Wildlife
Red Bird
These little treasures of red pebbles and my other thoughts on red stone recently, have inspired me to carve a piece of red sandstone that I had in the workshop. It was a slim slither of quite course grained stone, with areas of differing textures and it somehow became a bird – Red Bird. […]
Big Garden Birdwatch 2017
The sun came out for my birdwatch, after days of cold grey. The bird sound is spring-like. Spotting and recording the birds is the easy bit – I hope to sketch them as I see them during my count, which I find is quite a challenge. Particularly the Nuthatch as it sneaks off behind […]
Crow Country
Most days they are my background sound, and sometimes I stop, sit, and take time to watch their flapping rise, fall and curving in the sky above the line of trees which form the view from my workshop. Occasionally lone birds will caw and rattle at me from their perch at the top […]
What is it with Mice and the colour Red?
As the weather gets colder I find the little creatures start to come indoors – when I say indoors I mean the workshop. I can tell, as they leave little brown tell-tale signs, and also footprints in the stone dust. Once I came to put my gloves on and found the fingers chewn […]
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust – work day
Yesterday I spent a brilliant time with a group of volunteers at Appleton Mill Farm on one of the conservation work days with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. The Farm is managed in partnership with the Trust and the day’s work involved clearing a steep, wooded, muddy bank of all the scrub and branches left […]
A Kestrel’s Chiding
Have you ever been scolded by a Kestrel? It is new to me – but there’s absolutely no doubt about it when it happens! This is the reason. A few days away from the workshop and wildlife has taken up residence – of course I’m delighted – but hadn’t expected it to be so […]
Birds Carolling
December days are just flying, already it is the Carol Service here in Lastingham this Sunday, 18th – I rather enjoy singing along to carols, though I don’t know this one, or its tune. I was introduced to it by Rosemary Roberts, of The Celtic Cross Press who created a Christmas card with her […]
A gift for a garden and its birds
Earlier in the year I watched a robin visit my Birdbath here at the workshop – it perched on the edge, bobbing and flicking its wings. I thought at first it was in distress. Then it flew, without drinking or bathing. Moments later it returned with three other birds – all newly fledged robin […]
Badger Sculpture
This is a recent sculpture in Kilkenny Limestone – a Badger sitting and sniffing the air, or perhaps just taking in his surroundings. It took almost as long to polish as it did to carve. Kilkenny Limestone is a hard stone and very dense. From the quarry it is quite a light grey colour, […]
Lousy Watchman
This morning I found a beetle on my workbench, quite a big beetle, about an inch in length and very magnificent. It isn’t alive – I suppose must have been caught by a bird, who either dropped it or decided not to eat it – there are slight crush marks on its black shell, […]