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The opening day of deer hunting season in Maryland is always the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I'm not a hunter but many in my wife's family are, including my brother-in-law Steve and nephew Joshua. When they lived in Laurel, we would always spend Thanksgiving with them. One of the many rituals of those holiday weekends was for me to accompany Steve and Josh (on the so called Black Friday) to their hunting sites at River Valley Ranch so that they could get their stands "just right" for the following dawn. After that, maybe some hiking or - frequently - rabbit hunting. My job during rabbit hunting was to avoid being in the line of fire as they beat the bushes. Steve's joy at one particularly good shot, sort of a twist from the hip movement out of a John Wayne movie, is a hilarious memory.

This painting depicts an area of River Valley Ranch near the chuck wagon cookout site. It's near, but not at, the S & J deer stands, and prime rabbit hunting territory. In that part of Maryland in late November the deciduous trees have lost most but not all leaves and the bare branches serve to highlight the evergreens. Hard to find a better place to while away a pleasant autumn afternoon, especially if you know there'll be rabbit sautéing away in a cast iron frying pan a few hours later.

I painted this several years ago. It's a full sheet watercolor and I've always liked the way it turned out. Just noticed it going through the jpegs, realized that I haven't sent out a blog in a while, and so here it is to help us all remember that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. In so many ways, none of them having to do with the almighty dollar, it's the perfect holiday.  A time to catch one's breath. Peace.