| Lily, Cathy and Margaret! |
My March 29 post had flower photo's of Spring in Bethlehem, PA, Including a clump of bluets, with a promise of paintings of bluets when they arrived in my New Hampshire neighborhood.Here they are, finally...
Bluets have arrived, in my own
New Hampshire neighborhood.
And they've come
in their own New Hampshire fashion.
Notice the bluets' surroundings,
and what I love about living here!
Lichens and mosses
in myriad shapes and colors
festoon everything.
Notice the twig in the lower left corner.
The lighter patches, barely visible,
are small patches of lichen.
And next to the twig,
the silver green bit of lichen,
part of what is sometimes called
Grandfather's beard.
Last year's oak leaf
and the grouping
of three distinguishable pine needles,
and other grasses...
All this is part of the complexity
of patches of forest
and "lawn" floors...
Stepping back for a larger view of this particular "lawn,"
notice the flatness, the stones and sand intermixed with the patches of bluets, and the pine and birch trunks in the background.
A little about my neighborhood to explain the bluets
and their surroundings.
A bit of geology helps as well.South of where I live, the highway signs on route 16, also called the White Mountain Highway, welcome travelers to the Lakes and Mountain region.
 "Notches to the North" |
When the great ice sheets came from the north, covering the Presidential Range (the Whites) and creating the notches, they transported rocks and stones, grinding as they came over and through the mountains, digging out the basins that make up the lakes regions, south of the mountains. As the ice sheets retreated, the southern half of NH was left with lakes and outwash regions.
It is true that Freedom, a nearby town has "more civilized lawns" that include grass and the more "typical" flowers we associate with Spring. But it's the more natural parts that attract my painterly nature... my friends (Lily the 8 story pitch pine, Cathy and Margaret, the 4 story red maples) and their undergrowth.
Check my website barbaramcevoyartist.com for other paintings and under "writing painting" projects to read about "First Friends."
http://barbaramcevoyartist.com/site/North_to_the_Notches.html
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| "Lily, Cathy and Margaret" Pastel 9x12 |
