Ducks in biro

mallards
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

At the end of our road there are open fields, and when we get a wet spell, like this last week, they can get pretty boggy with some patches of standing water. I like this because it's the nearest I'm going to get to waterside living for the forseeable future and it always attracts some mallards within a couple of days. Winter ducks on the doorstep - my idea of heaven (I'm easily pleased!). The previous best is four but this weeks' two were just fine.

A technical note - this line and wash sketch was drawn with noneother than a 20p black Bic biro. It gives a nice even line and it would appear to be water resistant too. Expect to see more like it.

Before the storms

drain near tadcaster
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

Although it seems a long time ago, what with all the stormy weather since, Saturday was a lovely winters' day. A cold, clear day and a watery light you only seem to get in winter. Out in the fields near Tadcaster, this little coot was minding its' own business in a drain.

Sshhh!

gulls at parlington
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

A quiet scene from a quiet week. The distant calls of black-headed and common gulls were the only sounds. Their numbers are building steadily in the roadside fields each day. The seasons move on a pace!

Kite flying

Red kites - they're ace! A six foot span of auburn majesty, tail twisting and flicking as if to show that an apparently effortless flight really does need a bit of skill and precision.

This kite lifted my spirits on the way to work. Cheers, I needed that.

The first frost

thorpe arch
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

We've had the first taste of winter this week, just a small one but definitely there, with the first frost of the year closely followed by a second a couple of days later.
We were out at Thorpe Arch at the weekend. A slightly odd place, a small village but with a trading estate (we were looking for a bed for Nathan), a prison, a large British Library building and the Leeds United training ground! Best bit though is the fields surrounding all this. We saw a very nice wintry mixed flock of starlings, lapwings and golden plovers (another first of the season for me). The goldies' bellies flashed bright white as the flock went up, spooked by a kestrel or probably less.

The wanderer returns

I will do my honest best to blog more regularly, I promise. But fear not, dear heart, I have not been idle. Just preferring to sketch than sit at a computer, I've been enjoying the simple pleasure of drawing what is around me. None of the scenes sketched are more than a mile and a half from home. Quietly watching the seasons change, from late summer to this wonderfully mild autumn. I implore you to do the same

An Indian Summer?

boston spa
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

Is it too early to be an indian summer? Does October have to be warm as well? Well, by UK standards this has been a very warm September, normally we'd have the winter coats out by now. Thoughts of global warming aside, it's been lovely. In the garden, the californian poppies are still flowering and the choisya and the bachelor's buttons are flowering for a second time. The solanum and the fuschsia are still impressively in flower too, but they'd flower till November in Alaska I'd suspect.

For all that, there are still signs of the coming autumn. The mists every morning this week evoke the season and the increasing number of gulls collecting on various patches of grass and ploughed earth are backing it up. Also, I haven't seen a swallow or a housemartin in over a week.

Yesterday, we went to the park in Boston Spa and this sketch (in Derwent drawing pencils) is the view into the distance between the trees. The rolling farmland to the north east of Leeds has a very English feel about it and is certainly looking it's best at this time of year.

The day before yesterday

filey brigg
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

Back again, but this time my absence has been due to being a busy dad, rather than a poor driver or a bad patient – see 8th August’s post.

Anyway, after saying it seemed like a long summer in 15th July's post, it's turned into a proper British summer. The warm weather broke just a fortnight later and we've had grey skies and regular rain ever since. We went to Filey on the east coast on Tuesday and the forecast was for scattered showers. Boy, was that forecast spot on. On the journey there and back, and all day as well, we could see grey blurry columns in the distance between low cloud and the land, where showers were breaking out. At one point, we counted five seperate showers going on around us, it reminded me of the scene in the film 'The Day After Tomorrow' when the tornadoes were breaking out all over Los Angeles (but obviously not as scary – my thoughts are with you if you’re anywhere near Ernesto or one of his friends). I once stood in torrential rain for 6 hours, next to a Northumbrian reservoir, hoping to see a spotted sandpiper (I blanked) so I can do wet but I’m not really very keen on being out in the rain. Today’s show made the rain interesting at least.

