A walk in the park

I often walk—to work or with some purpose in mind—so this afternoon I took my artist for a walk in the neighborhood park with no purpose beyond exploring the park and enjoying the sunshine and beauty of a perfect autumn day.

Except for a bunch of fat squirrels, searching for what loot they might find under the golden leaves that carpetted the park and this pair of Mallard ducks on the river, I had the place to myself and took a turn on the swings, wandered off the paths, over the hilly terrain, past the pavillion and down to the river walk that follows the river from here to downtown and beyond. I passed the drained swimming pool, remembering the joyful noise that can be heard coming from there all summer, the empty tennis court, thinking it would be a perfect day to play, and shuffled through the shuffle board courts, now filled with leaves.

I crunched through the leaves loudly and reflected on week 1 and how just giving my artist permission to go wherever she wanted, artistically speaking, had led to playing with dyes, playing with clay, buying new artist toys (aka art supplies) and lowering my expectations while I try new things and learn new skills.



I considered using five of those benches and scorboards for the simple still life challenge #3 and wondered if I could frame a photo containing only 5 trees ... and saw design ideas everywhere.