Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
I went for the great wildlife spectacles of spring migration and nest-building for twins Connie and Annabel, who live alongside the flood meadows of the River Trent.
I found myself thinking, if Ikea ever broke into the wildlife market . . .
There was plenty of action on the duck pond in Thornes Park this morning but these two mallard/farmyard drakes were a more appealing subject, dozing in the sun amongst the ferny cow parsley by a woodland path.
We’ve been in a high pressure area for a while now, which means sunny days but cold nights. So far our tomato plants in the greenhouse had survived unscathed but an extra heavy frost last night has shrivelled most of them. There’s still time to plant replacements.
Barbara’s birthday today and last year, still under the first lockdown, the highlight of the day was a click-and-collect visit to a supermarket, the furthest we had been since our previous click-and-collect. This year we can entertain a limited number of guests in our garden.
It’s so hard to find a birthday card with a Horbury theme, so it was back to the drawing board for this one, celebrating local architect John Carr’s towering achievement, the classical confection that is the Parish Church of St Peter’s & St Leonard’s.
Happy birthday to Alex!
Carr topped the spire with that rather un-Christian symbol, a Grecian urn, but this crashed down and was replaced with a wrought iron cross. The urn, which was about 7 feet tall, was carefully pieced together again and, in my teenage years stood as an oversize garden ornament in a house on Cluntergate which I believe had once belonged to a Mr Green.
It must be over a year since I’ve had a coffee and scone at Blacker Hall. Good to be able to linger a little with a sketchbook without feeling that I’m breaking some rule. The Courtyard Café is now literally in the courtyard.
You couldn’t ask for a better bunch of candidates for the final line-up for next month’s West Yorkshire mayoral election, my only regret is that we can’t be in an alternative universe where Tracy Brabin’s predecessor in the Batley and Spen constituency, the ebullient Jo Cox, could also have a crack at it.
Therese Hirst is our candidate for the English Democrats.
Green Park, South Ossett, 10.45 am, 10℃, 50℉, sunny
A jingling orrent of song from a dunnock in an adjacent garden. Three blow flies gather around a tiny naked chick that has been taken from its nest. A male blackbird perches on a tangle of honeysuckle stems cascading from a larch lap fence.
A robin perches on a branch, watching intently, then spots something and swoops down to the ground to pick it up.
Apart from a few quick sketches in the co-op car park, I’m out of practice for drawing on location, so I decided that I had to be kind to myself this morning and not to worry if, for instance, I get the flowers of the honesty out of proportion with the rest of the plant.
Though a critic of the concept of an elected mayor for West Yorkshire, describing it as ‘an elected dictatorship, and not a proper democratic body’, Andrew Cooper, from Huddersfield, is representing the Green Party in next month’s election.
My friend John Gardner, celebrating his birthday today, has built up an impressive list by running an ultra-violet light moth trap in his garden. Hopefully these reprobates haven’t turned up.
Moths have a bad name in my brother Bill’s childhood writing. He wrote this damming indictment aged six and it’s survived in a school exercise book from his infant school days.
I found it slightly alarming how easily I slipped into the sleazy slang of these Teenage Tuna Tearaways. Ivy’s is the first ever child’s birthday card to have been given a PG – ‘may include unsuitable dialogue’ – rating.
MAUNDER, talk incoherently, or in a low tone, grumblingly. “What are teh maundrin thear abaht?”
Wakefield Words, William Stott Banks, 1865
A Clip Studio Paint animation of a page from my illustrated version of William Stott Banks Wakefield Words, A List of Provencial Words in use at Wakefield in Yorkshire 1865.
Wakefield Words, paperback, available post free in the UK from Willow Island Editions.