The season is shifting. Each day I notice something new. The angle of light. The colors of falling leaves. The sound of geese calling as they begin their journeys. I try to stay connected to the seasons. As a gardener, the wheel of the year directs so much of what I do. As a botanical artist, my inspiration is tied to nature and its cycles.

This week we came home from a nearly two-week trip visiting family.

When I first stepped into my studio this morning, frost glittered on the deck out the sliding doors, the light pale as the sun cleared the tops of the trees on the hill behind our house.

Everywhere I look right now I notice glimmers of magic.

Today on my blog, I planned to share about the Winding Roads Art Tour, but as I was driving home on Sunday evening I realized I hadn’t taken a single photo all weekend.

When’s the last time you noticed something that made you pause to look, to think, to wonder? A little moment seemingly outside of time?

Noticing beauty needn’t be limited to seeing it. Last week we focused on COLOR, something we experience with our eyesight, but this week I want you to awaken your other senses.

The days are flying past faster and faster. I can’t believe June has already come and gone. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’m trying to slow down and enjoy summer’s magic and yet, time still flies.

Two weeks ago nights were in the 30s and there was danger of frost. Summer weather quickly arrived and today heat index values could reach 105.

I am filled with a swirl of thoughts and feelings. Maybe you are, too.

These days. They’re hard. This year has been hard. It continues to be hard.

September is here. How did that happen?

During this month we often get our first killing frost, turning my garden to blackened mush and ending its season of painting inspiration. Is it any wonder that I mourn the coming of the fall?

Last week I pulled out all my spinach plants. They’d bolted (begun to flower and go to seed) a few weeks earlier. I’d been harvesting leaves from the stretching stems nearly every day, but it had gotten to the point where the plants had toppled over and were no longer producing new leaves.

Last night we got back from vacation, a trip to Ohio to visit Matthias’ family. We had a wonderful time. it was great to get away, to relax and have fun with family.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been enjoying practicing yoga with Adriene, whose free videos I watch on Youtube. She often says “a little goes a long way.” It’s an encouragement to add yoga into your life, even if only in a small way.

I’ve been thinking about the idea of a little going a long way, not just in terms of yoga, but in all areas of life.

About this time of year when the garden is at its height I begin making notes for next year. What I want to grow more of. What I forgot to grow. What I’d like to try. Today I’m sharing the first of a series of posts about some of my favorite plants to grow (and paint). I’d love for you to join in and share some of your favorites, too.

I sit in the garden and watch the robins taking turns on the nest in the birch tree. The nest is perched in a crotch of branches high above my patio. It doesn’t look very secure, but I’ve watched it hold tight when its windy. One robin swoops to the branch and the other plunges away. A few minutes later they switch. And switch again.

“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

—Henry James

Ah, summer. Here in Wisconsin summer is well and truly here.

It’s another rainy day today. Last week I wrote about making time for the garden, but since then I haven’t been able to spend much time outside. It’s been too wet and cold.

I’ve been thinking a lot about patience. I’d say I’m a fairly patient person.

I came back from a trip to Seattle at 2 am on Wednesday morning and since then I’d been struggling to get back into the swing of things.

That is, until I realized that I could let go of the pressure to do, do, do and give myself time to rest and readjust.

Last week I shared my fears around hand sewing and how my belief that I wasn’t “good” at stitching kept me from trying embroidery. I’m not sure if it was that belief, or if was other fears that kept me from using the espadrille kit I bought at the end of August.