Thankful for dirt

dirt?  Yes, that's right, dirt.  I'm thankful that our local park has an unpaved trail for walking.  We've had a ton of rain this year and often it has come down in buckets washing the trail, but it doesn't get muddy.  A certain amount happens every year and every year, they work on the trail. Each time, I'm a little antsy.  I'm worried they are going to pave it.  A couple of years ago I was having a conversation with the town manager on something entirely different and I asked about paving the trail.  He said, "Oh we don't have the money for that."  My immediate response was "Oh, good!"  Well, I didn't mean I'm glad they don't have money.  I wish the economy were wonderful and they were rolling in funds to do great projects (or lowering our taxes) - just not paving the walking trail.

It is amazing the difference walking on an unpaved trail makes to one's feet, knees and hips.  I met another walker with the same opinion only this week.  She was switching to the town trail from her community one which is asphalt for that very reason.  This is the only unpaved public trail in the county. I've had another opportunity this year to put in my two cents that unpaved is better - even if it is more maintenance.  This year, they widened the trail, smoothed it up nicely and planted some grass along the side.  It is perfect and I'm very grateful to have such a pretty place to walk!

My card today is for Splitcoaststamper's Ways to Use it challenge.  We were to use paint.  When I think of paint, I automatically get into my chipboard.  In this case I used some leaves and the portion of the chipboard they were punched from.  I tried a couple of things before just painting over all of it and using a little distress ink to spritz a background.  I stamped the flourishes from an Autumn Leaves set.

And since I used chipboard, this is also going over to Scrapbooks Anonymous site as the theme this month is chipboard!

You'll think I've gone totally nuts over leaves in the coming days as I have some cards designed for my next card class also with leaves.  I love leaves and that is what I think of when fall gets close.

Thanks for your visit!

Ingredients:  Chipboard - Stampin' Up!
DSP:  Basic Grey
Stamp:  Kind and Caring Thoughts by Stampin' Up!