Nature Walk

On Friday we had a really lovely sunny day and I went for a walk up through the lanes in my village. I love this time of year when the hedgerows are literally hanging with red berries. Also the blue berries of sloe, blackberries and elderberries. I collected little hanks of berries and ended up with a variety of the Autumn harvest.
The day was warm and sunny and just like me lots of wildlife were out and about enjoying the day. I saw sightings of dragonfly, beautiful speckled woodland butterflies, grasshoppers, Jays shouting high up in the trees and a little mouse. The acorns are green on the oak trees and after the stormy days the road was littered with the fallen ones. As I selected some acorns it was obvious many had already been in the hands of a squirrel as the insides were gone. The same with the hazel nuts, empty shells under the Hazel branches. Later we watched a grey squirrel running along the wall and off across the fields.
I arrived home with so many lovely finds. I knew the berries would soon be flagging and I needed to record them quickly. So all evening I sketched, the middle photograph shows my progress. On Saturday I continued to work quickly to try and record the different specimens using acrylic paints. So here is what I managed to complete, as the leaves are now dry and curling and the berries past their best. It makes a bright colourful double page entry in my book. Press for closer look. Hope you like it too.
Once again thank you for your comments and welcome to the new followers. Millyx

You already know I love Red

I bought the red currants, they were at the supermarket and under the lights they just glowed so shiny like little fairy lights. It was a while before I got to draw them and paint them. On that same morning I was met by the spider sitting in my bath. It was placed in a jam jar and heading for the back door, until I decided I wouldn't throw him out just yet. You guessed he ended up in the drawing, then later free to go in the garden.

You know I love red berries. I sat in the sunlight in the kitchen and recorded them with red acrylic paint and a number one brush. It took hours but I like the result. Behind me is a lovely pot of three currant jam home made by my friend. She used red, white and black currants picked in her orchard in Wales. It is also a shiny red jam and I know it will taste so good.

As for the huge spider he went free to be replaced the same evening by an enormous one crawling up our stairs...didn't fancy that one..husband dealt with that. And last night we discovered we have a little mouse in the spare bedroom at 4 am...and still not been caught! Thank you for your lovely comments, it is always a pleasure to find them.

Hope you like the red currants. Press for large view. Millyx

Little things

I had just finished a drawing and had lots of acrylic ink left on my plate. Looking around for something small I could draw to quickly use it up. The tiny striped feather was sticking out of the pages of my square book, found on the beach walk and placed between the pages for safe keeping. I quickly recorded the delicate shape and pale coloured pattern. Still more ink to use I decided to find a few other objects. That was easy, small objects fill dishes all over my house after I empty my pockets of newly gleamed finds, and there they stay until maybe one day they are chosen.

And so a feather, an oak leaf, an acorn, a sycamore and that looks quite pretty. I walk around the garden to stretch my legs and collect a red berry, a blackberry and a piece of seaweed, just to use the ink up, but now I need some new red ink for the berry. My eyes are fixed on the jug full of striped feathers and I know I must draw some of them soon, they are so lovely. I collected each one because, well because I couldn't leave them, each one a different shape and colouring and to me so beautiful. It always seems so hard to choose between them and leave them behind and when I brought them home I promised to draw them.

So I chose one, added it to the little things that were just to use up the ink. How things lead to others. Well I like little things and the feather I chose. Hope you do too.