I glance toward my window and see it’s still dark out. The sun is waiting longer these days to show it’s pretty colors. Because of the terrain, light is necessary, so I wait until the sun comes up to head out. This time of year, that time varies from day to day. If I wait too long, I’m too late because it gets warm so quickly here where I live. On this pretty summer morning, just as the sun began to rise over the mountains to the east I put my jogging shoes on and headed out.

I’ve just started jogging again … not that I ever was an avid runner, but I did get up to running 3 miles and that was great for me! The first little bit of each day I jog I seem to have quite the time getting started. My breathing seems to be labored and then I’m paying so much attention to it that it seems to get worse.

The music from my phone gets me back on track though and my breathing seems to even out. I continue around my jogging path going round and round the top of our property. It’s a peaceful thing for me to do … jogging up top here … I don’t have to think about crazy dogs or wild creatures that might show up out of nowhere.

On this particular morning, as I was scanning the area like I normally do, this really pretty green plant seemed to jump out at me. The plant isn’t new here, in fact, it’s just a weed that grows on our property and has been growing here since we built the house 13 years ago. But for some reason, this morning as I was slowly jogging by, this little bit of nature caught my eye and I immediately envisioned it laid out on my white board. I knew it was going to be my next still life subject.

As I continued my jog, I noticed the same plant with its soft peach fuzz leaves and golden centers is literally everywhere on the property! I guess today was the day to feature it here.

And so, when my jogging was done, I headed on over and picked my little bunch of nature, made myself a cup of tea and finished off my morning. What is one way you spend your summer mornings? I’d love to hear in the comments!