Week 15

                                  Me and my little friend today searching for crabs.

Here is my week 15 page with drawings of the crabs and seaweed collected  last week.  You can enlarge to see the details of the crab and the colours and a pencil drawing of a leg.   Today just as I was photographing the  picture above,   I had a little  visitor. He was so interested and curious about the crabs.  I gave him a magnifying glass so he could see the details,  and then he wanted to know where I had found them.   So we went for a walk this afternoon and found a whole plastic box full of crabs for him,  ranging from a big long legged beast to lots of smaller less frightening specimens.   So many questions from a 4 year old,  is it moving?  is it dead,? where are the eyes?  After I reassured him they were all dead,  can we find one alive?    I love the way young children are so interested, and he made me smile the way he said, "do you think we have found all the family? "   It reminded me of when I was teaching.   We got home, rather muddy,  with his very precious  box of  crabs.  I washed them and then my little friend examined them all,  decided which he was taking home and which I could keep.   Somewhere in this transaction he managed to "choose" my crab off the page and it mysteriously ended up going home with him...good job I had finished drawing it.   To capture the details I painted with my coloured acrylic ink,  a fine black ink pen for the stippling and a pencil study of the leg.

I had my usual Saturday walk collecting for week 16.  It has been a bit of a damp week,  but yesterday was fine and sunny.   I went with my husband around 5pm and we left the shore at nearly 7.   There was a cold breeze from the west,  but we were prepared and well wrapped up.   It was a lovely bright and sunny evening,  birds singing and we had the shore to ourselves.  The full moon means the tides are quite high, we could see the water line by the brown bubbly foam,  a frothy scum which floats on top of the incoming tide.  Lots of tiny shells, crabs, shrimp bodies, feathers and bits and pieces of broken sea creatures were mixed up in this brown wavy line on the shore.  The grass looks so green after heavy morning dews and the new fresh growth.   I noticed dandelions and yellow gorse  flowering, bothgrowing against the railway fence. A tiny white flowering plant sprinkled amongst the grass.   Several bees buzzed past,  my husband pointed out a freshly dug rabbit hole.  A group of black headed gulls pick in the wet sand searching for food.  We saw a dead gull,  it had been attacked at the throat and left on its back feet in the air,  soft tufts of white feathers blowing around.  The bird expert pointed out a curlews call, the air was full of bird sounds.  The two ducks, the green headed male and the brown female swam close together.   Poor swan, she looks so lonely sitting on the muddy bank in her usual place.  As we walked by and stopped a little fish jumped from the water.  I collected objects and ideas for next weeks page, things I have seen  and would like to record.
On Friday evening we saw a  bright light,  drifting across the dark sky.  We guessed it was a lantern and the answer was there caught in the fence, a large white paper structure still intact.  I held it up to the breeze and it billowed up as it became full of air. I couldn't resist bringing it home,  maybe I will paint on it. 

We sat on the boulders and enjoyed the stillness, the views and last hours of this lovely day, the sun dropping low ready to disappear behind the hills. Making our way home  over the railway bridge,  we glance back at the hills and watch the mist  creeping over the hilltops.  My head was already planning next weeks page.
Thank you for the comments, I enjoy finding them,  and it is always lovely to read them.  
Hope you like the picture.                 Millyx