Looking To See
When Drawing On Paper
When drawing on paper with pencils and pens,
The picture you make often depends,
On the colors you choose as you draw in each line,
And they just reflect what you see in your mind.
So when muses come running and tickle your fancy
A whole lot depends on the way that you see,
Look long and look hard in advance of your start,
And that way your scribbles will turn out to be art.
—JBN
Are you paying attention to everything around you? Take this little quiz to find out.
A Quiz on Your Place
1) Which direction does your bedroom window face?
2) If you were going to plant a garden would you put it on the south side of a row of trees or on the north side? Why
3) Three things happen to the precipitation that falls on your yard or in a park. What are the three things?
4) When a west wind blows, which direction does the wind come from?
5) What is the shortest day of the year called? What is the longest day of the year called? Are there times of the year when day and night are equal?
6) If you pound a nail into a small tree exactly four feet above the ground (but don’t do it!) and then come back ten years later, how high off the ground will the nail be?
7) Name three different trees that live in your neighborhood, and for each one also give their binomial (also known as scientific, or Latin) name. Here’s the scientific name for the red squirrel: Tamiasciurus hudsonicus.
8) Name three different birds you see frequently. Binomial name is optional.
9) What things grow in your yard, neighborhood, or nearby park that would be okay (or good) for you to eat?
10) Would it be better to camp out when the barometer is rising or when it’s falling?
11) What kinds of things should be composted?
12) When you are outside at night and look at the sky, can you find the big dipper and the north star?
13) How many days are there between one full moon and the next?
14) What’s the most common rodent in your yard, neighborhood, or park?
15) Where would you most likely find millipedes and pill bugs?
Frost after a foggy morning in Wisconsin. I think the two fence posts to the right of the tree help make this a good photo. The rabbit tracks more or less paralleling the clouds above help too.
An old question asks, “What’s the best kind of camera to have?” And, the answer is, “The one you have with you.” That’s the beauty of a phone with a good camera—you have a camera when you come across a scene like this.
Here’s an interesting way to experience music. See and hear at the same time. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.