Diary of My Country Life-October 30th, 2025

The original source of this blog: https://www.lotusandmichael.com/blogs/diary-of-my-country-life

10/30/2025 Thursday 51-65F Rain

It has been raining since last night—I heard the rain pitter-pattering on the gutter while I was in bed. Through the window, I can see many fallen leaves stuck on the wet ground, helpless and miserable, like all the decorative bits left on the floor after a great party.

Yes, we just had a party starting from the end of September: The party of autumn, or precisely, the party of autumn foliage. I feel very lucky that I live in a woodland area where I can easily perceive all the four seasons, and the changes of the seasons. The trees were always the messengers: I saw them sprout, leaf out, full up, then turn yellow or red and fall. When I lived in Brooklyn, I had no chance to really realize so many beautiful colors of the trees. Here, no matter whether in the park or in the mountains, trees, hundreds or thousands of trees, aggressively burst into my eyes all the time. In China, urban people usually take outings in spring and fall; they call it “looking for spring” or “looking for autumn”. While here living in suburb, we don’t need to look for them—they invade our lives.

There are several big picture windows in my living room. The first thing we did when we moved into this house was removed all the shades and rods and fixed all the windows so we could let the natural light and air in. To me, windows are the eyes of a house; through them I can see outdoors and Nature. Like now, the trees’ show is right outside my windows; I witnessed them turn from flaming yellow into brown bit by bit, day by day. They are not lonely, nor am I—I am their audience.

Nature is the greatest artist. I am always amazed by the work it did. Its creativity has no limits, and it is brave. When I saw it fearlessly mix all the shades of green, yellow, orange, red together, I knew that all the landscape paintings I painted in the past were dull, boring, lacking imagination; they were like whimperers. While to Nature, either cry hard or laugh loud, there is no in-between. 

So this fall, to compensate for all my wasted past, I painted a lot about autumn: Russian sage, cornfields, iris, epiphyllum, mountain cottage, kimono autumn, then my blue and gold autumn which I just finished yesterday. They are like recording the entire season and Nature—from the end of August to the last day of October. I plan to paint another signature fall flowers next week: Osmanthus.

This year my three osmanthus seem to be unhappy. Their flowers were very sparse; the underside of their older leaves is covered with some sort of blackish thing—it must be fungus. These three plants are planted in three locations and aren’t close to each other. So the fungus must have been passed by either wind, or the soil. I will spread some wood ashes around their trunks; and in early spring when they start to sprout, I will spray them with tobacco water. Hopefully these natural treatments can help them improve the situation.

Since I feel slightly regretful about not seeing many of my osmanthus flowers, I am motivated to paint them—a white cat sitting in a blooming osmanthus shrub--my imaginary picture.

Now every week I paint one painting. This extra work keeps me very busy; usually it takes me about two to three days to finish one regular sized painting. Of course, if the weather is too humid or too cold, the time will be longer. 

I think I like expressing myself by painting and writing. Actually, writing is my favorite but since it demands a more specific piece of time for people to read it, and only a very specific group of people who can resonate with the writing, therefore it’s more subjective, indirect, and has less audience in this fast-paced world. While a painting, or any sensory work is different—though some subjective elements can be embedded, the way it shows is more objective, direct; you can perceive it even without thinking so it is less selective as to its potential audience. For example: People can say “I like it!” only after a glance at a painting or several notes of music no matter whether they received that information accidentally or purposely; while for something in writing, people first should be able to read and understand the words to get the point. Very less likely people can make judgement about an article just after several seconds so more patience is needed.

We all like easier information; something we can perceive by our sensations, so we don’t need to go through our heads. When I realized this, and while I have the passion to paint something down, I go for it.  

When I sold my chicken painting in the market and noticed the joys my work brought to that lovely couple (the husband bought it as a gift for his wife because she loved chickens), I was impressed; when I painted a photo by adding my personal touch to it to make it beyond the reality, I was thrilled; when I struggled out a new style which I had never painted before, I was proud… The most important thing is, every painting of mine is a fulfilled dream, whether it comes from the reality or the imagination. I am very happy that I can present them to you.

I am not living in a dream land—yesterday I chopped firewood, picked tomatoes; after this diary, I will cook tomato sauce; tomorrow once the rain stops, I need to prune my abelias and mock orange so they can be ready for winter and meanwhile look good…My life is a combination of dream and reality: I am working on adding beauty into the reality, then with all the inspirations and encouragements, I can walk decisively toward my dream.