Strands Evening

14 December 2013

Ash saplings have now caught up with the specially planted replacements for the century-old giant that was felled by the beck to make way for a bridge that never got built. But it was large enough to have one day fallen on the new houses that were built in the meadow.

Emley Moor television mast shows up like a very tall, very sparsely illuminated Christmas tree.

Distant misty cooling towers of Ferrybridge look like a row of foaming tankards of mulled ale.

It's injection time for sheep in the pasture by the Balk. A group that have I guess have already been treated wait around to see how the rest of the flock get on.

A few redwings by the canal are recognisable by their stumpy silhouette and by their chuckling calls.

There's a moorhen, a grey heron and two pairs of mallards on the canal by the marshy field valley bottom field know as the Strands.
Robins and blackbirds head for cover as the light fades, the blackbird uttering peevish 'Pink-pink-Pink!' expletive alarms.

 

Keen to get back to basics, I used a dip pen and Winsor & Newton peat brown indian ink plus W&N artists' watercolours applied with a Pentel Aquash waterbrush.