People are going round and saying something like, "Its cold and damp and miserable": well yes, some of that may be true; but this season also has its gems. At Hatchlands a few days ago we saw the above crab apples; yesterday at Trigs road roundabout, I saw a red admiral butterfly and this morning at Polseden Lacey we saw a greater spotted woodpecker, a close up of a red kite and the leaves on the brambles were at places an amazing bright red. Nature can surprise us with its beauty at any time of the year.

By the way this morning was not at all cold, damp or miserable; we walked to Play Pits and had a lovely picnic of brie cheese with cranberry sauce on bread rolls, followed by a banana and an orange, this was washed down with a good coffee. Altogether a rather lovely day out.

Well must stop writing as there is some ink work to do.

Duncan

 

Well life seems to get ever busier by the day. We have just had a marvelous weekend up in Sheffield, where we saw 5 of our God children, 1 great God son, 2 grandchildren, 2 sons and 1 daughter in law; plus many friends, adding all that up came to the total of a superbly hectic and enjoyable weekend. Returning home on the Tuesday was hindered by the M1 being closed because of an overturned lorry. So we drove down through the midlands on the compass; it was a lovely drive through small towns and countryside which neither of us have seen before. If it took a little longer to get home, it was a super enjoyable adventure.

 The above image and this new current project which i am working on.

The work on this project, continuing the tree work but in a larger format is going very well. The whole process being slower and more time consuming does produce fresh problems, such as. The composition taking much longer to appear, so staying on and working at the image is quite challenging from a fortitude point of view, as the work just does not seem to be working until many hours of hard work have been put into it. then after many hours suddenly it seems to come together. The hard bit is holding in my mind what the final outcome will be in my mind and just plodding, knowing that you are doing the right thing, until at last it works. The above image took, in am under estimation in excess of fifty hours; with the composition and work only starting to work during the last five or six hours. The end result is very satisfying and this project is certainly going ahead with full steam.