Blog
Sharing a shed with a Barn Owl
Each morning now when I get to the workshed I do a little search, to find out if my Barn Owl has spent time there overnight. Underneath the spot where it has been roosting are copious splatters – so I can tell exactly where it has been – along with the pellets and preened […]
Wintery Walk
This morning I set off for a walk up on the moors above my workshop. I often look out at those trees on the skyline from my sheds, and its lovely to see them from a different viewpoint, I think of them as rather protectively wrapping themselves around the workshop nestled below. They’re home […]
A Big Birdbath
I’ve been making a big Birdbath – certainly big for me, in fact I think it is the largest one I’ve ever carved. At just over 4 feet square, the top took quite a lot of chiseling out. Here I’m making the bowl shape which will be filled with water for the birds to splosh around in and […]
Moles are good swimmers
Generally moles dig their nest chambers well above water levels, so heavy rain and seasonal weather change doesn’t cause them concern. On the occasions when severe flooding occurs and their tunnels become submerged, moles are able to swim to higher ground and safety. They swim well, I suppose those great digging front feet make […]
Life Drawing Class – Geometric shapes
On Tuesday our life drawing lesson was to concentrate on geometric shapes. A lot of subjects can be simplified to geometric shapes, such as boxes, pyramids, cylinders, and spheres. Instead of starting with the large shapes on paper, you simplify your subject in 3-D. I was rather excited by this exercise and quickly got […]
Finding out what’s in the Barn Owl pellet
I teased apart the Barn Owl pellet and found numerous tiny bones, two skulls and three sets of lower jaw bones – all belonging to small mammals. There were leg bones, obvious ribs, scapula and pieces of the backbone. After pulling all the bones out, and separating them the best I could from the […]
The cold night brought morning magic
All dusted frost white this morning – transformed , a sparkling, magical scene in my garden.
My very own Barn Owl
I think …. During this last week, or thereabouts, each morning when opening up the workshop , I’ve been met with a chaotic scene. Things have been knocked over and moved, but most of all the shed is splattered with bird droppings. Not the little bird type, which I’m used to – but these […]
Holly Sprig
There’s a holly growing in the hedgerow at my workshop, it is where the blackbird nested this year and it is usually busy with birds flitting to and fro and disappearing into its thick mass of prickles. A sprig was plucked from it for this scraperboard drawing – and made into a Christmas card (available now in […]
Life Drawing
To become good at drawing, you have to practice – a lot! My discipline for this comes in waves and my resolve wavers! Sometimes I wonder why I seem not to be improving, or getting the results I want. I’m hoping that joining John Creighton’s Life Drawing class will help things along. Yesterday was the […]