remembering fall

It's cold and wet now, we have rain, just north of us snow is on the way. But I'm looking back through my journal and an entry from early October, maybe late September, I don't know because I didn't write the date, brought back memories of warmer weather:
       
My friend and I drove over to Spotsylvania Courthouse Battlefield at 5:30 for a picnic and walk. Sitting near the meadow we watched the dragonflies cross stitching the air above the grasses. Flocks of small birds commuted from one tree to another, settling down for the evening. It's the end of summer and the fields are ripe- burnished copper grasses dotted with goldenrod and white daisies. The end of the day. It comes earlier every evening. We walked out the light. On the return loop the dark gathered in the woods, bats carried it across the sky. Deer quietly walked out from the woods but stayed in the shadows. Everything is so beautiful, it's just woods and fields preserved to remember the dead. An empty space colonized by deer and mice, hawks and dragonflies, grass and trees. 

I did some small 8x10 panels in December, oil paintings on wood. I am still using a medium under the paint with a fine grain sand that adds a little texture.