Butterfly Love

If you follow  my blog you will know how I love butterflies. This week I have been drawing the Orange tipped butterfly.  We have had some very wet days but also some bright sunny moments when I go for a walk.  On my travels around the village I keep seeing this lovely butterfly, it settles on a flower and I creep up to look and thats fine.  The minute the camera comes out it takes flight and a hide and seek game begins, before you know it has you here there and everywhere trying to take a photograph. We did manage one along the hedgerow.

the Orange tipped butterfly in the centre of the photograph

There has been so many this year, dancing around in my garden and everywhere I go I keep seeing them.  I managed to have a really good look at the beautiful pattern on the underside of the wings on a very still butterfly which settled in my garden. I really wanted to catch it and put it in a jam jar to draw but I knew it would never let me catch it... and even if  I could,  it would just feel too cruel and I would free it.

One of my favourite oak trees

After the interest in the Oak Galls I decided to try and find some of them to show you.  I tried the large oak tree pictured above and searched the ground hoping there might be some but with no luck. Later we found such a tiny tree with several still attached to the branches.

oak galls.

The gall is a wasp which lays eggs on a bud and the grub lives inside the oak apple or gall.  The ball is formed by the secretions made by the growing wasp.  Eventually the insect grows from egg to grub to insect and I expect eats its way out. The ink is made from the galls boiled and some source of iron.  Under this small tree I picked up the two tiny oak leaves. We found a different  place where lots of young oak trees have seeded from acorns from a larger tree.  The sun was shining and I loved seeing all the red glossy lady birds as they crawled in the oak leaves.

Two of the beautiful red ladybirds in the oak leaves

 We were lucky enough to see a birds nest,  well the expert spotted it and took the picture from quite a distance, but you can see the young birds.

A little face looking out of the nest

Of course it is bluebell time, so I took a slow walk through the  flowers and enjoyed the moment.

And the scented blossom on a Crab apple tree

So here is my page in my square book of the underside of the Orange tipped butterfly and the two little oak leaves and a single red berry which I found.  The berry is in such good condition having survived the winter. I found it in the grass under the Hawthorn tree which is now covered in fresh green leaves and buds ready to burst into the white flowers which will eventually be the red berries again at Autumn time.

  And I painted a butterfly on a brown tag.

 There is something so beautiful about a butterfly.  I have captured it using my acrylic inks and a number one   sable paintbrush.   I might finish my little butterfly patchwork one day, as seen in the first picture, I printed each butterfly using  fabric paints. Hope you like my page.
As always thank you for the lovely comments which I love reading.                                           Millyx         

Sand, Sea and Shells.

We went for a walk to one of my favourite Beaches. It is a long stretch of beautiful sand , and the day was perfect with sunshine and a clear blue sky. The wind was another matter , it was icy cold! In fact it was so cold we took a different footpath to gain some shelter behind the sand dunes, a walk we had not taken before. We found the Gorse with its sweet smell of coconut, a whole area blooming with the bright yellow flowers.

The beautiful yellow gorse with the Lakeland hills in the background.

We walked past several small ponds, some had ducks on, some were full of tadpoles and we also saw tiny violets growing in the sand. We also saw sheep with young lambs grazing between the dunes. We eventually climbed to the top of the sand dunes and back onto the beach with the fantastic views down the estuary to the hills.

Looking into the estuary.

Looking across the mouth of the estuary toward Black Combe, the hill we look out on to at  my village.


                                                                                             

We now made our way back along the long sandy beach where I searched for treasures. The high tide had left a huge tide line full of seaweed, shells, feathers, ropes, rubber gloves, shoes and many other interesting objects. From this tangle I chose the two lovely shaped shells which revealed their intricate form, not normally seen in a complete shell. We saw masses of seaweed but I just chose a few tiny twisted pieces.

I would have liked the fish......but left it.

The walk back to the car.

            

Now you can see how far we have just walked along the sand.

This is where I found the tiny shells by the waters edge.

I used a special ink given to me by Patrick. He made the brown ink from Oak galls which he had collected in our village. I drew the shells with my dip in pen and the ink directly drawn onto the paper. I liked the soft quality of this ink, its an old fashioned recipe.

I wanted to show the detail and simplicity of the shells by using the fine nib and the brown  ink. It is a slow relaxing technique, dipping the pen into the ink each time you want to draw a line. I am pleased with the results.

Thank you for the lovely comments I always enjoy reading them. For those of you who would like to know, this is Walney Island Nature reserve. Hope you enjoyed the walk.                                           Milly x




ps. see photograph at bottom of  blog,  the same beach.

