Month: September 2022

Fontself

A rainy afternoon and I had an update from Fontself, so decided to give it another try. New features include an easy way to fill in outlines and to draw perfect vector shapes. I’ve gone for my usual wobbly style, although I did try out the method for drawing smooth shapes on the ‘C’.

Fontself alphabet

On previous occasions I’d used Fontself to make fonts from alphabets I’d drawn on paper or in Adobe Illustrator. It’s a whole lot simpler drawing in the Fontself app on the iPad.

Look forward to experimenting with it a bit more, now that I’ve got into the way it works.

Cod

cod

Cod, Gadus morhua, washed up amongst the kelp from the strandline on Druridge Bay near Hauxley, Northumberland.

cod

Pen and Ink

Sketches from Newmillerdam, Harrogate and Queen Street, Horbury, in my pocket-sized A6 landscape Seawhite Travel Journal. Lamy and TWSBI EcoT pens, De Atramentis ink (a mix of brown and black as both were running out).

Hauxley

lagoon Hauxley

Another sketchbook page from our short break in Northumberland and it’s another view from a table in a cafe overlooking a lagoon in a restored landscape, this time at the Lookout Café at the Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre at the northern end of Druridge Bay.

Red admiral and speckled wood butterflies rested on willow and bramble in the afternoon sun in a sheltered corner at the foot of the wooded slope below the Wildlife Discovery Centre.

Link

Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre

Saltholme

Saltholme

We took a break at the RSPB Saltholme wetlands reserve on our way to, and back from, Northumberland last week. The panoramic windows of the first floor cafe look out over one of the lagoons, so we were watching dunlin, godwits and gadwall as we ate our lunch.

gadwall

On the return journey the birding highlight was a pectoral sandpiper a migrant that was a long way off course as it headed south as it breeds in Arctic Canada.

pectoral sandpiper

To the south east Roseberry Topping makes a craggy a punctuation in the looming bulk of the North York Moors.

Roseberry Topping and the Hanger Bridge
Roseberry Topping and the Transporter (not Hanger) Bridge

Roe Deer Rutting

roe deer

On our way north along the M1 near Garforth we glimpsed two roe deer standing facing each other in a large stubble field. As we drove by they clashed antlers (10.20 a.m., 15 September).

Cutting Back

briers gloves

It got a bit neglected during the heatwave but now’s a good time to strim back the vegetation around the pond and trim the hawthorn hedges.

frog

I had a near miss as I strimmed around the pond when I disturbed a large frog, but fortunately it hopped away unharmed. I’ve left a fringe of vegetation around the edges of the pond.

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Categorized as Garden, Pond