Autumn in New Hampshire and Maryland

For any new viewers to my site...welcome! I draw on site, not from photographs. Either sitting or standing to sketch, I draw on small paper. Sometimes I start immediately with pen, other times for a more complex subject, I start the basic composition in pencil.

How do I choose my subjects? Each scene must challenge my head, and tug at my heart. After those two criteria are met and I start my work, it is all a kind of dance between my eye, brain, heart, hand, and drawing tool. Just the act of carrying pencil and paper with me improves my observational skills! I feel engaged with the world when I am looking for beauty.

A farmhouse in Bradford, New Hampshire. If you keep adding on to your house, you eventually get to the barn. Then you don’t have to go outside to feed the animals.

The apple pie baking contest at Spring Ledge Farm in New London. There were 33 pies submitted, and I chose three to draw. Number ten did tie for first place, so I guess it tasted as good as it looked.

The Fall selection at Spring Ledge Farm. I included the yellow house across the street, as it fit in so well with the color scheme. It is a New England style Greek Revival built around 1830.

October is a big month for yellow and orange. This is the Autumn view from our top story window-wall. On the Northeast end of the house our windows go floor to ceiling. It is like living in a tree house.

The same view, as seen from the deck about three weeks later. We live in a beech forest, and those leaves stay on in a russet color until Spring. The white bark of the birch trees is lovely all year. The ridge in the background disappears when the leaves return in springtime.

I drew this in 2008, a year ago. I called this tree the ‘show off’ tree, as it glowed long after the other leaves were gone.

The boats at rest on Pleasant Lake. Mount Kearsarge is in the background.

Main Street, Ellicott City, Maryland. I think that this old building near the rail road station was once a hotel. It is built into the granite hillside. Yes, that is a large teddy bear on the porch roof. It is now a toy store.

The Wilkins-Rogers flour mills, a block from the hotel in the last drawing. This company makes Washington brand cake and muffin mixes. The Ellicott brothers settled here in Maryland to grow wheat and mill it. So I feel this building is a direct link to the past.

The Thomas Isaac cabin, on upper Main Street. Another link to the town’s beginnings.

Again, Main Street. Actually, almost all the commercial buildings are on this one street. The yellow brick store is from the 1920’s. The other two far earlier. I never knew why the windows and door are off-center in the middle building. It is of locally quarried granite.

And here is a large chunk of that granite. In some parts of town the granite stone flows right down to the brick sidewalk. This is rush hour (probably rush 15 minutes). ‘Sweet’ is the name of a bakery new to me since my last visit.

A window in Baltimore. I found this scene so charming, with toddler toys stored so neatly on the window sill, and crayon scribble marks to complete the décor. This rowhouse is next door to our daughter and son-in-law’s house. The two year old boy has a new sister.

Canadian Rockies and Baltimore

The view of the Colin Range in Jasper Township, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.

This is our fourth trip to the beautiful town of Jasper.
This view is from my favorite restaurant, Earl’s.

Whistlers Mountain above the village of Jasper, with the tramway building at the near top. You can see six mountain ranges from the top. The elevation is 7,472 feet or 2,277 meters. We hiked from the building to the top of the mountain in 40 minutes of hard work, to see the 360 degree view. In the very foreground is the clear and aqua Lake Beauvert.

I often draw from wherever I find a comfy seat. This is the view of Jasper from inside the tramway restaurant. Jasper is a lovely, crescent shaped town that cannot grow larger because of the National Park rules. You see many lakes, Jasper Park Lodge on the far right, and the very busy train tracks. Two rivers meet here. The glacial one is aqua colored. They flow into the Arctic Sea.

A typical view in Jasper, from our Greek Restaurant, the Palisades. The grey rocks are limestone. The one with the brown stone top is called Old Man Mountain. Some say it looks like a sleeping Indian complete with feathers aside his face.

The view from the Alberta Rocky Mountain High B&B (great place!) in Canmore, a town just outside Banff National Park (about 200 miles south of Jasper via the gorgeous Icefields Parkway). The mountains are called the Three Sisters. Funny how the three peaked roof lines echo the mountain profiles. I didn't notice this until done drawing. The morning sun was just catching the mountaintops.

Canmore’s pictographs at Grassi Lakes. We hiked here.
It was steep, but less than an hour’s effort.
Experts say these drawings are 10,000 to 14,000 years old. What do you think they mean?

Back to the East Coast, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. This is Greektown as is plain to see. The buildings as I drew them all have an odd slant. Must have been holding my paper at an angle.

The view of Lakewood and Fairmount Avenues, Baltimore. From the rooftop of our daughter’s house. The big black object in the foreground is the tar-papered covered roof where I was standing. I was locked out on the roof at the time, so I had plenty of time to draw.

Snikle, the official cat of the Elkins Post Office, where we collect our mail.
A VERY friendly and soft cat.

The centerpiece of my birthday meal in Edmonton.
My sister and our granddaughters designed this unusual decoration for the table.

New Hampshire, New Orleans

A bucket of blueberries, picked by me. I sat down in the field to draw them.
I loved the red color as well.

The old mills at Claremont, NH. They are now being renovated.
Mt. Ascutney, in Vermont, is in the background.

