I know I said I would do something different today, I also said that I would be working on some altered art, but I changed my mind. Why? (As if anyone but me cares.) We decided to go for a walk today, actually it was a hike. We live near what is called the Santa Rosa Plateau in Southern California. It is a spectacular nature preserve with incredible vistas. If you can ever make it there it should be much earlier than the end of April. Although it was beautiful today, if you can manage to be there in early March that is definitely the time to go. Vernal pools arise out of nowhere, and the wild flowers are everywhere. It is a very hilly area with a few rough spots, but so well worth it. The temperature was a bit warm, in the mid 80’s, and we wore the wrong shoes, and both were rewarded with sunburn, but I took more than 250 photos today. Almost all were of flowers, and that is what led to today’s post. I was so inspired by what I saw today that I decided to draw some of the Lupines that grow in abundance here in the spring. It is a pencil sketch, using both color pencil and lead pencil, and a white Conte’ crayon. It isn’t exact, which is actually a good thing because it means I’m learning to let go a little. The altered art can wait until tomorrow. I’m tired, burned, and done in by the hike. So I will make this short, post my drawing, and treat you all to a few photos from today.

By the way, as always there is food. We had a lovely afternoon in our garden after the hike with a chilled bottle of Chardonnay and a meat and cheese platter.