Nature Photography

Photo Essay: Back to School

Continuing with my annual series of “What I Did On My Christmas Vacation” posts. Here’s the second.

I spent the latter half of my grade school years at Penn Wood Elementary. Which had a nice woodsy setting that was full of distractions for a budding artist. Like textures and colors – the building blocks of grade school art classes…

Photo essay - tree trunk and leaves in Westtown, Pennsylvania

I treated my math class notebooks like sketchbooks. And got caught more than once. Oh, well. The chewing outs were worth it. I was going to become an artist one way or the other.

This outdoor classroom didn’t exist when I was at Penn Wood. Wish it did…

Photo essay - Penn Wood School outdoor classroom in Westtown, Pennsylvania

A creek ran through the school grounds, and that means that one of the most wonderful substances ever known to kids was nearby. Thick, gooey, glorious mud…

Photo essay - mud alongside a creek in Westtown, Pennsylvania

Photo essay - mud alongside a creek in Westtown, Pennsylvania

Of course, we Penn Wooders would get in trouble for bringing mud indoors, but some sins were worth the punishment. Not just at school, but at home.

But in 2013, I took my shoes off and stashed them in Mom’s kitchen closet. Something about not wanting to clean mud off the floors.

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