Artful Journeys Week #16 - EARTH DAY

Earth Day is April 22 and we are asking  you to honor this special day in your own way this week at Artful Journeys by creating a journal page with this beautiful Earth in mind.

As I thought about what I wanted to do this week, I was taking notice of all the beauty around me...really looking at what I was seeing.  There's a new little colt down the road that is so cute on its still-spindly legs, staying close to its momma.  And the little baby goats I saw, hopping around the pasture like the "kids" that they are. And the rebirth of "green" all over the place--flowers, flowering bushes, trees, gardens, wildflowers.  We are having a wonderfully wet spring and growth is everywhere.

One of the most beautiful rewards of spring in Texas are our roadways that come alive with our state flower -- Bluebonnets.  Thanks in part to a big initiative by Lady Bird Johnson years and years ago, the state actually seeded Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrush and red Clover on the medians and roadsides along all the interstate freeways throughout the state. And the bluebonnets are spectacular this year thanks to the rains we have been getting.  Nothing makes me happier than a field full of these beauties of the lupine family, with their heads full, standing tall and proud to delight the eyes.

So my spread this week honors our beautiful bluebonnets.  I took a lot of pictures of bluebonnets and other wildflowers blooming along the roadways near my home as I do every year.  But none compared to this two page spread I found in an old Texas Highways magazine in my hoarded collection. It was perfect. It could be anywhere in rural Texas.  It said everything I was seeing. The scene makes you want to stop and linger, evoking memories of springs past.  There is nothing more beautiful than a scene just like this, repeated all over the state.

This spread was collaged in two-page format in my Dylusions journal. Across the bottom, I used Admiral Blue craft acrylic to hold a little journaling and doodling with a white Signo Uniball pen.

My poem is a mostly-Texan thought process.  Being a 5th generation native Texan, we know this saying to be so true. Loving our state and being proud of where we are from is ingrained in  us from the time we have ears to listen.  We KNOW that there is no place better than Texas.  And we promise not to ask where you are from.  But you can come visit us anytime and see all our beautiful bluebonnets.  But hurry--once the heat starts, they will be gone.

So go out, enjoy the beauty around you and show us what is in your corner of the earth that makes you happy.

Artfully,
Betty aka Arty Auntie