Farewell to Summer

The weather has turned cooler and there is snow in the mountains now. There has been rain which has helped put out the many wildfires around here so that was much needed. But it is obvious that summer is on the way out and autumn is here. I did a review of some of the sketchbook drawings that I did this summer and will share a few of them here. I was consistent in drawing every day and so I have a nice record to remember the summer.



These are a couple drawings from our balcony of the mountains and early summer sky. Whenever the weather is good, I like to sit out for a few minutes in the afternoon and draw the view from various angles.




One day I took a hike up to the "M" in the Bridger Mountains which is the M for MSU in Bozeman. Most of the trail has great overlooks of the valley and I stopped and drew something at every bench along the way so I filled several pages on that hike. Then when I got home, I did this with watercolor pencils from one of the sketches that I did on the hike. Some time it will probably become a tapestry.



About a month ago, we went to Emerald Lake and at the trailhead were several kinds of berries. I asked a guy there if any of the berries were huckleberries because I didn't know how to recognize the famous huckleberry. He was really nice and showed me all the different kinds there and which were which so I was happy to learn about all the berries and get to taste them. I was lucky enough to see huckleberries and so drew what I learned so that I could recognize them again next year.




These were more sketches from my balcony of the weather over the Bridgers. You can see the virga which is rain coming out of the clouds but evaporating before it hits the ground. That happens a lot around here in the summer just when you think there might be some needed rain.

So these are some of the things that I saw and learned about this summer which is our first in this house. Now with the fall weather, I need to get serious about some weaving and I'm also ready to do some baking again which I love but it has been too hot. It is a little sad when the seasons end but I love the changing seasons and so it is exciting to see what the autumn will bring. The leaves are already changing colors and dropping.