The sketch is of Filey Brigg (a spit of rock jutting out into the north sea) during a brighter spell. The Brigg is a fascinating place, good for fossils, you could easily fill a wheelbarrow with fossilised corals and just up the coast is the world’s longest stretch of dinosaur footprints. Good for birds as well, a few years back I badly wanted to see a live storm petrel so I stayed up all night and climbed down the Brigg in the dark to take part in a storm petrel ringing session in order to see one. About a month later, I was on holiday on Mull, minding my own business down by the water’s edge at a far more godly hour when a storm petrel fluttered by. I guess that’s the nature of the beast – birdwatching and storm petrels.

Not so close encounters

For the last two Fridays, Deb has been to a scrapbooking class in Harrogate. Both days, Nathan's been at nursery and I've looked after Mia after dropping Deb off. We've had lots of errands to do, so no time to really get back to nature but don't you think it's the glimpses of the natural world that you see as you go about our unnatural world that make your day and keep you going? Well, my encounters yesterday did for me.

Unusually, last week I drove through Wharfdale five times in one day without seeing a red kite - unusual considering that this is a site where they have reintroduced. Normal service was resumed yesterday, with a handful seen at various times, lazily wheeling over the stunning Wharfedale countryside (top sketch). There were a couple of skeins of geese flying down the valley, probably Canada or greylag geese but too distant too be sure. Thinking about geese, in the evening I sketched a goose, in sanguine pencil, from a photo on a magazine cover (bottom sketch - no, really).

Corvids and rosebay willowherb were the other things to catch the eye, together at that. A golden yellow field of corn or wheat stubble was being picked over by somewhere near four to five hundred inky black rooks and crows, pecking, squabbling, some riding the wind over the field. I'm convinced that corvids just like to play in the wind, having watched them swoop and tumble for no apparent reason, every time a wind gets up. Anyway, I digress - the field was edged with a cerise bank of fireweed, a name that conveys so much more than 'rosebay willowherb'. It was just a shame I didn't have the time to stop long enough to make a sketch.

Holiday Stories

I'm back!

What an eventful couple of weeks I've had. We went on holiday to Anglesey again, staying close to the home of Charles Tunnicliffe (who illustrated the book, Tarka the Otter, and much, much more). I wrote off the car in a crash on the first day, but we all got out without a scratch, Deb's horoscope said it would be the luckiest week of her life - and then some! Despite this we spent an idyllic week on the beach. I even swam in the sea one still morning, not a common occurence for me in the UK. Perfect setting, perfect natural history, perfect weather, perfect company, we were very sad to come home.

I spent most of the first week back in A&E (Emergency room - US), Doctors' surgeries and various other hospital departments, due to excruciating stomach pains. It was a bit of gastritis, hopefully sorted now.

These events make you think about what's important and put everything else in perspective. Could have been worse, my mum came back from a holiday in Canada (somewhere between Calgary and Vancouver) having nearly been eaten by a bear when she got out of the car to look at some pretty red wild flowers, now that would have made a holiday story worth telling.

By the way, the sketches are of the view to Rhoscolyn (top) and to Rhosneigr (bottom), both from Porth Nobla where we stayed.

Deja vous

corn field
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

Inspired by pg's post 'Where the barley meets the river' (14/7/06) on her blog, Middle of Nowhere (follow the link - right), I looked at the farmland between Leeds and Doncaster with fresh eyes. After sketching some of it, I can see recurring themes and motifs - hirundines, hedgerows and poppies. An unexpected contradiction there.

Anyway, the sun was hot and the golden fields were still, bar the drifting aerial plankton and the hawking swallows and swifts. This summer already seems a long one, the best sort of summer.

A swift sketch

swifts at barwick
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

This is All Saints' Church in Barwick and the dark flecks in the sky are supposed to be swifts zipping around the tower, but not screaming as I thought they always did. Maybe it's not the season.

