Daisy said it best in The Great Gatsby: “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” This makes sense given how most of us spent a good decade or more programmed to reset our lives every September. Going back to school meant a new lunch pail, a fresh pad of paper, possibly new friends and most certainly a whole new set of challenges. To me, autumn feels much more a new beginning than January 1st has ever been.

Gardeners, in particular, must feel this transition acutely and peculiarly. Everything around us is changing – from the leaves in the trees to earthbound perennials. Most things green and growing are gliding slowly into dormancy.

A maple leaf photographed at our cottage in Ontario just last week.

Autumn is also the time when me and my guy close up the cottage and make our annual drive across Canada to our winter home in Fernie, British Columbia. So that re-set feeling is full-on for us. Fernie is our snowy wonderland – a great place for skiing but gardening not so much. So you may notice over the next few months that I’m posting a little less frequently.

Our cottage (above left) and a country lane (above right) are both framed by the golden glow of turning leaves here on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario.

But I hope you’ll indulge me a little. I’m looking forward to spending some of my snowbound days getting back into painting. I figure that if I put it ‘out there’ that I’ll be posting some paintings then that might be the push I need to put brush to paper.

An attempt at loosening up my brushstrokes in an exercise using acrylics led by South African-based online art instructor Malcolm Dewey.

I love a good online learning course. There are so many offerings by so many amazingly talented teachers covering techniques from sketching to painting and subject matters from landscapes to portraiture to botanic illustration. Two of my favourite online courses come from two very different but terrifically engaging people. Artist and author Shari Blaukopf hails from Montreal and teaches watercolour and gouache. Malcolm Dewey reaches out to his pupils from South Africa and teaches acrylic and oil painting. I highly recommend courses from either one of them. I was able to significantly grow in skill and confidence with their guidance.

Three cloud studies in gouache from a series of lessons I enjoyed from Canadian fine artist and online painting teacher Shari Blaukopf.

So here’s to the gardening year’s re-set. And here’s to resetting personal goals. The garden is out there, still. And we’ve got a whole new winter ahead to grow boldly.