Beach Finds

The other day we went to the next village to post a parcel. It is  a few miles along the coast and was once a fishing village so there are still a few boats about. We decided to wander down to the shore and have a look across at the views.  The tide was coming in and it was a cool breeze, the clouds were low and it seemed as if might rain.  We sat for a while and then we decided to wander along the shore in the direction of our village, looking towards the Lakeland hills. It is a flat sandy beach,  with pebbles and stones and the sandy banks are suffering erosion from the sea.  There were all kinds of objects washed up, shells, seaweed, rope, mussel shells and odd shoes.  The sand was full of pebbles, stones and shingle and my first piece of blue and white china.

I start searching for treasures and we were not disappointed.

We found lots of different pieces of blue and white pottery, and pieces of sea washed glass.  The glass was all different colours and shapes, some had words and numbers from when they were bottles. I love finding the blue pottery,  I see a cream coloured flat shape and it looks quite boring, I pick it up and turn it over to reveal a beautiful fragment of a design and it gives me such a thrill.
Now my husband  is being enticed by the birds running along the sand and stones. He knows it is ideal territory for nesting, so he is keeping his eyes open and walking carefully.  He called me over to see what he had stumbled  upon.  At first I could see nothing and as he pointed,  I eventually focused on the little nest on the ground with three eggs.  It was so well camouflaged in the stones.  Why do you find things when you have no camera, next best thing his phone.

It was the nest of a" Ringed Plover". When we arrived home he looked it up in a book and it said they  like to build their nest on "shingley beaches",  so a perfect place to see them.  Then a little later he found a second one.

I can not tell you how hard it was to see  the nests on this beach amongst these stones.

they just look like four pebbles. 

He made sure he did not touch them and also brushed over his footprints near the nests to help keep their location a secret.  The birds were not far away, no doubt watching us. It was a real privilege to see the nests.  We then kept our distance from the area where they were.  We heard a Skylark singing high above us over the reeds. With my bag of treasures we turned around and walked back towards the village and to where our car was parked.  On the way back I carried the blue snail and the two tiny twisted pieces of seaweed in my hand, I knew they would be interesting to draw.

So here is the drawing from  our lovely  beach walk.

It is drawn with my acrylic inks using a number 3 and 4 sable brush and a dip in pen on the seaweed lines.
Hope you enjoy the walk on the beach.Thank you for your lovely comments.
All photographs on beach by my husband on his phone.                        Millyx

wild flowers

a drawing of a violet in sepia ink

On Sunday afternoon we took advantage of the fine day and went for a walk through the fields and visited the wood.  It was very very black sky over the hills but in the opposite direction we were lucky to have a blue sky and sunshine. The field was full of new lambs with their mothers. As we walked along the edge of the field we stopped to look at the primroses and little clusters of blue violets.  I found the Lords and Ladies at different stages, and made a note to come back and watch them grow as I really like this plant which grows into a stem with red glossy berries.

primroses

 I picked a few different kinds of flowers along the way, a specimen of each to draw.

Lords and Lady  

I saw a ladybird sitting in the warm sunshine on a green leaf and in the distance we could see such a tiny little lamb playing by the hedgerow. A worried mother watched as we walked nearby and then this beautiful  lamb made her way back to her mother and bigger sister.

 We passed the old slate stile and through the fields with the deep holes and the hills of waste slate, this land shaped from the days when the quarry was in this area.  It is now overground with grass and trees and plants as nature has taken over.  We found  a beautiful cluster of violets and ferns growing  in a crack in a stone slab.

an old  stone stile once used  along the  footpaths through the fields 

ferns and violets growing on the stone

  The hills are a high vantage point,  views of the shore and the estuary can be seen from the slate "rubbish hills".

walking on top of the old slate hills and the estuary behind. 

views of the seashore 

Our walk took us through the lanes and we saw lots of different wild flowers all growing along side the road in the verges, bankings and hedgerows.  We left the road and followed the little track to the wood to see the bluebells and marsh marigolds growing there. The strong scent of the white onion plant, or wild garlic,  was  everywhere.  I have visited this wood in the village since I was a little girl.  I remember gathering the bluebells and  getting stuck in the deep mud as I once tried to pick the marsh marigold from the wet boggy area.

Some of the flowers in the wood,  I wish you could smell the bluebells and the wild garlic.

 We saw a birds nest tucked away amongst the stones in a wall.  The photographs were taken by my husband, these are just a few,  lots more I can share in another post.

a primrose in pencil

studies of a violet

a little cup  of a primroses and violets.

