Every time I ride the Fingerlakes Ride for Life, we pass this old maple tree and I document its decline. Last year it looked on its last legs with but a few leaves clinging on but this time around, it’s gone. It has been stuck by lightning many years earlier and I’ve noted the dropping of branches since then. It’s always early morning when we go past so there are lovely shadows. Sometimes it’s corn casting bigger shade, sometimes soybeans. It’s 10″ x 7″ using pencil and watercolor on cotton paper. I’ll frame it with a calligraphic quote and it will join a small exhibition at the Baha’i center in Rochester on the 4th of October.