Moore Sheep

sheep in pastel
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

It was very warm today, so this ewe must have been very very warm. However, knowing our summers, give it a week and she'll probably be glad of that fleece.

I was looking at Henry Moore's Sheep Sketchbook again and was inspired (as usual) to draw sheep. Some days they really do all look the same, no matter how hard you try to use an artistic eye to find something new. It's that heat again, I'm just not used to it.

We had a hedgehog in the garden last night, only the second in nine years. Along with the tawny owl, the rat, the squirrel and inumerable cats in the garden in the last few weeks, I think I'm only missing a couple of rabbits to complete the cast of Beatrix Potter.

Jubilee Gardens and Poppies

poppies in pastel
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

I took Nathan and Mia to Wetherby this afternoon. I needed to go to Castlegate Stationery, a brilliant little art supplies shop with some really unusual stuff, although I was buying anything but the unusual - fixative. As it was so beautifully warm we went to Jubilee Gardens as well, for a sit down for me and a runabout for Nathan. Wetherby has a lovely riverside park with a bandstand, the problem is that it's so lovely it's always packed and there's no parking on a day like today. The answer is Jubilee Gardens. At the other end of town, few people seem to know about it, it's still by the river (River Wharfe) but it's completely fenced off from the river - very handy with a very mobile two and a half year old in tow. Quiet, great views and safe, just the job and the four oystercatchers peeping overhead agreed.

On the way home we passed this poppy field, just outside Wetherby. I've blogged about poppy fields before and I still can't pass one without stopping to admire the spectacle.

A perfect day

geranium
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

Went to Hobbycraft in the morning, crisp (chip in US) sandwich for dinner, then spent the afternoon watching a bit of football on telly, watching Nathan playing in his paddling pool and sketching some of the geraniums (gerania?) in the garden. The weather was lovely, warm but not too warm. Like I said - a perfect day!

Apologies for another spot botanical but I like doing them.

Happy birthday

dead tree and ivy
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

Happy birthday to me, sort of. 'Where the wolves are' is one year old today! It's been such a varied year but just like 14th June 2005, the clematis flowers are almost all gone. There's real comfort in that sort of regularity, long may it continue.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed with their comments, especially as it so often leads me to a new and interesting blog, somewhere exotic, to me at least (that includes Oxfordshire, PG, if you're reading).

I bought a new brush today, so I was trying it out with the sketch of the ivy-clad tree. We've had quite a spate of tawny owls hooting and kewicking in the garden lately, and although I've caught glimpses of them swooping past, none have roosted through the day - yet. I think this tree is my best bet so I'm keeping a close eye on it at the moment. I'm expecting to fing Old Brown snuggled into the ivy (or sat on the television aerial, as is their wont) any day now. I live in hope.

World cup fever

darfield
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

The sun is shining and the world cup starts today. It doesn't get much better.

Doing my best to concentrate on other things, for the time being at least. This sketch is looking towards Darfield from Old Moor RSPB nature reserve. On a warm day, time stands still, a real lazy, hazy summer day.

Back in the garden, for the last couple of days a male blackbird has been feeding 3 very tame (and fat) fledglings on the patio. Very kindly, he has been feeding them snails. I think I've read that male robins take over the feeding duties so that the female can incubate a second clutch of eggs, so I wonder if it's the same with blackbirds.

A postcard from Filey

flamborough head
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

This evening I've been watching David Attenborough on television, extolling the virtues of wind turbines, bearing in mind that the UK is the windiest country in Europe. This fact is not a great surprise to me, having just come back from a few days holiday on the east coast. We stayed in a caravan, near Filey. So, windy, don't talk to me about windy. It sounded gale force in a draughty caravan and felt bracing, to say the least, when we were out in it. Nevertheless, I can forgive the east coast of Yorkshire for a bit of tasty weather. That stretch of coastline has everything - scenery, wildlife, golden beaches, donuts and seaside rock. You really couldn't ask for more. We had a wonderful time.

