Oh!
It’s you!
Were you spying on me?
Come, let’s go for a walk in the timber.
We’ll collect rose hips for hot tea later this evening when the wind begins to sweep up the valley and the chill deepens.
I’ve got a similar line drawing,
in dark, permanent ink, directly over my heart.
Forever North.
Be careful of where you step. Tread lightly. We’re under the surveillance of populus tremula.
Farley and RW will harvest our dinner. That’s a beautiful, organic and wild ruffed grouse the bird dog has brought to our hands. By the end of the day, he’ll have helped us find three more.
Splendid plumage, indeed.
I’ll spend a little bit of time rooting through the leaves, that’s where I find the best ideas. You should look too, there are handfuls of interesting detritus, bugs and bones down there beneath a thin shroud of autumn. Today I’ll take home a fascinating little gall, two small bones and a pocket full of rose hips. Who knows what you’ve found, but your pockets are bulging and your hands are full.
We’ll grasp onto handfuls of the last yellow. The wild roses like to hang on to their colors until the bitter icy end. It’s a fortitude they come by honestly and naturally. They’re afraid we’ll forget the sweetness of their pale pink blooms forever should they fade to thin naked sticks laced with razor sharp prickles too soon. I won’t forget but they’ll still burst into a hurried pink in June, like a pretty rash on the hillsides.
We’ll delight in the oddness of nature; smooth shapes wrapped around sharp blades, the curvature of the the earth, the rotund nature of stumps on the forest floor and the ubiquitous, dark canopy of boreal forest blended with trembling aspen on the sides of the mountains.
The creative pulse beneath our skin will swell and sing and our ideas will sprout in all directions.
And still we’ll walk further into the deep dark woods
seeking the next bend,
the next peace,
the next open space.
Beautiful. I feel like I just went on a great adventure with you. Ready for some tea now 🙂
I love going walks with you…. My hands are full of tiny pebbles that are glistening in the oddity of sunlight in the middle of this November day. My pockets are full of thistle for good medicine making.
Thank you for the scavenger hunt by friend.
what a lovely walk in the woods, thank you!
Ahhhhhhh, I feel so refreshed. Thank you Jillian.
Oh! Yay for gorgeous hats with bobbles 🙂
Bobble bobble….
Bella~ i wish i lived closer to the woods, esp when i read your blog. i agree, nature holds all of our ideas for art!
thank you for sharing your world and your gifts
The dark interior of the forest…when I lived all all alone in the mountains…
lovely pictures and thank you for tea : )
xo
mmm lovely photo's of the beautiful Fall woods.
looks like a lovely hike!! I am so jealous wish I could be there rather than stuck in my stuffy office :o(
Always fresh insights for things in front of us ( your camera ) life is full of inspiration and adventure waiting for us to join in. ; ) Laura
I loved taking another walk with you and sipping the rose hip tea. I can't wait to see what inspirations you come up with next in your studio. Am eagerly anticipating my earrings too 🙂
My kids and I (ages four and two and full of wonder about absolutely everything) have been going on fall treasure walks. They find all kinds of things I might miss, and fill their "treasure bags," with rocks and leaves and acorns and berries. Their own definition of beautiful. Although sometimes they just run, and there's no time for treasures. Those are good times too, good for all of us to stretch our legs. Thanks for sharing your treasures with us!
I love your north too. I love the love of bones and odd things, the found stones in pockets, the beautiful, beautiful marks on trees that stop us in our tracks.
I need to send you some treasures.
Yessss, we have the same jacket! Good thing you live south, outfit coordination is too difficult. It looks good on you.
xoxo, Fletch
What Umber Dove said. Would we could share wood(s). Someday, I hope. Ever seen the eastern forests?
Chickies!
I'm so glad you enjoyed this stroll. Speaking of bones, wait until you see what I've been making out of the bones of a baby antelope I found while in Wyoming. Yeesh. Spookypretty.
Fletch, it surely is a great coat. It's my favorite inbetween seasons coat. I often layer it with a down vest for double the puff.
Sylvestris, I have seen the Canadian Eastern Woods which I'm sure resemble the USAican Eastern Woods, but I haven't been East for a very long while…