Step 2. Putting a pinecone on paper.

It feels weird when the temps reach the 70s in December. Even familiar places close to home seem different when the weather is odd.

Along the path to the pinetum in Fort Tryon Park.

I took a walk in the weird weather. At first the walk felt like an obligation - that it would be wrong to stay inside on a warm winter day so I had better get outside.

But as soon as I hit the park, the walk changed from an obligation to a gift. I was charmed anew by a neighborhood park where I've been countless times. 

I spotted a few things I wanted to draw in my notebook.

Pinecones are tough for me to draw. Part of the problem is that I can't see the pinecone. It's not the first time I've had this blindness when holding something in my hand, and I know the solution: stare at it.

I work best when I can work methodically. Some people see the whole before the parts, but I see the parts before the whole. 

I inched my way down the page, bit by bit, and only after drawing the pinecone could I finally see it. 

Staring at what's right in front of me and putting it on paper turned a familiar thing into something new. I like how that happens.