So glad you’re joining me on a fall nature walk! Of course we took this walk several weeks ago… haha The trees now are bare and naked, but still beautiful.

I am fortunate to live on a beautiful parcel of land that has a deep lake fed by a natural stream surrounded by beautiful mature trees. I gather inspiration for my painting from the beauty that surrounds me.

If you’ve followed my blog for very long then you know I love to share photos of my flowers and gardens I’ve made around my house and art studio (an area I call Studio Gardens). Every once and a while, I like to share the beauty of natural gardens made by Mother Nature that I get to see everyday. She is a much better gardener than I am.

My greenhouse attached to my house

Above is my greenhouse that I get to grow plants and flowers in all winter long. Towering above my greenhouse is a beautiful old black walnut tree which is also a pain when the very large softball size walnuts fall on the roof of the greenhouse and sound like a cannon. Black walnut trees also produce and emit a chemical known as juglone that is toxic to many plants and flowers. Thankfully, there are many plants that aren’t bothered by them. There are lots of black walnut trees all on the property.

Let’s continue with the fall nature walk! Come on! Zoey’s already way ahead of us.

We enter into the woods and Zoey gets the scent of who knows what. We have deer, turkey, raccoons, rabbits, weasels and all kinds of wildlife. So she takes off ahead of me and gets into all kinds of trouble, you’ll see soon.

In our woods, we have some of the largest American beech trees I’ve ever seen. They are enormous. I love these trees and they are inspiration for my paintings.

A majestic American Beech Tree

Whenever I go into the woods, I love to look up. In fact, I’ve painted a few paintings that look abstract but are actually a view looking up through the trees. I happened to look up and see the white bark of a sycamore tree and it had a cool crook in the trunk way up high.

The white trunk of a sycamore tree

Well there’s Zoey again and this time she’s racing down a fork in the path. Should we go right or left? She’s not waiting on us.

Let’s go closer to the American Beech tree… oh look people have been here before and left their mark in the way of carvings. While this may be fun and it really does stay probably for the life of the tree, it is not good on a tree. Anytime you cut the bark you are allowing infection and disease to enter the tree and may ultimately kill it one day. Sad.

There is quite a bit of undergrowth. Wild ferns growing naturally, bushes and small trees. We’ve lived here for 13 years and I think the people before us at some point had logged the property. There’s money in the straight trees, and in some cases you might need to do it, but I absolutely hate to cut any trees down. That’s the main reason I tolerate the black walnut tree that resides over my greenhouse.

Hey what’s that splashing I hear? OH NO!! ZOEY!!!!

Yep, Zoey was in the lake… or I should say the mud of the lake. She got hot while running after the deer she scared up. Then she came up to me and of course shook off. Now she’s rolling in the leaves. Just great.

Noooooooooooooo!

She’s just as happy as can be. I have no idea why, she knows what’s coming. The hose, then a bath. She hates baths.

Happy muddy Zoey

What did you do?! I say to her as I try to shame her. She really doesn’t care.

Not sorry

Well let’s head back, I’ll show you the road my house sits on out front.

looking south

Here’s the other way… no neighbors. Only daily traffic is the mail lady (my friend Lisa) and the farmers. Country life is wonderful.

Looking north

That’s it for our fall nature walk, I hope you enjoyed it. I’m off to give Zoey a bath.

some of my paintings

Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page in the menu at the top. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started creating more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is mystery.

If you would like to keep up with what I’m doing, join my email list. About once a month I send out a letter that gives you invitations for shows, birthday greeting, sneak peeks at new work and more. I’d love for you to add your email to my Friends and Collectors list!