The watercolour is part of the view from Filey, looking south towards Flamborough Head, with the lighthouse just visible. It is also my donation for a fundraising event being organised by artist Sheila Southwell. Painters are being asked to donate a postcard-sized painting, in any media, to be sold for £2 at an exhibition in Hassocks, West Sussex on 5th August. All proceeds will go to the charity, Age Concern. If anyone else is interested in donating then the paintings need to be sent (by 12th June and with your name and phone number on the back) to Sheila Southwell, Hawthorns, 24 Ockenden Way, Hassocks, West Sussex, BN6 8HS.

A harmless escapee

midland hawthorn
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

A hawthorn is a hawthorn, no? It is, unless it's a midland hawthorn. They aren't frequently seen but then midland hawthorns are most easily spotted when they are in flower. This is because the flowers have one very obvious difference from common hawthorns - they're often rosy red, rather than milky white. I think the red-flowered midland hawthorn is a garden escapee. The berries are still a useful food source, the thorny branches are good nesting sites and they don't pollute the gene pool of an endangered species. As escapees go, I reckon that makes them pretty harmless (Home Office take note).

There's a small stand of midland hawthorn near Scarthingwell, north-east of Garforth, a sight well worth seeing whilst still in flower.

It's all go here

another woody
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

Well, it's not really. It's been raining all week so the flora has been shooting up and bursting out but it's been too wet to get out and enjoy it. And as for the fauna, it's just been keeping it's head down most of the time, trying to stay dry.

As I've said before, I like woodpigeons. Useless woodpigeon fact - they slough off the lining of their crop to form 'milk' that they feed to their young.

Dinner with Mia

forest of arden
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

Deb won a Christmas layout competition in ‘Scrapbook Magazine’ and amongst the prizes was a ticket to a papercraft show in Birmingham. The show was yesterday, so I drove her down and whilst she was there Mia and I drove around the Forest of Arden area, east of Birmingham. This sketch is of somewhere near Fillongley, I think, and it’s where we stopped for dinner (cheese sandwich for me, broccoli & cheese baby food for Mia). Drawn in Derwent soft drawing pencils, they give any sketch a muted, soft focus sort of feel.

It’s hard to believe that just 20 minutes from the centre of Birmingham and Coventry, you can be surrounded by the most lush farmland and deciduous woodland imaginable. The air was filled with a sumptuous mix of birdsong, Mia cooing and the cup final radio commentary. Heaven.

Whaling in Leeds

whale jaw bones
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

The other day, I drove through Rothwell (SE Leeds) a different way to my usual route, and this is what I saw. Less than a mile from the M1 motorway is a pair of whale's jaw bones (I felt that something so unusual couldn't be so close to something so usual as the M1). In fact, it's not just jaw bones but a bench to sit on between them as well - of course.

You can understand the whale jaws at Whitby, with a history of whaling from the port, but Rothwell? It's about 70 miles to the sea. The plaque just says they were renovated as part of the Millenium Project. I've searched on the internet for info with no luck so next week I'll go to the local library and see what I can find out.

It just goes to show that the out of the ordinary is just under your nose and if you try to do things differently you might be surprised at what you find.

Technical info - sketched in sepia ink with a £1.29 fountain pen from Staples.

Glory of the Snow

chionodoxa
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

We never got much snow but they were glorious. I only sketched these last week but the flowers are all gone now. I can't understand how a flower that lasts such a short time in the temperate UK can last for any time at all in their native alpine conditions. It must be the need for speed (of reproduction) that most alpine flowers seem to have.

Ah well, short and sweet, leave 'em wanting more, and all that.

Fingers crossed

Lapwings
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

I remember the first time I ever saw a lapwing I thought I must have found something really rare. With a bottle green back, tan undercarriage and that bizarre tuft, you can see my point. They're quite common here (although not quite as common as they were) and no less spectacular for it.

