Golf courses are so enjoyable to walk around. I walked with my husband around nine holes in Palmer with my sketchbook. I’ve never been a very fast sketcher, but I wanted to see if I could get some sketches down between his shots. I started out sketching with a pen on a grid of about 2″ x 3″ rectangles. Each of these took less than two minutes. I filled them in with watercolor later. The larger ones I sketched at the tee or while my husband putted at the green, giving me a little more time.

If you are new to sketching and want an idea for getting started, consider this approach. Think of something interesting to you, then make a grid and fill it with simple images. If you look at the small sketches I did, you will see there aren’t very many lines drawn.  The color gives it life. Use watercolor, colored pencil, markers, or even crayons. You could do everyday objects such as shoes or mugs or do a page of blossoms growing in your garden-or weeds as the case may be. Fishing tackle would make interesting images to draw. Remember, you don’t have to fill up the page in one day. Enjoy the process and sketch what you know or explore what you don’t. I don’t know much about horse tack, but there is a barn nearby with lots of things to draw. Might be fun!

I’d love to know if you do this and how it works for you.

Last week we went for a four-wheeler ride with snow falling around us. So far, it has been the coldest July on record. I think the birds are knitting socks for their fledglings since it is so cold. It is definitely taking longer than usual for birds to fly from the nest. This robin was busily feeding her chicks between sitting on them to warm them up.

In a shadowy spot near a lake grow the most beautiful Northern Lady Slippers. So elegantly they glow in the dappled sunshine I just had to inelegantly sit in the moss to sketch the last few blooms of the summer.

My husband and I went on a little four-wheeler trip into the mountains on Sunday. Dramatic storm clouds ripped up and down the valley as we watched out of the wind on a hillside eating our lunch. Shooting stars, anemone, cranberry flowers and deep blue gentian were everywhere.

Something like snow started to fall. It was round like hail, but soft like snow. My husband called it “snail”. It looked as if it had snowed up the trail so we enjoyed the area around the pass, then made our way back home.