

Painted on primed sheet metal.

8" tall x 6 1/4". 

February Twilight

I stood beside a hill

Smooth with new-laid snow,

A single star looked out

From the cold evening glow.

There was no other creature

That saw what I could see--

I stood and watched the evening star

As long as it watched me. 

Sara Teasdale

A very long and very cold winter has a firm grip on us.

No, I have not wished it away…. I know that soon enough the 

Winter of 2014 will be but a memory.

I dress warm when it's cold and drink hot soup.

I look long at the shadows on snow

 and listen to the quiet.

Ink drawing

Northern Illinois gets polar vortex.

        We are experiencing unusually cold temps today. Colder than Siberia!

Some Arctic air will come down to visit us for maybe two days. The wind chill could be -40 degrees below zero.