There's at least one pair regularly displaying near the Parlington Estate, lolloping about the sky the same way I imagine I would if I learnt to fly - until I got good at it. With a bit of luck, they'll attempt to breed. It's been a long winter by UK standards leading to them starting a bit late and they might get caught out if the farmer cuts back the weeds too early. But we live in hope, so fingers crossed.

By the way, in my sketch the lapwings legs are the wrong colour, they should be dark pinky red. Don't know what I was thinking, I must have been having a yellow day.

Bargain Bay

bay tree
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

This sketch is the product of a few quiet moments sat by the back door. The bay tree (or seedling!), came from the bargain bin at the supermarket because it looked done for. He looks a lot happier now.

Rare breeds

We went to Temple Newsam farm earlier in the week (I believe Lord Darnley, Mary Queen of Scots' husband was born at the nearby stately home, end of history lesson). It's a rare breeds farm. The sketches are of some of the animals on show. The top two are sketches of white-faced woodland sheep (a lamb and a ewe), third one down is a kerry hill lamb - I had a Henry Moore kind of day, and bottom is a silver sebright.

As far as I can gather, a silver sebright is some sort of chicken but with the most amazing plumage. All of it's feathers were white with a black edge, very smart.

A bunch of grapes

muscari
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

The muscari or grape hyacinths are out. They love it in our garden, they grow everywhere. They even grow through cracks in the drive. A definite case of thriving on neglect.

Rainy days

hickson's
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

After checking my nature journal, I see that it's rained here on nine consecutive days, and no forseeable end to the wet weather yet. A while to go before we reach Noah proportions but it's no surprise to see bits of minor flooding in the surrounding areas, like this bit at Fairburn Ings RSPB Reserve. The sketch shows the south-western edge of the reserve, a pool known locally as just Hickson's. The water's edge is normally well before the hedgerow shown.

I daresay that, annoyingly, the rain will have been heavy enough to wash out some early wetland nesters along the Aire Valley but nowhere near enough to stave off water shortages in the summer.

On a more positive note, Fairburn Ings is a great example of the nature's powers of recovery, given the chance. The Ings are the result of mining subsidence and slag heaps, with the flora and fauna allowed to colonise the area after the cessation of mining operations.

Daft about daffs

daffodils
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

The daffs are out good and proper now, it must be spring! I'm not really too bothered about individual daffodils, although I do like the miniature tete-a-tete variety, if that's how you spell it. This said, daffs do put on an impressive show just when you need it, when it feels like it's been winter forever and spring seems to have been just round the corner for almost as long. It's like coming up for air.

I'm interested in the phenomena caused by microclimates, and I think that daffodils are one of these. As you'd expect, daffs in the city (on roundabouts, etc.) were out before those in more countrified areas but I've noticed that daffs on east facing verges are out before west facing ones, virtually without exception. Also, the difference between daffs on north and south facing verges, which I thought would be easier to explain, is much more variable. Anyone got any ideas?

Morning flight

geese
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

As I drove to work on Monday morning, I'd just set off when these five Canada geese flew over.

This is just the sort of thing that lifts my spirits.

Cruelty

I copied this sketch from a drawing by Dave Nurney in ‘Birds in England’, about the state of the wild bird populations in England. I hope that by crediting the original I’m not breaking too many copyright laws, I wouldn’t normally copy a picture to put here on my blog, but I just found this such a striking image. Especially so in the week after reading ‘Peak Malpractice’, a report by the RSPB on the persecution, and resultant lack, of birds of prey in the northern part of the Peak District (Dark Peak), a place particularly close to my heart.

It brought to mind this quote, which I suppose could apply to so many other injustices as well:

Cruelty must be whitewashed by a moral excuse, and pretence of reluctance.
- George Bernard Shaw

Greedy Greeny

greenfinch
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

Greenfinches are just plain greedy. They park themselves on the feeders and proceed to empty them virtually single-handed or should that be single-beaked. They drive off the other garden birds to get a bigger share. Oh yes, and they won’t win any prizes for singing either. Don’t you just love ‘em? I do…really!

