a magical morning
the last of the year

I don't see the squirrel
but its shadow
racing up the shadow
of a tree limb
against the apartment wall

a voice says
compadre

sumlight turns
December leaves
into spring green
a waterfall of pale light

a breath of air
sifts into the open doorway

leaves of houseplants sway
in time with their familia
on the other side of the door

a detail from the indoor Thanksgiving nature walk -

Warning lights flashing
danger in the sky -
shall we dance?

Paul Klee

cereal box
mystery,
captured in this
accidental photo:

We celebrate light during the longest nights -
happy solstice!

Friends who visited Crater Lake National Park this summer reported a great number of butterflies - Pine Whites - at the lake.




above the deep
the ancient lake
waves of butterflies rise

white on blue
white on blue

visitors grow silent
above the newborn flight
the thousand tiny wings of light

September, Austin, Texas

November, 2011, Memphis, Tennessee

Texas has been experiencing a catastrophic drought. Insects, plants, trees, wildflowers, birds, fishes have all been diminished. After a recent welcome rain, I was happy to come upon a butterfly.

Although many familiar plants and animals are hard to find of late, there are plants and birds and bugs I've never noticed before that have cropped up. Along the railroad track, there is a diversity of plant life thriving on the thick, straw-like debris of the drought.

I never did carve the Halloween pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern this year, so today I turned it into pumpkin butter. Cleaning out the seeds and peeling the pumpkin are the hardest parts. Then, I cooked it down with water, brown sugar, and a little salt, cinnamon, and vanilla.

As soon as it cooled, I ate two cups of the stuff. So much for concern about how to can the excess! The seeds were popular with the doves or the squirrels...somebody took off with them!

These are some more pictures from my indoor nature walk at Thanksgiving. The amaryllis, shown above, was new to visitors to the New World after Columbus made his journeys.

An article by Karl King, 2000, [ http://www.bulbnrose.org/Amaryllis/summary.htm ] has images that suggest George Ehret, a botanical artist of the 1700s, created the beautiful work above. King describes in detail some of the disagreements and understandable mistakes among the traveling botanists of the time, many of whom were cataloguing plants, insects, birds and mammals, everything new they could find. King also references some of the books published by these naturalist explorers, with the beautiful drawings that captivated the folks back home.

A photo of one of Ehret's botanical sketch journals can be found here: [ http://makingamark.blogspot.com/2011/02/georg-ehrets-sketchbooks-botanical.html ]

This fossil cast or replica is located in Austin, Texas between Dover Place and Great Northern Blvd at a drainage pond (not sure that's the right term) near Shoal Creek. I didn't see a plaque or other source of information.

October, 2011 Austin

The picture below of the yoyo and little wooden cat was from the 1977 drawing class too. The teacher took us all outside. I remember setting the objects on a curb, and focusing on the different textures of the background.

On other days, we did sketches of classmates. We did self-portraits for homework. The picture above is a self-portrait. Except for the hair, it looks almost nothing like me, even me in 1977. I carefully reproduced every segment of what I saw in the mirror, and came up with a stranger.

I've been thinking about mirrors. Our faces, our bodies, the scenery are reversed. Things that are touching ourselves in the reflected world may be nowhere near us.

When we look at rearview mirrors, our eyes focus for distance though our fingers can touch the distant road in the glass, six inches from our faces.

I had a cat who when I spoke to him, would gaze up at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, even though my voice was coming from behind him. He would talk to the stranger in the mirror.

also from 1977...

In 1977, I took a drawing class.

There was a hawk atop a sign at a shopping center the other day. Rain was coming down, and my hands were full, but that hawk was just begging to have its portrait taken. So, I stood on the sidewalk, held the umbrella with one hand, and almost dropped the camera as I dug it out of my purse. In the fumbling to catch the camera, this accidental picture occurred.

there are nights
when the dark is gentle
the air sweet to breathe
the mystery is your friend
and the journey pauses
at an intersection called home

There's a jungle in the closet!

The artist gives equal attention to the bugs, the flowers, the bird - a quiet acknowledgement of interdependence, of the harmony required for our existence.

It was raining in Alabama this Thanksgiving weekend, and so I took a nature walk indoors. The corridors of the retirement community where my father lives has many marvelous works of art, some by naturalists of the past who sketched and painted images of the trees, birds, insects, and plants they came upon. It was a fascinating tour around the world without leaving the building.

The subjects held still for the camera, but reflections in the glass of the frames were a challenge. I could not find the artists' names for the details above.

I like this photo now that I've turned it upside down. The reflected world is magical and inviting.

These are details from a couple of photos I took in Johnson City.