November

November is the month of beautiful browns. The forest is filled with layers of leaves offering an opportunity to give nuanced names to the color “ brown”. It is fun to mix, as as well as name, the colors. I see reddish-orangey browns, soft peachy- browns, rust-tinged orangey- browns and somber purplish-browns. Today is the last day of November and soon the browns will be covered with snow.

Here is my favorite Wendell Berry poem:

“When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird.

When I fall
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.”

Here are three tiny, 4” x 4” gouache paintings  of orangey-brown leaves.

Brambles

 The bramble leaves are now offering some interesting color changes. This past summer we were able to reach among the thorny stems to find some plump blackberries. Here are three tiny, 4” x 4” gouache paintings of some bramble leaves.

 I’ve chosen a snippet of a poem to accompany these paintings.

This is the last bit of Wendell Berry’s poem called, Grace.

“Again I resume the long

lesson: how small a thing

can be pleasing, how little

in this hard world it takes

to satisfy the mind

and bring it to it’s rest.”