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EV charging station at a small trailhead in Maine. Amazing the places you can find these. (Also amazing how many places you cannot find these.)

Buck’s Ledge Trail near Woodstock, Maine. Chargepoint.

An electric vehicle charging station is situated outdoors surrounded by greenery and trees.
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Another of my two-color watercolor attempts from last summer when I was just getting started with the technique.

Two abstract figures are depicted seated on the ground in watercolor, one with a distinct blue and orange hue.
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Sunrise with monarch caterpillar on Asclepias.

A caterpillar with black, white, and yellow stripes is resting beneath a sunlit green leaf.
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Experiment with two colors.

A watercolor painting features a blue bird's nest with two eggs, using shades of burnt sienna and cerulean blue, accompanied by handwritten notes.
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Adding to pages as I travel. We are back home, and with the tiring parts of travel behind us I’m looking back over the sketches I made in Vermont and Maine. So good to see old friends, our old home state, our alma mater, and the familiar landscapes of forests, lakes, and mountains.

Two sketches depict a common loon and a mountain landscape with handwritten text describing the scenes and dates.
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Another small scene from this week’s trip to Vermont and Maine.

A bee is perched on a blooming blackberry flower with green leaves, accompanied by a handwritten note detailing the location and date.
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Sketching daily, capturing the small scenes before me.

A sketch of an airplane at a gate, with handwritten text describing travel delays due to storms.
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Chicago’s storms delayed our return from college reunion / anniversary travel by about a day but when we got back we found new life waiting for us in the garden. Pictured: a monarch caterpillar on milkweed and a robin’s egg in a nest.

A caterpillar with distinctive black, white, and yellow stripes crawls on a large green leaf, next to a cluster of pink and purple flowers.A bird's nest is nestled in a corner, holding a single blue egg.

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Loon

While canoeing with a friend today this loon popped up a few meters from our canoe. It looked at us for a moment and then vanished beneath the water again. I had time for a quick photo, from which I painted this in white gouache and black watercolor.

All the ponds around here (near Bethel, Maine) seem to have multiple loon nests. It’s wonderful to see them.

A black-and-white drawing depicts a common loon swimming in water, with text indicating Bryant Pond, Maine, the date 10 June 2026, and the bird's name.
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A Walk In The Woods

Journaling as I hike. The outline of the sketch took me a few seconds. A quick wash of green filled in the land, and some blue gouache gave color to water and sky (the waters above and the waters below). I added notes when we got home from the hike. It could have been a photograph but I forget photographs so quickly. This one sketch—combined with the willingness to keep adding notes—becomes both a record of a fine walk in the woods, and an opportunity to recall and deepen my memories.

Watercolor sketch depicting a landscape with labeled ponds and mountains, featuring handwritten notes describing the scenery and observations from Buck’s Ledge, Maine.
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A few more flowers. I stopped to sit alongside the trail to paint these. I tried first just with the brush, then I tried sketching before painting. Pretty happy with both results, especially since I was terrible at watercolors two years ago.

A hand-drawn illustration of Rock Harlequin flowers is accompanied by text noting its scientific name, the date June 10, 2026, and the location Buck's Ledge, Maine, with an elevation of 1120 feet.
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Azure bluet. Photographed along the banks of the Androscoggin River yesterday, a river that used to be one of the most polluted in the country and that now is a model of what caring for clean water can accomplish.

A hand-drawn illustration of an Azure Bluet flower is shown with labels including the date 10 June 2026 and the location Maine.
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Another sketch from yesterday’s wandering in the woods.

A hand-drawn illustration of a six-spotted tiger beetle is accompanied by text indicating its scientific name, location, and date.
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Insects

Spending a few days in Maine with my wife and some friends. As we have strolled around the pond where we honeymooned 35 years ago, I keep noticing the small lives and snapping photos. Then, back at the kitchen table, I have been painting a few. I love ebony jewelwings, which I rarely see. And who doesn’t love sphinx moths?

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The Imperfect Perfect

When the bird lands, start to sketch. When it moves, move your pen to another part of the page and begin again. The bird might not hold still, so when it flits away or swings its head, move your pen again. Don’t get frustrated with the bird. Don’t wish it would sit still. The fact that it is moving means that you are watching it alive. The movement of your pen to a new spot means that while you aren’t making a photo, you’re capturing tiny moments in its wild, fast-moving life. The imperfections of your sketches are living pictures of this perfect little bird, this phoebe, this one right here, right now. And up above, three little phoebe mouths, newly hatched, open wide in the little nest, eager for their parents to come back, swiftly and safely, with this morning’s food.

Your life is like this, too. The little things, the fast motions, the flitting. What matters most: the small ones who depend upon us to act faithfully, not perfectly, but with love.

A series of sketches and notes depict various poses of a small bird with a focus on its features and behavior, alongside a nest illustration.
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“It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disaster to discuss the matter.”

— Thucydides, 1.78. Robert Strassler translation.

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Penstemon. From yesterday’s prairie run.

Purple flowers bloom along a gravel path with greenery on a sunny day.
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Songs of hope

On a prairie walk with a friend yesterday he asked me: how do we help people who care about nature not be consumed by despair when they see the amount of harm we have done? Extinctions, pollution, loss of habitat, etc.

One thing we wondered about: what are the songs that evoke both hope and a positive engagement with nature? Do you have any that come to mind?

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Nature Journaling

My teacher John Muir Laws says that nature journals get better when words and numbers are added to images so I decided that last image needed some more. I did a little more reading about the Hemp Dogbane plant and wrote down some of what I learned. I think the entry is now much better. Most importantly, I learned through the process! Adding the snowberry clearwing moth was fun as well. (Those who know my work know my fondness for insects.)

A detailed illustration of a plant labeled Hemp Dogbane shows green leaves, white flowers, and a yellow and black insect (a snowberry clearwing moth, hovering beside its host plant) accompanied by handwritten notes about the plant's characteristics and uses.
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Hemp Dogbane (Apocynum cannabium)

A botanical illustration of a hemp dogbane plant with green leaves and small white flowers is depicted on a brown background.