Being such conspicuous birds, you’d think they’d be easy to draw but I find them so difficult. I struggle to capture that sort of scowling look they have around the eyes and the bullish head and neck shape. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve tried and failed. This weekend I persevered, and I know the Tate Gallery won’t exactly be knocking on my door, but I feel that this is my best effort to date.

What’s funny is that although I drew from life, just looking out the back window at the feeders, I got so engrossed in scribbling and splashing paint about, that I didn’t notice what a field guide pose I’d drawn. This is a rather to frequent occurrence, I think I must have spent so much time looking at field guides that my subconscious wants all bird pictures to have all of the identifiable features of the species.

Next project – abstract greenfinch in flight. Watch this space.

TGI Friday

Thank goodness it's the weekend. These sketches are of a couple of points along my drive home. They're both on my favourite part of my drive, once you get out of the Leeds conurbation and less than 10 minutes from home.

In the last month, red kite, kestrel, lapwing, grey heron, grey partridge and pied wagtail have been the most notable birds I've seen on this part of my journey. Quite a diverse little group.

Diversity not improved by a housing development being built on farmland, on the edge of Scholes which is nearby. I know people need houses but there are so many less pleasant places that could do with some quality housing built on them. I just hope they appreciate the view.

Fly a kite

It snowed in Leeds yesterday. By our recent standards there was loads of it - about half an inch! Nowhere near enough to cause any problems (or to build a decent snowman) but just enough to cover the ground and make everywhere look very pretty.

As a result, this morning we drove to Otley through Wharfedale, in order to admire the snowy scenery. The drive out was very impressive, Christmas card views, but the sun was so strong that by the time we drove home, the only surviving snow was on north facing slopes and in the shadows of hedgerows and walls. Nevertheless, the warm sun had obviously created some thermals and the journey was made remarkable by the eight red kites riding the aforementioned thermals, within a 2 mile stretch of road.

Wharfedale is a good spot for red kite because nearby Harewood House was the site of a recent release scheme to re-introduce red kites back into Yorkshire. None of the birds I saw had wing tags, so were either long-surviving birds from the scheme or the offspring of the released birds. Anyway, my eight wasn't a bad count but the warden once reliably informed me that his personal best was an amazing twenty seven birds, all in flight together over one of the winter roosts. Wow.

Tag - you're it!

I’ve been tagged by Bonny, so, for what it’s worth, here are my answers:

4 jobs I’ve had:
Market trader’s gofer – I spent more time in the betting shop, placing his bets, than I did doing any serious work.
Sweeping up dust in a brick yard – that was a thankless task.
Postman – I hated the early mornings, but looking back it was good practice for parenthood.
Science teacher for the last 14 years.

4 movies I like watching:
The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Great Escape, Zulu and Mr Forbush & the Penguins (bar the last one - a bit of a blokey selection, I know).

4 places I’ve lived: (all in the UK)
Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.
Wolverhampton.
Nottingham.
Leeds, of course, in God’s own county – Yorkshire.

4 TV shows I like:
Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (coz I am one), Match of the Day, Countdown (sorry) and anything with wildlife in it (although I’m still waiting for someone to make a life history of the lapwing).

4 places I’ve vacationed:
Iceland, I slept through the best northern lights show in years, more than made up for by seeing Geysir and Strokkur and swimming in the blue lagoon - amazing.
Mallorca, I could sit all day just watching the oranges grow.
Isle of Mull, eagle and otter heaven, and seeing a corncrake for the first time was unbelievable.
North Norfolk, I love wild geese and this is my favourite place to see them.

4 dishes I like eating:
anything in a casserole, keema bhuna, pancakes with sugar (I wrote this on pancake day) and chicken from Nando’s.

4 Sites I like visiting:
Fire Star Arts, Middle of Nowhere (these first 2 aren’t in my favourite blogs list yet but will be when I get my finger out), Wild West Yorkshire, and the BBC’s cricket page (I couldn’t survive work without being able to get the latest England cricket score).

4 Places I would rather be now:
Anglesey.
Blacktoft Sands RSPB Reserve.
Filey.
Out in the garden, the sketch above is another sanitised view of part of our garden, in reality it needs a bit of my attention.
(Anywhere peaceful really).

4 Bloggers I am tagging:
Cindy, Nicky, Zephyr and Alice (that should cover the four corners of the globe).

Well, that was that. I quite enjoyed that, thanks Bonny.

In praise of gorse

gorse
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

I always think that when you see gorse from a distance it looks so drab, even with the yellow flowers. My theory is it's because the foliage is so dense, all but the uppermost branches are in heavy shade and because there's just no light filtering through the foliage, as you'd get with most plants.

This makes gorse a plant best seen close up, to appreciate the delicate-looking but needle-sharp armoury and the number of bright, even zingy, greens that there are to see. In close proximity, you can also catch the faint coconut scent of the flowers, which seems slightly out of place so early in the year (i.e. when it's still so cold!)

Colour and attitude

pheasant
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

For the past couple of weeks or so I've been trying to concentrate on what I like doing best in my sketchbook - drawing birds. I can see so many things wrong with my sketches but who cares, birds are so great to draw and paint. Here's another one, a male pheasant, how could you not want to try to render something looking like this?

I came to be sketching pheasants as it was too cold and wet for a walk yesterday, so we went for a drive through the villages and farmland to the north of Garforth. There was one field, near Aberford, full of pheasants. Well, four males really, but they're such resplendant birds they filled the field with their colour and attitude, and it was a small field. Their strutting out in the open is a sure sign they are on the lookout for females, which in turn is a sure sign that spring is on its way.

Spuggies

house sparrow
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

The conservation organisations are always telling us that, like too many species, sparrows are in drastic decline, and this fits in with my own observations. A few years ago it wasn't uncommon to see forty of them on and around the feeders in the garden, whereas now I'm lucky to see half a dozen. The biggest shame is that no-one seems to know why, although I think the RSPB or the BTO have offered a reward for the answer.

The thing I like about spuggies is that, at first, they look drab and uninteresting but as you'd expect (or I wouldn't mention it), they reward a second glance. The plumage of both males and females has remarkably intricate markings and shows great variation from one bird to the next. But it's their irrascible nature that sets them apart, I could watch them for hours, and hopefully, for many years to come.

Feeding the ducks

At the weekend, we all went to feed the ducks on the lake at Pontefract park. It's an unusual park as it's in the centre of Pontefract Racecourse, which itself used to be flanked to the north and east by 2 large collieries. The old spoil heap of one is still visible from the park. The park must have been even more of an oasis then when the collieries were open.

The lake is a little unusual as well. At first glance it just looks like any other municipal concrete-sided water receptacle, with healthy populations of bread-eaters, such as mallard, tufted duck and black-headed gull in winter and pedaloes for hire in summer. On closer inspection, the lake is big enough for those less interested in sliced white to keep their distance. So birds like moorhen, pochard and goosander are able to feed in peace.

Not that I have anything against mallards, tufties or black-heads. In fact quite the opposite, it was a treat to get such close views of such good looking birds. The top picture is a quick study of male and female mallards, and the bottom picture is a female tufted duck.

Graceful decay

corn
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

This is the remains of my attempt to grow baby corn cobs. I put them in early enough last year, but the summer was a bit up and down if I remember rightly, as was my watering regime. Leeds is bit northerly for such things as well. I live in hope so I'll try again this year.

The corn plant had such a stately air about it and it decayed so very gracefully that it's been left all winter. I'll tidy the garden in the coming weeks. Now that everything is starting to think about spring, there's an incongruity about the close proximity of Nature's first stirrings and the detritus that I've been too tardy to remove.

However, things will need to go some to catch the purple hebe in the front garden, which has been in flower since the end of January.