In Praise of Idleness Drawing 19
November 11, 2016
In Praise of Idleness Drawings 14 and 15
November 6, 2016
Mid-October
October 19, 2014
Leaf Series
October 26, 2013
” . . . each falling leaf, each single leaf slowly falling, marks each moment passing, and you want to pick it up, and hold it in your hand, and be sure of it. Everyone’s leaves are numbered, and nothing makes more sense than to gather them, one by one.”
— Kathleen Dean Moore, The Pine Island Paradox
This fall, for some reason, I can’t stop picking up beautifully colored leaves. I want to paint them all! Here’s a start, one by one.
That Golden Time of Year
October 25, 2013
“Yellow the bracken,
Golden the sheaves . . .”
— Florence Hoatsen
Last week I celebrated the color red in the landscape. Today’s post gives equal time to the yellows, golds, and greens.
Thoreau on Seeing, Especially in Autumn
October 5, 2012
“Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.”
— Elizabeth Lawrence
“Thoreau is a first-class noticer, and he is our most articulate observer. He understood the power of and the need for directed attention carried out with the utmost intensity. He understood that we are what we give our attention to, and, long before William James put it in words, Thoreau understood that “attention and belief are the same fact.” Finally, Thoreau doesn’t just give you one autumn, he gives you the way to see every autumn.”
— Robert Richardson, “Fall Poetry: Why Thoreau Adored Autumn,” Huffington Post online blog, October 3, 2012
Robert Richardson, in this week’s Huffington Post article, calls Thoreau “our finest writer on autumn.” He remarks not only on Thoreau’s gorgeous descriptions, but praises even more Thoreau’s amazing powers of perception: “Like Zorba the Greek, Thoreau saw every thing every day as though for the first time. We all walk out into the same multitudinous world, but who among us sees as much as Thoreau did?”
My goal this year is to see autumn with “Thoreau eyes.” It’s a worthy habit to cultivate, I think.
Playing Tourist in Seattle: The Japanese Garden
September 5, 2010
I saw signs of autumn this week at the Japanese Garden in Seattle. The edges of some maple leaves had already turned orange. And the spiders were busy building webs. I plan to return in October when the fall foliage should be at its peak.
The Japanese Garden is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. It’s a lovely oasis in the city and well worth a visit.
Brilliant Plumage at My Feet
November 14, 2009

Kicking up colorful wet fall leaves with my yellow boots

Plucked trees in my neighborhood
November Day
by Eleanor Averitt
Old haggard wind has
plucked the trees
Like pheasants, held
between her knees.
In rows she hangs them
bare and neat,
Their brilliant plumage at
her feet.