The Turtle At The End Of The Road

Hello Dear Readers,

As much fun as it is getting prodded, poked, and measured nearly every week during active breast cancer treatment, I’m finding the hour and a half drives (one way) to my cancer treatment center to be getting tedious. Thankfully Connor is a great adventure buddy, so we’ve started driving the backroads back home looking for interesting things for me to paint. During one of our most recent drives we made a wrong turn exactly when I lost cell service and found ourselves on a back road of a back road. Rather than turn around, we decided to explore a little further.

The one lane road eventually ended by a bridge with a gate. We’d gotten that far, so we crossed the bridge and looked past the gate into a field. In this field was a puddle and in the puddle was a grumpy looking turtle.

“Neat!” I said, and we got into the car and turned to go back. I didn’t know what I was going to paint that day, but half way down the one lane road I realized I needed to paint that turtle. Most turtles in Kentucky are pretty skittish, so having one sitting in the only puddle around seemed like it would stick around for me to paint.

I had no idea what turtle I painted, so when we got home I pulled out my trusty Kentucky Wildlife Encyclopedia (affiliate link) and learned we’d seen an Eastern Box Turtle. I had some additional questions, like was this the only turtle in Kentucky with a red eye? (Yes, it is.) This led to a deep dive on the Eastern Box Turtle.

Some interesting Eastern Box Turtle Facts

1. Not all Eastern Box Turtles have a red eye! It’s most typically seen in males while females typically have brown eyes. There is the odd turtle that bucks the trend.

2. Eastern Box Turtles are poor swimmers, so while they like water, they will drown in water that is too deep.

3. Like a fingerprint, the markings on an Eastern Box Turtle is specific to that turtle.

4. Eastern Box Turtles like where they live and don’t travel very far from that spot. It’s upsetting to them to be away from their home.

5. One of the biggest threats to the Eastern Box Turtle is being taken out of the wild for the pet trade.

After I learned the last two facts, I realized I couldn’t mention the backroad we were on during our adventure. I’d rather not tempt someone into finding that poor turtle and taking it away from home. Also, if you chose to keep an Eastern Box Turtle for a pet, it’s worth looking into if it was taken out of the wild or if it was bred in captivity.

All that to say, if ever you are lucky enough spot an Eastern Box Turtle, enjoy knowing that you will never see a turtle with that coloring again, and if you do, you’ve just seen that same individual.

A Few Obsessions From This Week

1. makes the most beautiful pop up dollhouse books. I especially love the Magic Mansion. But honestly, they all look pretty magical.

2. I have been enjoying Lis Watkins’s watercolor work. I really enjoyed seeing a behind the scenes on how she gets all that beautiful color in. The secret is in that first wet on wet wash!

Drawing Specs

Drawing 1: Daniel Smith watercolors in a Moleskine 5½ x 3½ art collection sketchbook.

Drawing 2: Daniel Smith Watercolors in Hansa Yellow Deep and Undersea Green minus the turtle eyes which were Pyrrol Red and Yellow Ochre. The outlines were made with a Sailor Fude 55° fountain pen using De Atramentis Document Ink in Urban Sienna. The paper was a 15 x 23 cm Venezia Book by Fabriano.

Drawing 3: Daniel Smith Watercolor in Hansa Yellow Deep and a Faber Castell Polychromos pencil in color 173 Olive Green Yellowish. The outlines were made with a Sailor Fude 40° fountain pen using De Atramentis Document Ink in Brown. The paper was a 15 x 23 cm Venezia Book by Fabriano.

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