Down a lane in the Cedar Heights neighborhood of my hometown of Cedar Falls, Iowa is an abandoned orchard left from when this was farmland and not residential. This iron gate is a curious remnant of another time. Recently, the land changed hands. The scuttlebutt is that the new owner will be building multiple new homes. When I got back from my recent trip to California, I sensed it was now or never if I wanted to capture this artifact in a drawing.
For most of the 2 hour time doing this, everything was quite delightful as I sat on my stool, set up across the road in the leaf mulch. Then at the very end, I got swarmed by itty bitty bugs. They weren't biting, but they were all over me and my stuff (inside my crayon box! inside my gear bag! under my hat! under my shirt! between the pages of my sketchbook! EEEEK!) Needless to say, I hightailed it home. Later, my husband identified the critters as harmless spring tails. Before I was attacked I snapped this photo of my set-up.
I love the light in this, Marcia!
ReplyDeleteAutumn: the seasonal of glowing light. Don't you love it?
DeleteVery pretty, sorry about those critters!
ReplyDeleteOh the rigors of plein air drawing! Alls well that ends well: 1) they weren't fleas 2) I like the drawing
DeleteNice fall colors. Glad you were able to capture this before it's gone. I look at things like the railing, the house I posted, and wonder what used to be there. What was it like then?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dave. Sometimes we're lucky, sometimes we're not.There was a row of old, closed wooden tarpaper roofed sheds that were built along a curve in the RR tracks near my house that was on my to-draw list. When I went to draw them, they were gone--bulldozed just the day before. Neat that we did back-to-back posts on the "abandoned" theme. I only became aware of that after I'd posted.
DeleteI thought that was neat too.
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