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.