An old house in Newport, NH.
I never saw a house that looked like this. The double veranda looks very Southern to me.
Perhaps the builder's family moved to New Hampshire from the South.
And the medallion is very oversized and boastful-looking

Sunapee Harbor, NH. Two tourists are taking time out for a game of checkers.
My husband and I are sitting under the canopy, having a picnic.

The Ryder Corner School, 1810–1938. Croyden NH.
Moved to the Muster Field Farm Museum in North Sutton, NH in 1991

End of the summer corn. Inexpensive and delicious.

A view from our hotel in the French Quarter, New Orleans. A family trip in 1987.

New Hampshire, New York, and Ontario

New Hampshire

One room schoolhouse, 1868, Sutton. No longer in use.
Note bell at the right.

Schoolhouse, Route 11, New London.
I think the two doors separated the girls from the boys. A private residence now.

A one room schoolhouse, moved on site to the New London Historical Society Village.

The Inn at Pleasant Lake, New London.
I sat on the grass across the road to draw this long building in order to highlight
the late summer perennial flowers.

Western New York

The home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls.
Part of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park.
That’s Elizabeth and her seven children taking a walk. I tried to feel her presence when I was there.

Ontario

A four foot (no pun intended) high set of boots covered with velvet maple leaves.
These were in the window display of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.

The view across the street from our rental vacation house in Toronto.
The trouble with duplexes.

Corner of Danforth and Gillard Avenues, Greektown, Toronto.
This says Toronto to me....Asian, Middle Eastern, Greek, and Ethiopian store front businesses in one building.
The two guys in front of the Greek Social Club invited me for coffee.

Kingston, Ontario, at the eastern end of Lake Erie.
The defense towers were built in 1845 to protect the strategic Rideau Canal
during a dispute with the U.S. over claims for Oregon and Washington.
Though that crisis is long past, the wind farm on the right is a response to the current energy concerns.
The pleasure boats have their colorful summer canvas roofs.

Strawberries from Spring Ledge Farm, New London.

New Hampshire

New London, NH. Bill Kidder's car collection. The cars on the lawn are visiting.
Note that the car in the center has adaptations for travel on snow.

Water Street, Bradford, NH - a wood frame house built in the early 1800's.
My grandmother lived here when I was young. So many good memories here, many around the Sunday dinner table.

Water Street, Bradford, NH - Another house of the same era.
My aunt, Anne Wasson, started her medical practice here in 1950.
She often accepted payments of fish, eggs, and bread.

Wedding of my brother Ted and Christine

The MV Kearsarge, a replica of a steam boat from about 1900 that sailed around
Lake Sunapee.
In those days, families would take a train from Boston or New York. Then they took the ship to their summer cottage or one of the grand hotels to spend the summer on the lake.
On this day, we cruised, dined, and watched the Captain marry the happy couple.
That's the new family standing up there on the bow.
The weather was glorious.

Postcard view of an original steamship on Lake Sunapee about 1909, possibly the first MV Kearsarge

The wedding cake, surrounded by wedding cupcakes. The views of the lake are seen through the windows.

Old Orchard Beach, Maine

The Pier at the resort, dating from about 1890.
Note the Canadian flag, as well as the American and the state flag of Maine. Many people come here from the nearby province of Quebec, and the town welcomes them with open arms, and lots of signs in French.
A fun place, for sure.

It's not a beach resort without minigolf.

Our new pet, Hank, whose microchip says he is at least 11.

New Hampshire, Baltimore, and China

New Hampshire

Sunday afternoon at the aptly named Pleasant Lake, New London, NH.
Our kayaks are the last two on the right.
Mount Kearsarge is in the background, with the steep trail heading down the slope.


Baltimore

High Grounds, at the corner of Eastern and East, Baltimore
Brett roasts the beans in the back room, where you see the exhaust pipe
coming through the window.

This is Brett’s roaster.
You can see the reflection of the books and the shelves in the chrome,
as it is in the back room of a book store.

The Pagoda in Patterson Park, Baltimore.
Designed in 1891 by Charles Latrobe. It has been restored and is open
every Sunday in the summer.

The view of the Baltimore Harbor, from the top of the Pagoda.
Key Bridge in the upper left, and Fort McHenry in the far right,
where the Star Spangled Banner yet waves, of course.

The humble sight of the back of the rowhouses next to ours,
all built circa 1910, and added on to through the years.
Highlandtown, Baltimore Maryland

Our walled garden behind our rowhouse.
I drew this while sitting up high on a worn wooden step,
which is the grey object in the lower right of the composition.


China

Family trip to China 2006
This is the view from our hotel window in Hangzhou.
Note fisherman, bamboo scaffolding, and tour buses.
The long red roofed buildings are construction workers’ dormitories.
You see them everywhere!

View from our hotel in Shanghai.
Early in the AM, but notice the school children lined up and doing their exercises with military precision.
The new parts of the city are in the background.

We really had no idea what we were eating sometimes in China.
This meal surprised me. We never did figure out which three items were the “delicacies.”
We were treated to three excellent banquets where we sometimes recognized the foods.

Simon on the red sofa and Ikea pillow