A SHORT WALK

Hey Friends, Today I took a short walk or a stroll just to be outside. I live in Salem, Va. next to a tiny stream of water called Gum Springs. This little spring is dry most of the year. When we are lucky enough to get rain, usually the spring, I love to walk around the area just to look at the water. The photo above is directly at the bottom of our gravel, muddy driveway. Pretty small at this point. In a couple of months the area to the left will be covered in day lillys. In another 2 weeks or so, there will be a bunch of May Apples, Dog Tooth Violets, Jack in the Pulpits and several other wildflowers along with daffodils and perennial geraniums springing up everywhere. This is the best time of the year.

In the photo above, I'm further down the stream and its getting a bit bigger. Can you see the moss growing on the big rock? This is a very rocky area and most of them have moss growing on them. Again the Dog Tooth Violets are sprouting already. I have painted these wildflowers many times and this little spring also.

Now I'm almost to the end of our little country road. This farmer made a dam to create this little pond. Gum Springs flows into it and out again and on for several miles to merge with the Roanoke River. Don't know why he wanted this pond, he has no horses or cows. He probably likes the ducks that visit. I took a bunch of photos that I plan to use as reference for paintings. So come back again to see what I've done with the paint. Have a wonderful weekend and get outside, life is much shorter than you realize.

Happy Trails.