Five female pheasants alternated from pecking around the feeders for spilt sunflower hearts and crumbs from the fat balls to drinking at the pond (and one unwisely tried to run across the surface of the water!) then going down to the veg beds to rest for a while.
One pheasant, feeding on its own at that time, suddenly burst into a ‘mad half hour’ routine, as my mum used to describe similar behaviour in a cat; darting around and flouncing its feathers as if it was being threatened by some invisible enemy. This lasted less than a minute, not a full half hour.
Male fern, knapweed and teasel from behind the pond and the meadow area. As I slowly walked down the garden, five female pheasants kept an eye on me but didn’t walk off under the hedge until I started snipping off a small teasel head in our little ‘meadow’ area.
It’s good to see the cascade between the Middle and Lower Lakes at Nostell in action again after years when the overflow was diverted because of problems with the dam.
Our friends Jill and John presented us with a pizza stone for Christmas. Admittedly our first attempt at using it was a bit of a disaster, so we’re still working on our technique for using the stone but at least it was crispy and it tasted good.
Most recipes suggest making enough dough for several pizzas, so I scaled it down here to make a pizza that comfortably fits on our new pizza stone.
I’m dipping into the Adobe Color online program to cook up and save colour schemes in a variety of ways. Here I’ve used the ‘Extract Theme’ option on one of my photographs from this morning and opted for a ‘Muted’ set of swatches.
As I write this it’s just one blue tit, one great tit and one nuthatch visiting the feeders. No sign of Bruce (who isn’t really a Persian but some equally fluffy variety).
Happy Christmas!
And talking of melting snowmen, it’s at this time of year that we remember Lucky. Actually he wasn’t so lucky as shortly after this photograph was taken he melted overnight leaving only a scarf, a hat, a carrot and a pile of loose change.
Photocredit: Meghan. Lucky’s stylists: Meghan, Millie and Evie. It has been estimated that Lucky’s perfect smile cost 12 pence in orthodontic work.
28th December 1972: ‘Why doesn’t he clear those books away instead of wasting his time drawing them?’ Well I’m in a rather an unsettled state at the moment and my other shelf unit is down in London.
If you read this picture carefully you might find hidden in it; clock from Horbury station, an unfinished model of a village built on a rock which I started before O-levels and a Victorian writing box which Grandma Bell gave us when they moved house.
Drawn in pen and ink, 28 December 1972, colour added in Clip Studio Paint, 24 December 2022
Today I date every drawing in my sketchbook, because it’s such a help when I’m trying to track down a drawing later. Apart from references to Christmas and the new year I wasn’t so consistent at that time.
Painting the backdrop to the Pageant Players production of ‘Pinocchio’, talking about ‘The White Goddess’ with my friend from school days John Blackburn.
But I did mention in my diary that I ‘did a sketch in the bedroom’ on Thursday, 28 December 1972. Probably more details than you need here! Even so, you may be wondering what I dreamt about that night?
What do you mean ‘No!’?!
Well, I recorded it, so here it is anyway . . .
My dream: receiving those cheques from the Harrogate Festival and ‘Yorkshire Life’ made me relive a busy year of organising recitals and exhibitions for the 50th anniversary of the death of Yorkshire composer William Baines.
Seed heads of tansy, from a rough verge in Ossett and yarrow from a grassy area at Newmillerdam.
On Monday morning wisps of thin vapour blew over the surface of the ice. There was a hollow clacking as a child three chunks of ice and rock onto the frozen surface of the lake.
One of a family of four swans touching down at the far side of the overshot the landing site and went skimming along the watery surface of the ice. A drake mallard landing on ice near the open area by the war memorial did something similar but managed to do an about turn and slid back towards the other ducks he’d landed with.
Mallards at the Boathouse Cafe yesterday and the Calder below the weir from the Hepworth Cafe today.
