Maris Bard

maris bard

These wrinkled Bards with their spiky topknots remind me of a line from a Simon & Garfunkel song:

“Talking to a raisin that occasionally plays L.A.,
Casually glancing at his toupee.”

I’ve just finished reading Walt Stanchfield’s Drawn to Life, so I was thinking of his advice, when drawing figures to draw gestures rather than anatomy, so in this case I went for the laid-back poses of this little group, rather than the botanical detail.

Last year we nearly forgot what kind of potato we’d planted, so for the two varieties that we’ve gone for this year, I’ve cut labels from margarine cartons and written the nameS with a Sharpie. That should last for the two or three months until the potatoes are ready for harvest.

Foxgloves

foxgloves

Instead of weeding out these foxglove seedlings, I’m saving them for my meadow area.

Chicory tends to take over from most of the wild flowers that I try to introduce but foxgloves stand a fighting chance as they colonise open woodland and burnt areas and they prefer dry or moist acid soils. I’m not going to be able to establish the kind of wild flower meadow that you’d find on chalk downland but I should have more success in creating a woodland edge habitat.