Starting the Autumn Journal

 I am horrible at using Adam's little homemade books to write in, but I love using them as holders for artistic endeavors. I gathered a few autumn items from the outdoors:

 I sketched a leaf and colored it in with pencils. The paper Adam uses for these pages is not good for watercolor paints.

 I've put both packets of pages into the cover, which is made of heavy felt. I may embroider that felt ... later.

 And it's all held together with a handy elastic band. These really are wonderful little books. This one is 6" by 9".

 Then I did some more leaves I'd found in the pasture.

 

And I tucked them into the pocket Adam included in the book. The pocket is made of heavy scrapbook paper and has a flap.
And what is an Autumn Journal without a blustery day scene?

This gum ball was a challenge. 

 

This is R. Anne. She was my next subject, and this time I chose to use watercolors.

 

Adam included a little pocket in the back of the book with sheets of mixed media paper in it, so I could also paint. Now R. Anne will travel around with all the autumn art I will do.

Maybe I should write an autumn story? Or some autumn poetry? Or at least copy a few favorite autumn poems? Here's my favorite autumn poem; I've shared it before. I think I share it every fall!

October

by Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon, release another leaf;

One from our trees; one far away.

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes' sake, if they were all

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost --

For the grapes' sake along the wall.

And now, after reading that again (and trying again to commit it to memory), I feel a need to be outdoors and not in front of a computer screen. See you later! I'm off to the pasture and then to the garden!