Skydivers - nature art meets digital

Those lovely leaves I picked up the other day started to dry and get crisp. I had been trying to think of a way to make a good image to illustrate the poem "Skydivers" that you can find on an earlier post. I painted little figures on the leaves and glued on little helmeted heads. This one I layered over a picture I took in my back yard.

Yesterday was such a windy day, my whole back garden is covered in these bright yellow birch leaves. It's leaf blowing day! I'll be picking some up to press though, they won't all make it to the dumpster. I remember back in time in Illinois how much fun it was to tend a fire on the street and raking leaves into it. And the neighbors doing the same thing on a crisp day, sometimes in a light drizzle. And drinking cups of hot chocolate with our gloved hands. Our children and their children will never know what a fun time that was. Just the sound of a rake or the smell of leaves burning brings it all back.