Cherry at the Hospice

cherry tree sketches

The cherry trees surrounding the Hospice are all the same age and currently they’re being lopped back. Hopefully they’ll burst into blossom again, but we might have to wait until next year until they’ve fully recovered.

Cross Country

Dalesman spread

Memories of wintry cross country ‘runs’ (actually my friend and I strolled once we were out of sight of the school, which didn’t take long on a foggy morning) in my ‘Wild Yorkshire’ nature diary in this month’s Dalesman.

Frosty Morning

The view from the Boathouse

It was muddy going around Newmillerdam yesterday but this morning it’s crunchy underfoot and ice has formed over parts of the lake.

Canada Geese, Thornes Park

Canada geese sketches

11 am: All the geese leave the pond and a flock of about 50 graze on the grassy slope.

Canada geese sketches

After two hours I’d almost finished this spread in my sketchbook but the last Canada goose was drawn back home from a photograph on the big screen of the iMac. I’m pleased that it looks equally as messy – let me rephrase that ‘equally as spontaneous’ – as the sketches done on location, sitting by the outlet of the Thornes Park Fish Pond, sometimes under an umbrella as fine rain fell.

Pheasants at the Feeders

pheasant sketches

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.

Marigold Seeds

marigold seeds sketchbook page

We’ve never needed to sow marigold seeds over the past few years as they seed themselves in the flower border and around the veg beds.

drawing marigolds

I’ve drawn one of the seed heads from different angles seen in close up through my magnifier desk lamp.

close up

Drawn with my TWSBI Eco-T pen filled with De Atramentis sepia brown ink.

Ice on the Lake

ice on Newmillerdam lake

Newmillerdam: below zero and the lake looks like the surface of another planet.

frozen leaf

Near the war memorial on the sunny side of the lake – if there was any sun – ducks, coot and gulls have found a slither of open water.

alsatian

Definitely a morning to head for the Boathouse Cafe for a latte and to draw this Alsatian with very mobile and expressive ears.

Alsatian

The cold was enough to reduce the pressure in the front tyres of our car by enough to trigger the ‘low pressure’ alarm.

frozen lake

The Weir at the Hepworth

Weir, Procreate drawing

View from the first floor Barbara Hepworth sculpture gallery looking down on the weir on the River Calder. Drawn in Procreate, using Román García Mora’s set of brushes from the Domestika course, Naturalist Animal Illustration with Procreate.