For those of you who are into nature journaling, here is something else I enjoy doing: Making a picture map of my favorite places. It’s amazing how a simple map like this, without a whole lot of drawing skills, can bring back a place during the dreary winter months. I make notations of the plants and insect life and wild life I may have seen. In this instance I found a sun-bleached cow skeleton and dragged part of it home for future reference. I must draw that some time. It’s mainly a jaw bone and the whole backbone and would make a good “a la O’Keeffe” picture.

This is my favorite swimming hole. I spent a couple of summers just floating around there in an inflatable armchair with a drink and a good book. What a life of luxury! It’s partially surrounded by a cliff, which is another of my favorite rocks. My dog used to bark like mad whenever I went into a lake, but she was OK with this place because she could keep track of me. Haven’t done any floating this summer and I don’t know why.

This is Frazier Falls at the end of August when the flow of water is minimal. In May it’s a raging torrent, but it is sometimes hard to get there because the snow may still be fairly deep at that elevation. This is a very quick sketch done with Pitt markers. Note the people at the top, where the rocks are pretty much flat and one can climb around on them and even take a sunbath. I would say those are some of my “favorite rocks”, but I have others too.

This is a lovely trail to a gorgeous waterfall, and it is even handicapped accessible because the whole thing is paved with comfy benches for sitting if one gets tired. For those who are more agile, there is access to the rocks at the very top of the waterfall with lovely vistas in all directions. Just don’t slip and fall because it’s a looooooong way down.

July flowers that grow in dry sandy or rocky places. How do they do it? Pennyroyal belongs to the mint family, and it makes the air smell wonderful by mid afternoon when the sun has baked it for a while.

One of my favorite butterflies that comes around every time I’m watering the garden. I think they are called “sisters” in honor of nuns because in certain light the brown looks almost black. I often wonder how some plants get their names, like “dogbane”.

Wild azalea (make the forest smell wonderful where they grow), mountain chickadee, mourning cloak butterfly. The bug just landed on my drawing board and I have no idea what it is.

It’s hard to believe that this creek can be a raging torrent at times, but it can. This was painted in late September when the golden rabbit brush is in bloom and the creek is just a tiny trickle. My pup and I wander the creek bed then and pick up polished river rocks for my front walkway.

Just noticed that I spelled “woolly” wrong. Hmmmm, still don’t know if that’s right. Anyhow, I love woolly bears even if they turn into a moth. They are soft and fuzzy, not prickly at all, and very friendly too.

These are plants that grow in dry spots where it would be just about impossible to find any water. But the yellow one, which is a resin weed, smells absolutely wonderful if you drive your car over it, and it does smell a little bit like resin but fresher. There are so many that sometimes you can’t help but drive your car over them when they fill up a dirt road.