I wear two hats with different names: Madison Woods when I’m wearing the artist hat, Roxann Riedel in real life and real estate. I'm a rock-smashing paint-making artist & a sales agent for Montgomery Whiteley Realty. Hailing from the wild Ozarks in Kingston, Arkansas where my husband and I work toward a sustainable lifestyle.

You can text or call to reach me by either name (see above):
(479)409-3429, or email madison@wildozark.com

Category: Nature

  • Nature Sketching Day 21- Down the dirt road in October

    I’m not real good at trees and landscapes yet. I can do single items like leaves fairly well, but the larger view pushes outside my ability. Maybe with practice I’ll get better.  

  • Rain or Hallucination?

    Rain or Hallucination?

    So brief it almost feels now like it was hallucination, rain fell this morning while I was out feeding the critters. The chickens were all like “what’s that wet stuff coming down from the sky?” It’s been many weeks since we had rain last and everything is bone dry, including most of the creek. It’s…

  • Nature Sketching – Day 17 “Grape Fern and Fall Leaves”

    It gets hard to find a subject to draw that doesn’t include dead leaves at this time of year. I at first wanted to draw this pretty beech leaf nestled on a darker sycamore leaf, but decided against it in favor of the grape fern instead. I never did find the creature causing the noise…

  • Nature Sketching Day 15 – American Ginseng in early October

    I went out in search of beech drops for today’s sketch. I didn’t find any. On my way up the path toward the pond, though, I found something exciting. Today’s nature sketch features American ginseng in early October. The leaves are yellowing now, the fruits have all fallen, and winter is coming. This American ginseng…

  • Beautiful Fall Misty Morning

    There is a silence accompanied by a misty morning that is unlike anything else. This morning I sat on the porch to have my morning coffee. The roosters refrained from crowing. The logging activity is either done or stopped for a break. Only the occasional drip of condensate from the porch could be heard. I…

  • Nature Sketching Day 14

    At this time of year it’s even harder than usual for me to make a quick trip to town and back. If I bring my camera with me, it’s a guaranteed impossibility. Today I had to stop for photos of the Felkins Creek valley as the sun was setting.   Thank you for visiting and…

  • Nature Sketching Day 13 – Green Grass in Fall

    I always like to see green grass in fall among the dead leaves. Yesterday I missed my sketching. I missed the day before that too, but had taken a photo of the leaf so I could draw it later. But if I don’t just let that one from yesterday go, I’ll never catch up again.…

  • It’s beginning to look like fall here at Wild Ozark

    Yesterday it really felt like fall, and it does again today, too. It was almost 40*F this morning. I took a few photos yesterday, but was in a hurry to get somewhere so didn’t bring the monopod and the quality isn’t great. It seems I can’t hold the camera steady enough to get really clear…

  • For all the little acorns

    For all the little acorns

    May they grow to mighty oaks For the past several weeks one of the first morning sounds have been that of heavy equipment moving into place on the mountains to our southeast. Later, as the sun rises, it’s chainsaws. And the crashing of mighty oaks. Someone is clearing out an entire forest from the sounds…

  • Nature Sketching Day 8

    Yesterday’s Nature Journal entry was created today because a new grandbaby of mine entered the world the night before and I slept through my usual drawing/entry time. There’s a post that corresponds to this entry at the main site. You can see it here if you like: https://www.wildozark.com/for-all-the-little-acorns/ The acorn symbolizes the potential new life.…

  • Nature Sketching Day 6 – “Lobelia Inflata”

    Today I went out on foot, backpack loaded with my towel and cushion to sit on, sketch journal, and pencils to do my daily entry for the Wild Ozark Nature Journal. Once I found my subject, this aging Lobelia inflata plant, I settled down to tune in with my surroundings. Turned out that the towel and…

  • Busy Days at Wild Ozark

    I’ve been busy lately, but you wouldn’t know it from my lack of posts to the blog. New projects started (Wild Ozark Nature Journal) and a new website to go with it, new products, and new adventures. Last Friday I spoke at Compton Gardens in Bentonville about the habitat of American ginseng. Afterwards I talked…

