Getting Out on (Different) Trails
One day last week, Donald and I took a little time in the morning to drive down to Graham Creek Nature Preserve in Foley. It’s been several years since I was there, so I was curious to see how it’s changed. Some of it was very familiar, but other parts look different or newly installed.
It was perfect weather for walking—not cold, but not too warm. We saw no bicycles in this preserve, either, which was nice after the crowd at the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trails, last time. We only came across one jogger with her dogs and a couple of other walking pairs, along with a few frisbee golfers. Oh, and two guys doing maintenance work. As we left, we saw lots more people with kids in the playground area (they were having some type of small event, I think), but we had the trails mostly to ourselves, which was great!
Here are some photos of the morning:
This preserve hosts an obstacle course run every year, and several of the obstacles are permanent fixtures—tires chained together on the ground, small walls to scale, logs wedged in a gully to climb under. The one in the photo below looks like it would be a serious challenge to climb over!
(There’s a bat house on the pole to the left.)
Clearing Trails at Home
On Saturday afternoon, a small group of us did a little more work on clearing more of the trails on the family property, cutting and moving trees that had fallen across the paths, trimming back branches and scrubby undergrowth, and generally making the way passable again.
The next morning I went walking along the newly cleared portions of the paths and startled a group of deer. Most of them ran off to one side of the trail, but one went the other way. After I passed that part of the trail, I heard the lone deer cautiously approaching to get back across. I gave it some space, then waited a while and manage to snap a blurry photo of it from a distance.
"Reverse Coloring Book" Doodles
It’s been a while since I used this technique. You just paint some colors on the page, let it dry, then find the picture and doodle it in.
Afterwards, I added some color pencil to increase the contrast…
Not my favorite doodle, but it could be a good technique to try again, sometime.
More Potted Plant Doodles
Are you stuck in a rut if you’re still having fun?
And it’s still fun, so it’s not a rut.
Face Doodles
This is another thing I haven’t done in a while—paint alternating face and hair shapes, then fill in the details afterwards.
And that’s it. I haven’t really done much hobby stuff since last time, or at least I don’t have many photos of it. Maybe there will be more next time!
