This morning, since it's dreary outside, I decided to take some time to work on my owl painting. But I found that I didn't have one of the colors I wanted. It's from a greenish siltstone and makes a sage/grayish/yellowish green that's really nice for background hills especially for scenes set in fall or winter, or an underbody color for other seasons. So, first I had to make some paint. I'm working in thin layers for this painting, so it's going to take a while to reach the finish line. Every layer has to dry before I can add more. So not a whole lot gets done in each session. I won't begin on the trees, fence, or owl until I get the sky and background finished. But already I like the depth the distant hill gives to the scene. 1) where it started out 2) where I left it today 3) the rock and a pile of pigment from a rock like it, ready to make the paint

Well, when I went to do the swap to the lower price plan for hosting this group, I found out that my URL will change and it won't redirect to whatever generic string the new one becomes. This is a huge problem because I've put out a lot of marketing with this nature-connection URL. I don't even know where all they are, lol. Sooooo, I think for now it's going to stay as it is until I think this over some more.

I don't think this will affect anyone in the membership, but if you find out that something has changed please let me know. I'm going to downgrade my group owner status from the 'pro' model to the 'hobby' model. This will be more affordable for me and will eliminate some of the admin tools. The only thing I can see that might change on your end is the Zoom meetings - I may have to send the link out for each one instead of it showing up with a reminder at the top of the Community tab. I'm moving that to every other week instead of every week so I can do pop-up art shows every other Sunday out here when the weather is nice. I'll pull the trigger on this tomorrow... so fingers crossed it goes as planned. I'll let you know if I find out something that affects you has happened. 🤞

We have a new nature lover in the club! Hi Sophie, I hope you find some inspiration here 💚

I learned something new today - it's not that they're 'male' and 'female' plants, where female is the one that makes the fruit and has the split stem. It's that the single stemmed plants are either sterile or first year. So I was wrong about that! Also learned what might be happening to all the fruit that disappears before I get a chance to taste it: box turtles. Apparently box turtles are the main way of seed dispersion for these plants. Interesting!