Peanuts and Ivy Berries

Sunday, 6th March 2005
Wild West Yorkshire nature diary

Almost every morning for the past month or two there's been a blackbird feeding on the ivy berries in next door's front garden. I'm pleased to see that a long-tailed tit and a greenfinch have found the peanut feeder we put out at the front last week. For the past year or two the birds have taken little interest in peanuts. Perhaps the nuts didn't keep well in the damp weather we often had.

Evening Sky

	I thought I'd have another go at skies so I painted the evening clouds that happened to be visible through the panes of the front window. I painted these using my small watercolour box so I didn't have the raw sienna and cerulean blue that I was using the other day but it was easy enough to improvise with yellow ochre, cadmium yellow pale, French ultramarine and phthalo blue.

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk