10.20 am, looking south-east; as I drew the view of Coxley Valley from my studio window, the last traces of the overnight frost faded from the meadow and the pearly hint of mistiness in the air dissolved away.
I decided on a change from my usual pen first, then watercolour technique and tried looking at the great tits, blue tits and greenfinches coming to the sunflower heart feeders as coloured shapes. I watched each bird until it moved then tried to get the whole pose on paper with a freshly sharpened HB pencil. If I could practice this a bit more, I think it would give me a grasp of the shapes of birds which I don’t take on board in the same way when I’m adding details in pen.