My Calendar of Firsts this week:
- Crocuses in the church garden
- Glorious sunshine
- Our first garden Wood mouse of the year. Rose found him under a tree, very still, so we wonder if our cat was responsible. She took care of the wee thing, named him Timmy, and put him out under the trees in the back garden, along with seed and hay, and kept an eye on him, until he was able to run off. We have a lively community of Wood mice in our garden!
- Irises from my Valentine. He knows me so very well.
My ‘colours’ for the week, along the top left hand page, are the grey and yellow of the skies, plus the yellow and purple of the crocuses and irises.
Hi Lynn
Rose seems to have a real affinity with animals! Beautiful. Time to get out the brambly hedge stories again, they never get old do they? So your flower list is beginning to perk up?
We have seen lots of crocus too this week even if it has been colder. My son has been keeping a graph of the temperature this month and it is showing a distinct downward trend, have we moved down under and not noticed?
On the plus side we have been having more visitors to the bird feeders, there is always at least one bird filling up. A rare visitor to our garden was a goldcrest, probably comes lots but we just don’t see it as it’s so small, they are resident in the village. I have heard the tawny owls calling and woodpeckers drumming.
The deer at our local NT property are still looking fine in their dark winter coats the bucks still have their mighty antlers, much to my sons consternation as he wants one for his collection, he did find some old bones which we have yet to identify, we know where in the body but not whose body!
National birdbox week is upon us, so with wildlife club we are making our own tomorrow, they ended up very sturdy last year even if no one moved in, I am hoping we can make a few to put up together for our house sparrows.
Best wishes
Jenny
Love Brambly Hedge, we have the books that were mine when I was little 🙂
Brr, yes, everything seems to be getting colder, although this morning is much warmer. Well done to your sone for graphing the changes.
You have had some smashing sightings this week, Jenny. How is your sketching coming on?
Lx
Thanks for asking Lynn,
I’m still working through the suggestions in keeping a nature journal, I feel more confident and less focussed on producing a “good” result. We sketched in the open this week looking at evergreens, I looked at the shape and detail of the tree in separate sketches and it really helped. I encouraged my son just to look at colour as he was finding it difficult to juggle his equipment, he made a couple of accurate sketches which he then dropped in the mud, poor lad was very upset, but they are ok not spoilt.
I have also been playing with pen and coloured pencil as I love Jane Hisseys work with old Bear, I don’t like the pencils as much as the watercolours though. The children said they thought the black and white drawings were unfinished, so I think we will have to look at monochrome art more closely.
Are the Brambly Hedge illustrations in watercolours do you know?
Best wishes
Jenny
I think it is quite important to focus on recording what you see, rather than producing a ‘good’ result when nature journaling. As you say, shape & detail are so important.
So sorry to hear about your son’s sketches, I am glad they are not spoiled.
Brambly Hedge are watercolour. I was obsessed by those books as a youngster. I actually still have an embroidery I did of a picture from the book.
Lx