Long time no see!!

As I have no inspiration at present I have taken to doodling.   I actually started on this book well before I did the bird book but it has come in very handy while I am suffering withdrawal symptoms.

The first five pages are made with pieces torn from paper napkins and glued to the page.  I then drew into and around them adding shading in places or maybe extra leaves and flowers here and there as in the one below.

There wasn't much I could do with these lovely ammonites apart from deepening the shadows and sharpening the contours.

The left hand page above started me off on several black and white doodles which became quite addictive, but I'll show you those another time.

Another nice idea was to tear this photograph of a driftwood tree trunk in half, stick it down to the pages and draw between and around the two halves.  

Then I thought I should not forget to use my own drawings so wrote these lines from Chaucer and drew between them.  'There sprang the violet al newe and fresh pervinke rich of hewe, and flowers yelowe, whyte and rede: Swich plentee grew ther never in mede, Ful gay was al the ground and queynt and poudred, as men had it peynt.'   I just love the ancient spelling.

The garden is beginning to look lovely with all the primroses, polyanthus, miniature iris and daffodils in flower.  I must do some work out there before the weeds all start going mad.

 I am walking like a drunken sailor at present having had chiropractic treatment for a trapped nerve in my left leg.  It is more comfortable than it was but needs time to recover.

I'll try not to leave it so long before my next post.