Coltsfoot Leaves

Sunday, 4th April 2004
Wild West Yorkshire nature diary

I want to get out and draw but with these wild breezes and passing showers I need a place where I can settle down and just get on with it - the greenhouse is ideal. It won't surprise you to learn that the coltsfoot leaves I mentioned a few days ago are still there, unweeded. They're the ideal subject for me: simple but subtle.

The pattern of veins spreads across the leaf like roads from a city over a surface that undulates like chalk downland. Each leaf has a slightly different quality of zigzaggy edging, ranging from almost smooth to dragon's tooth scallops.

New leaves unfurl, covered with white felty down. The stems, also slightly felted, are purple.

I like this light, quiet (apart from the pheasant and the tapping rain) shelter at the end of the garden so much that I've thought about replacing the greenhouse with an airy purpose-built studio. But if I made this proposed outside room too comfortable being here would be almost indistinguishable from being 30 yards away, inside, in my existing studio.

I'd lose that sense of escape.

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk