After a sweltering dry summer, we seem to be having a very early fall.The temperatures have dropped drastically in the last 2 weeks, one morning I saw frost on the cars! It's also raining several times a week. It's too bad some of that rain wasn't here a month or so ago. The newspaper has stories of the poor harvests farmers are having. A lot of the trees are already turning yellow at the end of their branches, which usually doesn't happen till the beginning of October. I'm wondering how the weather will affect the fall leaf colors.
This photo is one I took of goldenrod flowers, which are abundant this time of year in the wilder patches along the roads. When I was in elementary school, we had a ruled tablet to practice our letters in and it had a drawing of a goldenrod on the cover. Ever since then, I've had fond feelings for the plant.
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As always, I'm emotionally vested in the presidential election process. As a lifelong liberal Democrat, I am hoping for President Obama to be re-elected. I don't like Mitt Romney, I think he will do or say anything to be elected and his running mate, Paul Ryan has shown that he too, will tell any lie to make himself look better. I used to think Romney was a decent guy who made a Faustian bargain, but I don't think he's so decent anymore. I think his wealth & business experience has given him priorities and a view of the world that is nothing like most Americans, or for that matter, regular people in any country. I am looking forward to the debates in October, which I react to as if they are a soccer game, cheering on my candidate.
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I'm working on a picture of a sea otter for a customer's granddaughter. It's nearly done. I'm using Prismacolor pastel pencils on a royal blue paper. I haven't had a lot of experience with the Prismacolor pencils, so I suspect I'm using them with too heavy a hand. The otter came out a bit dark, so I'm trying to lighten him up, so that he shows up better on the dark paper. I think I can get that to work. I'm pleased with the way the water came out, I even put little waves with foam on top to show the movement of the water. Hopefully, I'll be finished with it within the next week or so.