Exotic Grape-KoolAid-Smelling Flowers

Walking along the urban trail near downtown Asheville the other day  I was awed by the amount of kudzu blanketing everything.  How we love to despise this invasive plant.  But I kept smelling a lovely grapey scent that drew me in close to the dark green overlapping leaves.  A small purple and yellow bloom hidden inside of dense foliage.

Equinox!

Mexican Sunflowers to round out the summer—

Hurricane News

These unusual white morning glories are almost the last remnants of late summer in the woods.  The breeze is picking up.  The sky is greenish.

Sharing With Turkeys

I came home to large fat Black Cherokee tomatoes so heavy that they were bending the plant and lolling on the ground.  Wild turkeys had poked most of them, but I think I can salvage enough to make gazpacho tonight!

Mummy

Nate and I built this mummy out of airdry clay after drawing a mummy at the Met.  Yesterday we painted the mask and coffin with acrylics, and tonight the beeswax-impregnated cloth arrived that we ordered.  We cut some bandages out of it.  Then Nate told Alexa to play “Walk Like an Egyptian” and we made a video, which is too large to post.  So here are some photos.  Tell your Alexa to play the song while you watch.

Switching Channels

I’m traveling this week, up to visit family in NJ.  Above, a woman in the airport foundered by her luggage.  

We all took the train into NYC yesterday to go to the Met, a regular outing for N, but A’s first time to an art museum!  A and I drew on the train - the inset is the scene at the first station stop.  After the long exciting day the kids were sitting on the floor in Penn ststion.  When A noticed I was sketching them she started sitting still and posing (right side).  Turns out Labor Day is a good, low-crowd day to visit the Met.  N drew his favorite piece in the Egyptian galleries.

Maplewood Dahlias and Rudbeckia

Abby and I picked a few late summer flowers from the backyard to paint.

Tiny Begonia Couple

I’m leaving for NJ in a couple of hours.  These tiny begonia blooms are the first page of my travel sketchbook.  I wanted to test out the paper, and it is lovely, smooth yet lightly textured.  It was made by my former student who now owns Papercraft Miracles.  (www.papercraftmiracles.com). She made this paper, of her own invention,  in my class as an assignment, coloring it with local reddish  clay that she gathered from the site of her dormitory after the dorm had burned down.  Happily she had some sheets left that I was able to buy for this book.  Check out her site!