Season of November Autumn

As I am going about my weekly errands this month, I'm reminded in the greeting card displays and in the offerings at the grocery store that this is the week we will be celebrating Thanksgiving here in America, and here in California.  I am reminded during this annual November season how much there is to be thankful for.  We have had special blessings in the Sacramento Valley this year.  The weather has been a little warmer this November to allow the roses to bloom a little longer and to allow the trees to turn a more brilliant autumn color for a longer period of time this year.  As I worked on a couple of autumn watercolors this past month, I thought about the brilliant crimsons, orange vermillions, the mahogany maroons and the golden yellows I saw in the leaves as I travelled around town.

My husband and I were able to return to Hope Valley in the Sierras in mid October just before the rains came to the area.  We were able to witness the annual show of the Hope Valley golden aspen glowing so bright against the deep green of the pines in the background.  Attached to this blog are two paintings of the Hope Valley aspens.  I enjoyed studying the shadows on the aspen bark, enjoyed hearing the wrestling sound of the aspen leaves created by the wind and remembering the clear blue autumn sky and glorious passages of yellow and orange.

Wishing you a warm Thanksgiving.

"Autumn in California is a mild and anonymous season, hills and  alleys are colorless then, only the sooty green Eucalyptus, the conifers and oaks sink deep in the haze; the fields are plowed, bare, waiting; The steep pastures are tracked deep by the cattle; There are no flowers, the herbage is brittle.  All night along the coast and the mountain crest birds go by, murmurous, high in the warm air.  Only in the mountain meadows the aspens glitter like goldfish moving up swift water; Only in the desert villages the leaves of the cottonwoods descend in smoky air."  Kenneth Rexroth, Autumn in California, 1940