Flower bed in July 

Sedum budding, grass going to seed, Knockout roses in bloom, echinacea wilting in heat, volunteer cherry tomatoes ripening....bird song.

Roundabout

The retaining walls of the center of the new roundabout are up, and the pile of earth has been leveled. Traffic continues to flow east and west around it. (North-south traffic goes through the underlying bypass, just west.) It's larger than it appears here. The backhoe should be smaller, and the approaching Bridge Street narrower.

Orange and white barrels are everywhere. Looking northwest.
This paper curls a little, slightly skewing the photo.

Cheese crackers

Hot day, down to the last snack in the house.

Playing with Stabilo Carb-Othello pastel pencils.

Waiting room

Above, the other side of a semi-circular couch; below, the view out the window to the left--a pond with a fountain in the center, enclosed by trees.

Anna's Restaurant, Greek Cuisine

The main course didn't last long enough to draw. Babette's Feast could hardly have been better.

(I had a tendency toward the dread "hairy lines" here. Probably thinking of dessert.)

Water Tower

I stopped to record a Costco awning, one of many recently popped up to sell memberships for an imminent local opening. The water tower, one of two in the town, was more interesting.

 I tried to add puffy clouds (which were really there) later by lifting, adding gouache, and shading. It was too much scrubbing for this paper. Still, a summer moment.

Sunshine, shadow, line, curve

A few inches left at the bottom of the page, a few minutes free to sit in the sun-- a little snapshot of a moment in time.
Watercolor reflects light, falling.
 (Photo a little shadowed.) Every day matters.

Roundabout under construction

Faith Community Church

Local Evangelical Free church.

This paper is a bit rougher to draw on with a fountain pen than any other I've used so far. It's difficult to photograph without a yellow cast (under the lighting I'm using, at least). Also, sketched on site and painted later, which always sacrifices a little veracity.

Still, it's fun to see how it (the Pentalic Nature Sketch book) takes watercolor. It's the smallest mixed media sketchbook I've drawn in (5x7), and some of the sketches are feeling a little truncated. The spiral binding inhibits sketching across the gutter.

Table marker, geraniums in patio flower basket

Chick-Fil-A.

First page in small Pentalic Nature Sketch book. The paper is heavy and creamier in color than that in the Stillman & Birn Beta.

(Purchased with coupon over a year ago; trying to use supplies I have.)

Mellow Mushroom lights, with mural beyond

Playing with negative space (ceiling and arch over doorway) and a Uniball Signo white gel pen (lights).

Bridge Park towers, mid-June

"There is abundant evidence to show that high buildings make people crazy." 

Alexander, Ishikawa, & Silverstein in A Pattern Language, p. 115.

Echinacea

Waiting to be planted.

Hotels

An extended-stay hotel is being built on the southwest corner of  Route 161 and Frantz Road. (Salvi's restaurant, formerly on the site, has been torn down.) This is the southern frame of the construction being done.
Looking west, with Embassy Suites in the background.