Stuart, Midi, and I spent Sunday afternoon at Gabis Arboretum: Purdue Northwest’s Planty Annex. Julie and I were discussing options for a potential series of prayer/nature walks and she reminded me that Gabis exists. I always think it’s farther away than it is. We wanted to go to the Dunes and hike the Bailey Cemetary trail but it gets super muddy this time of year. Gabis was more navigable, but there were fewer trees so I got to work on my first sunburn of the year.

The trains weren’t set up or running yet which was a bit of a bummer. It was neat seeing the in-progress setup though:

There were many dandelions, so I was able to sit on top of the mounds and make the first dandelion chain of the year! Don’t come at me about stealing bee food- there were thousands of dandelions.

And best of all- the Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) were up! This is the best wildflower ever because the flowers look like little pants hanging upside down on a line to dry. There were many other wildflowers up around the Heron and Owl Trails as well.

I took some time on Sunday evening and Monday morning to paint and art journal. It was wonderful and I am so glad I was able to do that. Nothing is made very well, but I took much joy in creating it.

I made a postcard for Stuart (not shown), a painting of a burned-over prairie at sunrise with “Behold I make all things new” from Rev 21:5, and set up an art journaling page. I think I’m going to paint the backs of a bunch of the postcards with scripture quotes and keep them in my bag so I have them to give if needed.

But I’m not going to beat myself up if I can’t paint every day, especially with starting a class at Purdue Global this week. I’ll just do the best I can, which is all I can do.