Some little sprite has made itself a cozy home in the trunk of this tree, and has lit it up in honor of Christmas.

“I lay and looked through the eastern window of my room. The curtains of pale blue silk fell like a cataract over the windows. A large green marble basin, which stood on a low pedestal in a corner of my room, was overflowing like a spring, and a stream of clear water was running over the carpet. And where this carpet, which I had myself designed to imitate a field of grass and daisies, bordered the course of the little stream, the grass-blades and daisies seemed to wave in a tiny breeze that followed the water's flow.

“My dressing-table was of black oak, with drawers all down the front. These were elaborately carved in foliage. I happened to fix my eye on a little cluster of ivy-leaves. The first of these was evidently the work of the carver; the next looked curious; the third was unmistakable ivy. I saw that the branches and leaves designed upon the curtains of my bed were slightly in motion. Springing from the bed, my bare feet alighted upon a cool green sward; and I found myself under the boughs of a great tree, whose top waved in the golden stream of the sunrise with many interchanging lights.

“Faint traces of a footpath, much overgrown with grass and moss, were discernible along the right bank. ‘This,’ thought I, ‘must surely be the path into Fairy Land”.’

— Phantastes, by George MacDonald

Just a quiet rainy autumn day - in closeup.

This is my digital artwork, not a photograph.

Which is your favorite?

This is the kind of still water I'd like to rest beside. I got the idea swinging in my hammock and looking at a red maple. For some reason both the red maples in my yard hang down in a “weeping” shape. But I don't have a pond in my yard for them to hang over - that part came from my imagination.

I decided to do a summer version of my Winter Leaves work.

This is the kind of place I like to walk in the fall and winter, with little secluded hollows and pools covered with fallen leaves and the warm autumn afternoon sun.

I have a maple tree in my yard that sometimes turns these colors in the fall - red on the outer leaves, then yellow, and the inner leaves still green. Other years, though, it just turns yellow. Then it's more like the tree in my Autumn Guardian.

I first had the idea for this on a family trip around Thanksgiving of 2016. I was watching the landscape go by and noticed how the smaller trees still had their leaves, and how the dead leaves were almost pink. It may not be as beautiful as spring flowers or autumn leaves or snow, but there are scenes worth looking at even in an apparently lifeless landscape. This hanging on of dead leaves through the winter is called “marcescence”, and it is especially common in young oak trees like these.

This is my digital artwork, not a photograph.

It's been a year since I launched this website, so here's a picture in celebration. I've added 77 more images in the past year, 7 of which were new designs, for a current total of 120 images available for screen wallpaper and prints. This is my fall version of the seasonal globe idea.