Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
As I sat drawing this alder at the lakeside at Newmillerdam I felt something drop on my back. An alder cone? No. My shirt needed to go in the wash. Not sure who was responsible but I’m guessing that the wood pigeon is the first one that I need to rule out of my enquiries.
The man with the headphones and baseball cap is looking intently down at the stream as we enter Coxley Valley so he doesn’t see us, but his terrier does and gives a yap and a tug on his lead.
“Sorry! I’ve been looking at the crayfish,’ he explains, ‘I’ve seen 8 or 9 of them.’
I’m told that years ago there were crayfish, our native crayfish, the White-clawed, in the beck but with those conspicuous markings on the claws and the size of this one, about 6 inches long, I’m guessing that it’s the introduced American Signal Crayfish, Pacifastacus lenuisculus.
It’s the first we’ve seen, so our thanks to the observant dog walker for pointing it out to us. I’m wondering how the population of bullheads is doing in this stretch. I’ve heard reports of run off from a septic tank finding its way into the stream. Herons still fly down to one of the quieter bends in the stream.
After the dry spell we’ve had the stream was unusually low today.
In the late 1960s friend of mine perfected the art of tickling trout by lying on the bank and reaching down into the spots where they used to rest. I think it was the deeper undercut bank on the outside bend of the stream.
A whitebeam, berries starting to ripen, in a car park in Normanton.
They’re restoring the old water mill at Newmillerdam, re-using the flagstone roof tiles, a job that involves a lot of work with power tools so I’ve made my way along the lakeside to draw this multi-stemmed alder.
What pebbles do on their day off. Happy birthday to George (yesterday).
The view from Betty’s, Harlow Carr and Farrar’s Palm Court Cafe in Harrogate today.
It’s years since we bought any marigolds but they’re good at spreading their seeds around the garden. We’ll have plenty of seedlings next year at the top end of the border.
Also well able to seed itself around, the Welsh poppy. If it just spread by seed that would suit me but, unlike the marigold, it can establish itself as a perennial, building up deep dandelion-like tap roots and crowding out other flowers.
This heron, preening in a quiet corner at Adel Dam became watchful and alert when first a buzzard and then a sparrowhawk flew overhead.
A busy week for birthdays including, for Arden, some Secrets of the Underground beneath a Victorian villa. The map is 70% accurate: the Victorians did a lot of groundwork when they built their villas.
Less accurate: Paul Simon didn’t, unfortunately, include the exciting new ballad Dave in his surprise set at the Newport Folk Festival. My nephews James (happy birthday today), Richard and Tom gave its world premiere last month, at Dave and my sister Lin’s golden wedding celebrations.
It opens with Dave on his trusty NSU Quickly moped phut-phutting to the rescue with nothing to sustain him on his journey except a raw onion, hence the chorus, ‘Bite! Bite!’.
Performing alongside the Ingham brothers, my great-nephew Dylan, who also celebrated a birthday during this last week.
Happy birthday to Sue (a few days ago) who, as a member of our local wild flower group, follows in the footsteps of Thomas Gissing, pharmacist of Westgate, Wakefield, father of novelist George.
I bought these just before the pandemic to model ‘Plasticine’ Wallace and Gromit-style puppets for an animation project that never got the go-ahead. Shame, as I’d asked Karen Chalmers if she could do the music, as she did with my Rhubarb Festival animation, and she’d already come up with a few suggestions of how we might do it.
It might be time to give it a try although sculptor Wilfrid Wood recently posted a photograph on Instagram showing the effect of a heatwave on Plasticine: his carefully carved head-and-shoulders portrait had been transformed into something that resembled one of The Abominable Dr. Phibes’ waxworks. A shame that Vincent Price isn’t still around to play Wilfrid if there’s ever a bio-pic.
I’ve gone for Newplast for my modelling material.
I’m sure I’ll work out what all those wooden knives, scrapers, probes and spatulas are supposed to do.