Sunday 4 November 2012


A Better View

Autumn colours
The autumn leaves were not as brilliant or as colourful as I expected this fall. The temperatures were too fine well into the season so the expected frosts that make the colours bright with orange and reds did not come quickly enough. As the winds and rains, instead fell for many consistent days, the leaves went early with the weather. At the end we did finally reach many oranges and yellows but the majority of colours were the rusts. Still beautiful along with the changes, I enjoy this time of year the most. School is in and people are at their chores and making regular schedules. For me, it’s a determined effort to get back to my art with consistency. For the last two weeks it has been a panic to capture the colours of the leaves as they disappear and I was left with the darker deeper colours that cloudy days bestow on the autumn event.

Now the leaves are pretty much gone to the wind or on the ground drying into brown wrinkled skins that will crumble as they are picked up. The many straight pole like trunks of trees multiply in rows as you enter the woods edge. The more interesting gnarly twisted aged limbs and trunks become the showcase for the artist. The white birches are evident and lonely without their yellow canopy. But the true advantage for me is that I can see within the woods that were curtained before with thick impassable greenery. Now the depth of view opens up for me and access is made easier. 

More objects and the floor carpet itself becomes interesting and plants and mosses are a delight in their now individuality. I can see the old blue ford from the windows calling me in curiosity to investigate again. I had taken photos before the house construction as we explored the property. Now I want to go in closer, photograph the changes in the last two years and see deeper into the vehicle that I was hesitate to disturb as a newbie on the land. Of course there will be some caution taken in the investigation. After all, we now know our residents better. We have heard from neighbours on their larger traveling residents. Raccoons and mice are an obvious home owner here and I really don’t want to disturb a skunk. We have everything else and seen most of the animal neighbours here, but I suspect skunks are part of our menagerie. Much noise on approach and a bit of banging on the metal should move any critters onward.

We have also been asked by a few people in the area for hunting permission. We are close to the top of the hill and near the edge of our property line so we don’t relish guns in the vicinity. We know already our neighbours responses so as new residents, we will go with the majority because our land borders their property and we do not wish to open access to the neighbours who declined. It would also make me very nervous to be out and walking about our property knowing someone is in the area with a gun. We do suspect now that our 49 acres must have been accessed before to hunters by the requests and some cars or trucks part on sides of the roads around. Added to that, I have become partial to my animal habitants and we have become accustomed to their habits and they to ours. Leave undisturbed what is normal now and I believe we can all co-inhabit the area in peace.

West River /Water in Motion