Harvest Watercolors

A couple of small fall harvest watercolors

Halloween Art

Decorating for Halloween

My mother has put out her jack o'lantern.

And I have decorated above my bedroom door.

SouthFork Color 2017

Mollie and I took a Saturday afternoon drive to the cabin at Southfork.  The maple leaves were bright and colorful.  The Box Elder leaves have changed, fallen and dried.  The dried leaves make a most satisfying crunch under foot.

Fall Color 2017

The autumn color has come to Ogden Canyon. The leaves are starting to fall.

I thought that the dry, hot, summer would  make the leaves dry on the trees.  Then recent rain brought lots of color, and heightened that color.

 So excited to be surrounded with colorful red,  orange and yellow maple leaves.

Preparing for October

                                                           
Picassa, the cat at the Eccles Community Art Center where I work is checking out a Jack O' Lantern.

Fall Colors - Watercolor

I wonder if my watercolor set can capture the colors of Fall.  What do you think?

Visiting Caterpillar

I found this colorful caterpillar in the garden yesterday.

I can not decide whether it reminds me of a Pekinese Dog or of Albert Einstein.  Notice the hair.

Fall Harvest Continues

A Stettler's Jay has joined the local squirrel in harvesting acorns from the canyon's oak trees.

Acorn Studies in Paint and Photography

Fall Harvest

Over the summer, I have watched the acorns grow.  Now, they are being harvested by the local squirrel.  Acorn shells and oak leaves litter the grown beneath the oak trees.  This busy squirrel frustrates my dog Mollie.  It invades her yard but travels a highway of tree branches above her head.  I hear Mollie barking.  The squirrel must be working on its Fall harvest.

Abundance

On my drive home, I pass by the local botanical garden.  Their entry border is filled with an abundance of flowers and colors - red, yellow, purple, orange, green ....

My view of the solar eclipse

See the crescents in amongst the dappled shadows of the leaves.

Picassa, the art center class knew to also view the eclipse through the shadows.

One of the art center volunteers and one of the employees from the Ogden Symphony and Ballet shared their glasses so we all were able to view the actual solar eclipse.  Thank you!  And thank you Melissa Seamons for this great picture of Picassa

 

This Morning's View

Through my window, I watch the morning sunlight dance and sparkle off the iridescent wings of dragonflies darting above the river.

Weber County Heritage Facebook post

Weber County Heritage Foundation: https://www.facebook.com/WeberCountyHeritageFdtn/
In 1909, David Eccles, owner of Ogden Rapid Transit, and Simon Bamberger, owner of Bamberger Electric railroad began a race to see which company could be the first to finish a rail route up Ogden Canyon to Huntsville.

What a cool picture of the trolley that use to come up the canyon.

Summer Rain

Lightening, thunder, a downpour of rain moves on, the scent of a summer rain lingers.

Remnants

My drive  home each night takes me through a neighborhood of townhouses and condos.  This time of year fruit trees are in bloom, remnants of the orchard that use to fill the neighborhood.

Spring blossoms, Quince

Today on my drive home I noticed the spring blossoms.  Fruit tree are bloom, apricots, plums, and pears.  The choke cherries are showing petite green leaves.  The buds are green on the lilacs and on the maples in  warmer spots.  Oh, and there is a Quince bush in bloom.  It's pink, orange bloosom bright and cheery.

My grandma had a Quince bush in her side yard.  Its pink, orange blossom were much the same color as my mother's lipstick.  When we were children, we would pick a blossom, rub it across our lip much like we saw our mother apply her lipstick.

I remember in the fall, the Quince fruit look much like a small apple or pear.  It wasn't until much later that I learned  that it could be used to make quince jelly.  It sounded old fashion, so I didn't think much about it.  Today, I found a recipe for Quince jelly: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/quince_jelly/
The further research brought more possibilities:

http://www.thekitchn.com/quince-tough-fall-fruit-with-a-secret-reward-ingredient-intelligence-73041

And a sorbet:

https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/quince-and-vanilla-sorbet

Painted Snapdragons

I received a bouquet which had snapdragons, the perfect inspiration for a watercolor,
and more ink jet prints.

Another Spring first

I saw my first Spring butterfly today.  A lovely velvet brown Mourning Cloak flying from a pile of leaf debris.  The temperatures for the last three days have been around sixty degrees.  A taste of Spring.  The garden is filled with snowdrops.  I should be seeing honey bees, soon