And I will leave you with our lovely English bluebells.  Hope you enjoyed the walk. 

Thank you for your lovely comments..............Millyx 

A Walk on the shore

It has been a week of high tides.  I have watched each day as the water gushed in and covered the estuary.  I really wanted to go and see if it had brought something for me to draw,  and  there was also another reason why I wanted to go for a walk.  So on Friday we decided to venture down to the shore.  I say venture because the sky was really black over the hills, a sure sign of something coming our way.  We decided we would risk it.  As we crossed over the railway line and climbed the steps of our smart newly  painted footbridge the  large heavy drops of rain peppered the ground.  Then as we opened the gate we could feel the chilly wind,  already had our hoods up and jackets zipped tight.  Then suddenly it started to drop large hailstones which  really sting as they hit your face and hurt as they increased in size and number.  We turned our back to them and could feel them battering our head and shoulders and stinging the backs of our legs. It lasted about half an hour and then in an instant  the black clouds formed  an opening and bright blue sky appeared.

 It was like it never happened and we walked in sunshine.  The shore is like this, the views are always changing with the weather, and the colours change accordingly.   I found oak leaves,  I had to collect them.  At this time of year they are wonderful shapes and colours, some really dark, others rusty coloured,  some  full of holes whilst others are breaking and collapsing as they deteriorate with age.   I saw feathers and small crabs and shrimps and seaweed.  All reminders of my weekly finds from last year.
I was also delighted to see my old friend had returned one day,  the beautiful swan, my reason for a walk.

It was lovely to take a walk on the shore, lots of memories here.  The high tides had given the stones a good shake up and my husband found the piece of china.  He handed it to me upside down and this side was just covered in crackles,  so when I turned it over I would  see  a lovely maroon coloured patten of leaves, it made me smile, a great find.  I  always feel so much better after a long wander on the seashore but today was very cold so an hour was long enough and the black clouds were building up again over the Lakeland hills.  Someone had really cold hands from playing in the water!

  I washed my finds and chose this oak leaf and  I added the new piece of china.  It is painted with my acrylic inks with a number 3 sable brush.  I used sepia, brown umber, yellow ochre and a little black.  The china was in my new ink but as it is not waterproof  I carefully went over it with acrylic paint and also used white paint  over the china.  I love painting oak...perhaps you have noticed.   It is done on a sheet of textured watercolour paper.   Hope you like it.

Thank you for your comments and the emails I have received.  Welcome to the new followers too.
Bye until next weekend.   Millyx

Nice to be home

Flowers picked from my garden to wish everyone a
HAPPY  EASTER

I had a lovely time at Brighton, the weather was wonderful and it was good to see my daughter and spend some time with her. She was taking part in a production of Cranford at the TOM theatre.  We really enjoyed  seeing her in her acting role as the wonderfully funny gossip Miss Pole. Brighton is such a contrast to our quiet village and it was fun to wander and see the beach and pier,  browse around the shops and take it all in. I loved the antique shop called Snoopers Paradise where I made a few purchases of treasures....some patchwork pieces, some printers wooden letters and a Meloto paper roll of music which was played on a pianola.  I thought it might be fun to draw on the paper.  I stocked up with some new art supplies at Winchester School of Art, where my daughter spent  four years doing her degree,  it was like going back to see an old friend.  We sat in the sunshine in the Cathedral grounds and wandered through the streets with the colourful stalls as it was market day.
While I have been away I  have not done any  drawing. I do feel really inspired and eager to return to my drawing.  I loved my visit to the Booth museum where I saw the huge collection of Butterflies and the hundreds of stuffed birds, skeletons, fish, fossils in this once private Victorian Collection  belonging to Mr. Edward  Booth,  dated 1874.  Of course very thought provoking to see stuffed animals and birds.

 While I was in Brighton I bought the two lovely shells at a shop on the beach. They  were just so lovely and I wanted to draw them. I found a stationary shop selling J.Herbin ink in the most gorgeous range of  colours and I chose a bottle of  'Larmes de Cassis'.  This colour would be for my  Brighton shells.  I returned home and found the garden full of my beautiful Fritillary  flowers and so I had to draw one too,  the colour of this ink worked perfectly.  I used the dip in pen and a fine nib.  It is ink for a fountain pen but such a lovely colour.
It has been a lovely break and I feel better for it but it is good to be home.  When I saw the hills and the shore I knew I was where I belong.  Hope you are all enjoying a lovely Easter Weekend.      
Thank you for the your comments and good wishes.              Millyx