2. a person or thing that brings bad luck.
3. Geology. a pillar of rock, usually of fantastic shape, left by erosion.
If you picked #3 you may have visited the strangely wonderful Bryce Canyon National Park, Home of the HooDoos…not to mention-the mysterious eye in the sky! (hint, upper left)
In the winter that water gets a hard shell of ice and becomes an entirely different playground, a brand new piece of “land” where we can walk, skate, and even drive snowmobiles and pickup trucks. Fishermen set up their shanties, forming cozy little villages.
As children we skated here with our mom and dog Lumpy.
When I illustrated my 1st book in 1983 I remembered times spent skating with my dog.
Cardinals in February from A Year of Birds by Ashley Wolff
During this Christmas break we got some lovely light snow and my sister and I set out to make this our new front yard.
We walked across the lake, following coyote tracks, and noticing where a bird landed, leaving wing and tail marks in the snow.
We made snow angels ,
built a buxom snow maiden,
did donuts,
drank cocktails,
and lost our balance!
Happy New Year.
Keep the wine handy.
We’re going to need it!
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It is one of the “Seven Natural Wonders of the World”
It’s about 270 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and a mile deep, Its walls contain rock layers that reveal a timeline of Earth’s history.
To make the illustrations for In The Canyon as good they could be, I had to explore the Grand Canyon. I took my intrepid sister, a wildlife veterinarian, for company and and in we went!
Dr. Peregrine Wolff and a friendly Big Horn Sheep-commonly found In the Grand Canyon.
Approaching Castle Crag on the South Kaibab Trail.
from RIM to RIVER…
Joking around at Ooh Ah Point on the South Kaibab Trail.
and back!
The main character of In the Canyon, written by Liz Garton Scanlon, speaks in the 1st person voice. She begins her narration like this:
“Here’s a map, some boots, a pack, a walking stick, a sandy track.”
I always enjoy working with a model and I found a lovely girl in San Francisco named Willa.
I spent a few hours with Willa taking pictures, and then used those to draw from while illustrating the book.
She gazes at the reader from the jacket, inviting you to join her In the Canyon.
As soon as you dip below the rim of the canyon you enter a vast, deep bowl that has no direct route to the bottom. The trails are constantly zig zagging down the steep walls. Occasionally you can spy the river, way down deep.
My sister Peri, seen from a few switchbacks above, with many more to go. The Colorado river, bright green, is crossed by 2 bridges. One is visible here.
If it is a cool spring morning on the rim, it is full, hot summer at river level. Along the way are blooming cacti and yucca, birds, lizards and curious squirrels.
I can’t get enough shots of the blossoming Beavertails.
a finished linoleum block and gouache illustration.
“Here’s a footstep, dusty red, another one and more ahead.”
To do this rim to river to rim hike one must be very fit and prepared for a lot of heat and exertion.
Some people choose to travel by mule. Mules are chosen from Tennessee and Missouri. They are used for pack supplies to Phantom Ranch and pack mail out of the canyon and later promoted to trail mules.
I used a photo of a family, gathered under an overhang, as inspiration for this illustration.
“Now here’s a tiny slice of shade, a yummy lunch, some lemonade. And a lizard, still as sand, his head all speckled, body tan.”
Finally, we’re at river level, where the deep shade around Phantom Ranch is most welcoming. Time to recharge and load up on water and salty snacks for the hike back out. Peri and I made it back to the rim by nightfall, a 16 mile roundtrip.
But the child in In the Canyon is luckier. She gets to spend the night, camping by the river.
“Here’s the dark and here’s the shine, and here’s the moon—it’s like it’s mine. To tuck inside me way down deep, Grand and wild, mine to keep.”
I’ll come back to the Canyon someday, no doubt with enough overconfidence to descend to the bottom and back in one day as I did with Peri.
After all, I have what it takes: “a map, some boots, a pack, a walking stick, a sandy track.”
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On evenings in early spring with the first relatively warm rains, salamanders and frogs move from upland wooded areas to breeding pools to mate and lay eggs. Often these migrations take the amphibians across roads. At a site in Salisbury, Otter Creek Audubon and the Salisbury Conservation Commission help these amphibians safely reach their destination, collect data on numbers and species, and raise public awareness of these migrations.
Important Guidelines for Data Gathering:
Learn how to identify all the amphibians (we will help you on site).
Make sure of your identification. If in doubt, ask someone with a clipboard. Do not guess.
Keep track of how many of each species you move and if they are alive or dead.
Be gentle with the amphibians. Handle as little as possible, preferably with moist hands.
Release all amphibians off dirt portion of road onto shoulder in direction they were headed.
Report your numbers to a data recorder with a clipboard before you start losing track.
Check under and around your car for amphibians when you leave.
Please approach the site and leave following the directions above to keep from adding to traffic over the crossing site.
Park outside the crossing area in the designated location.
Keep your eyes open for other crossing areas on your drive home and let us know if you find any.
We did not escort any Eastern Newts, like this one, but I hope to see them later this spring.
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Acres of new real estate, previously accessible only by boat, become available for exploration on foot.
Fisherman, cell phone photo
Fishing is the winter sport of choice. Whole towns spring up, populated by fun loving, hard drinking fisher-people.
Fishing village, gouache on brown paper
Give up the booty, gouache on brown paper
Four fishing shanties, gouache on brown paper
Up on top there is the bait, and the fish who take it.
bait fish, cell phone photo
land locked salmon, gouache on brown paper
Pike and lake salmon carcasses, fillets removed, cell phone photo
But I became fascinated with what was going on UNDER all that ice.
What’s down below, gouache on paper
My personal goal for this winter is to walk across my lake and to drink an Irish Coffee in a pub on the other side If this happens I’ll let you know!
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As I, too, move and pare down, this eloquent post by Margaret Chodos-Irvine speaks loudly to me.
She was the last pup in the litter.
I picked her up, cuddled her and immediately called her Pumpkin.
Pumpkin was an affectionate name in my family, a term of endearment like Sweetie or Honey. I took her home and we became an inseparable pair.
One of the first adventures we had together was driving from Vermont to California and back in a small Ford pick-up with my boyfriend, and our old, family dog, a German Shepherd named Thumper.
Pumpkin came to every class at art school, she was my model and muse and, when I got my first job after college. She came to work with me. When I started dating the reporter, she gave him the seal of approval.
Her name didn’t fit a black and white border collie, but she ALWAYS looked good with the real gourds!
It is hard, this time of year, not to see her in the Pumpkin Patch.
Walking in the woods I found the destroyed nest of a Paper Wasp colony.
According to Wikipedia: “wasps gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct water-resistant nests made of gray or brown papery material.”
Cool!
You can see the gray and brown mixing beautifully here.
The nest is swathed in these sheets and blankets of paper to protect the cells inside. The cells are for brood rearing. They are perfect hexagons, just big enough for the queen to back into and lay an egg. This post from Hilton Pond Center explains that part beautifully.
I tried to insert a finger into one, but they were all too thick, including my pinkie.
Wasps build these nests in protected areas such as under the eaves of houses or in trees. I suspect this one was destroyed by humans and tossed into the woods as trash, but I prefer to think it fell from this pine during a windstorm.
Two views from Rattlesnake Cliffs, overlooking Lake Dunmore, Vermont.
McAfee Knob, on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia. Not terribly high, but a breathtaking experience if you are acrophobic!
And the view from Tinker Cliffs, looking south along the serpentine chain of the Appalachians
And finally, a recent painting from the top of Snake Mountain in Addison, Vermont. The fertile fields of Addison County, Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains are in the distance.
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