  • Nature Sketching Day 3 – Sycamore Leaf

    Each day I’ve picked what I think will be a simple subject. Today’s was a single sycamore leaf with no effort to include background, foreground or any other difficult or distracting thing. Then as I settled in and began my art I entered the deep observation mode. Did you know there are hundreds of tiny…

  • Nature Sketching Day 2 – Asters Along the Driveway

    Today’s nature sketch is of the purple asters that were growing along the driveway. Each day I try to make an entry with a pencil drawing.  

  • Is it Ginseng Root, Tree Root, or what?

    Do you know what kind of roots these are? The other day I got an email asking for some identification help. From the photos, I do not believe it’s ginseng, but I can’t tell what it is. Some of them look like iris, bloodroot and goldenseal and maybe a tree root thrown in. However, the…

  • What Happens to Ginseng in Too Much Sun

    Why is this ginseng turning yellow? The other day I just so happened to be right where I needed to be to see why my little 2 year old ginseng was yellow. How serendipitous! It gave me the perfect opportunity to make a post about what happens to ginseng in too much sun. Day before…

  • This Beaver is One Heck of an Optimist

    Most farmers dislike beavers with a passion bordering hatred. The reason why that is, at least for the ones I asked, is because they’re always trying to back up the creek. And when they’re successful, it causes the ground to become saturated. And then tractors have a tendency to sink to the axles when cutting…

  • Spider Stick

    Anyone who has ever ridden, or rather, *driven* a four-wheeler on a tree-lined path will know exactly why this four-wheeler is sporting a lovely branch of wilted leaves. It’s a “spider stick”. And it’s the person in front, if you’re riding double, who appreciates this little contraption most of all. I am not *scared* of spiders, I…

  • Do Your Dogs Sing with the Chickens?

    We have singing dogs. Every morning at sunrise when the rooster crows and the hens wake, and during the day when the chickens get all a-cluck over an egg laying, the dogs break into song with them. Does anyone else have singing dogs, especially in choir with chickens?

  • Rattlesnakes and Dogs don’t Mix – Snakebit dog

    They’re not aggressive. Really. This one just wanted to be left alone. It’s the second one I’d encountered that week, and both were relatively calm. Badger even stepped on the first one and didn’t notice until after doing it. The snake didn’t bite, just coiled up and started rattling. This one took a long time before…

  • The Slow Descent of an Ozark Mountain Landslide

    I’ve been observing and recording our slowly descending Ozark landslide. Leaning trees and driveway encroachment, photographed day by day. Since the flood last Monday I haven’t done a whole lot of cleanup. The main reason for that is the landslide. It’s blocking my path from the house to the camper and to the gate.  …

  • The Impermanence of Things

    We’ve had a lot of rain in the last days here in the Ozark Highlands. 7 inches in a few hours Monday night. That’s too much rain for our little creeks and hollers. Lots of folks have lost homes, cattle, hay harvests and rigs they need to work. My parents spent a terrifying night among…

  • Rattlesnake at the Gate

    Gnats have made it nearly impossible for me to stand being outside at my potting bench for very long. Yesterday I did the little bit of work I needed to do at it while trying not to breathe so the pesky little buggers wouldn’t go up my nose. I pretty much needed to close my…

  • Unripe Fruit

    I have a hard time believing I have no pictures – at all – of ripe elderberry fruit. After digging through file after unfruitful file, I thought it might be faster to just go get a new photo. Not quite. The berries aren’t ripe yet here at Wild Ozark. But maybe they are on top…

  • What’s Blooming at the end of May?

    Wild Ozark plants blooming at the end of May I took a little walkabout yesterday to photograph some of the flowers that are setting berries, blooming, or getting ready to bloom right now. Yesterday’s post highlighted the orchid I’d been waiting to see bloom. The ginseng pics were also added to the “Ginseng Habitat Through the…