When I was 12 years old and living in Casablanca, Morocco, I was invited to go to our French neighbors' summer home near Carcasonne, France. Prone to homesickness to begin with, I soon turned to a small, lined notebook* I had brought to make notes about the long drive as a way to keep my mind off my trepidation about leaving home.Thus began a lifelong habit of creating travel journals. Here is my most recent page from a fun weekend exploration of an historic area just a few hours from Seattle:

Every aspect of this trip was a pleasure. The drive, the historic buildings in The Dalles, the stunning presence of Mt. Hood against the blue sky, and the wealth of cultural significance of the area. I tried to include them all. The page is 6"x10".

What could provide better material for a nature journal page than a botanical garden? I created this page on my recent trip to Florida. I have already used it as a teaching sampler for a short class I taught in March because it incorporates elements that contribute to a designed page as opposed to a random page of entries. Both approaches are fine when it comes to journaling.

This page includes: a title, a divided layout with one half being a larger sketch, and the other being a group of smaller sketches, a combination of plants, animal, and structures, and a variety of scales. The drawings and the lettering were all done with the same two items: black ink and watercolor. This assures a textural and color harmony throughout the page.

If you would like to study nature journaling with me and a small group of enthusiastic nature-lovers, please consider coming to the small community of Bay View, Washington, for a July 13 & 14 nature journaling workshop. There are 3 spots left. Please click here for more information.

Some 40 years ago, I received a postcard from my husband's sister. Her travels had taken her to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, and her awe of these places beamed through her words from that small bit of ephemera. Last week, finally, I went to Utah to visit the canyons with my husband and two friends. Grander and more overwhelming than the imagination can conjure up, the canyons are magnificent. Words barely begin to describe them. These 6"x9" tea-tinted sketches with notes record some of my experiences there. I offer up four of the seven pages I brought home. If you wish, please click on the images to see full-sized files to facilitate reading.

Beneath towering cliffs rests the rebuilt lodge at Zion National Park.

Morning musings before the fireplace at Bryce Canyon Lodge, located at the brim of the canyon at 8,000 feet.

At the start of each day, Margaret made coffee for us as we discussed the prior day's events, and decided what hikes to take that day.

This day began as they all did: with majestic stone surroundings and cerulean blue skies. I reinforced my little paintbox with suitable colors before leaving home.

Autumn arrives early in the province of Quebec, Canada. As we drove along the mighty St. Lawrence river on our way to Quebec City after having landed in Montreal the night before, the sight of the changing leaves nudged a quiet shift to occur within me. Rather than the melancholy I often feel at the outset of Autumn, I felt a keen, fresh awareness of how I would embrace the season. We spent nine days enthralled in Quebec City and Montreal; I kept a sketchbook of my experiences. Traveling with friends, we made a harmonious foursome. A month has passed since we returned from Quebec, and Autumn still has me curiously intoxicated here in Seattle. I want to read in the early mornings (this old habit somehow had been pushed out by work & exercise routines), knit, sew, make soup, plant winter-hardy violas and chard in the garden, draw, paint and write letters... I abruptly went from wanderluster to homebody, inspired and fulfilled by the earthy beauty of the places we explored in Quebec. To every thing there is a season.

Here are some entries from my sketchbook. Please click on any image for a larger view. Sorry for the omission of proper French accents in this post. I don't seem to have a bilingual font readily available!

The restored stone houses of Old Quebec beg to be sketched.

This little view was in Le Quartier Petit-Champlain.

Cafe au lait was charmingly served in large "boules."

A trip to the Musee des Beaux Arts was marvelous. One positive/negative wood sculpture inspired me to sketch it.

Travel companion John reads over breakfast.

I am always interested in viewing exhibits of the cultures of the native people. In Quebec, the First Nations are referred to as the Amerindians. I sketched this page at the excellent Musee de la civilisation in Quebec City.

The ex-voto hearts in the La Chapelle de Notre Dame de Bon Secours in Le-Vieux-Montreal contained tiny handwritten scrolls (prayers, expressions of gratitude, etc.) and were then hung high on the chapel walls.

Thank you for traveling along with me. Bonne journee!

Two days away=a world away! We spent two nights on the Columbia River at the beginning of this week. Our digs were deluxe, thanks to a gift from Eli and Amy to stay at the beautiful and hospitable  Cannery Pier Hotel (NOT the place shown above!!) in Astoria, Oregon. Our perfect room overlooking the mighty river included a wine and cheese reception each afternoon, breakfast each morning, and 24 hour beverages and fruit bowl. We braved the late winter snow and hail storms to explore the steep streets of this historic salmon fishing and river port city where the remains of the old cannery piers rise from the river's edge like decayed totem poles. On our walk I took a photo of one stately but decrepit Victorian home belonging to Harry and Mary Louise Flavel, brother and sister, great-grandchildren of the bar pilot and entrepreneur, Capt. George Flavel, whose house is the most famous one in town:

http://www.cumtux.org/default.asp?pageid=35&deptid=1

A hearty thank you goes to Elleda Wilson, an Astoria photographer (www.astoria-photografpix.com) and history buff, for finding my original blog post and writing to tell me who owns the old, empty house and for sending the full story of the legendary Flavel family! And thanks to inquisitive friend Marilyn for her full search for details on the house and its famous residents.

The abandoned house is in striking contrast to the beautifully restored Flavel House museum. The photo of the abandoned house inspired me to create a PhotoShop-facilitated collage. Above you see the layered image, and below, the original images I used to create it.

The house image was used twice, once as the straight photo, and once as a filtered photo. I placed the layers, adjusted the opacity of each, used a couple of filters on one of the house image layers (ink lines and poster edges). I erased parts of the map layer so that the house had some brighter white areas coming through on its siding. The center image above was taken of an ivy-etched concrete wall up the street from the old Victorian. After the images were manipulated, I added some handwritten notes for texture on the dominant house layer using my Wacom Tablet. The map image was scanned from an 1895 atlas page.

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