Here’s today’s challenge pairing, to be followed with what is sure to be a long-ish post …

But first, a look at the finds from the first walk in our new-to-us neighborhood park …

Some familiar, some not … starting upper left with mistletoe, and continuing clockwise, lichen, hackberries(?), seed pod of unknown origin, pecan, Osage orange (aka bois d’arc, aka hedge apple), and dried fruit from what I hope is native western soapberry, but might be invasive chinaberry (will have to wait for springtime leaves to determine).

Truly, I can’t walk without combing … filling my hands with wonder.

Anyway, on to today’s challenges. Yesterday older daughter Meg gifted us with some Faber Castell Gelato sticks, which paired beautifully with one of my current reads …

They can be used as crayons, but can also be applied with water and brush …

Having just read Marti’s comment on Acey’s blog, I was taken by her image with its bit of new-to-me artist Judy Chicago …

Wanting to play on a map grid that would be purely structural, I chose Poland, with its unfamiliar place names, then started painting in the blocks with different colors …

Until I saw it … the dreaded familiar word … place actually … and found myself painting in the color of iron …

Honestly, I just couldn’t help myself.

Then I was on to Acey’s Day 6 prompt:

Okay, so this, with colors that I love, but a somewhat intense composition …

Besides which, I’m not a huge fan of figural forms, so I dug out this used book find and started tearing out strips of like-colored stuff …

at which point things got a little crazy (and totally off-prompt), so I’ll give you the abridged version …

which ended up totally too big to put in my journal, so I copied it on my handy-dandy printer/scanner/copier and only then re-read the prompt and realized how far off I went …

Oh well, what’s done is done … which brings me back to where I started …