Plants
by the PondPlants
by the Pond
WHEN
WE moved here and the first of the bluebells appeared in the border by
the hedge, I assumed that they were some from the local wood
that had been transplanted here but were growing more vigorously in the
deeper soil and more open aspect. In fact they're a garden variety
- the Spanish Bluebell. I like them at this stage before
the flowers open. The flowers are bigger and brasher than our native
species and
they don't hang from the stem in slender bells like our woodland version.
Dandelions are looking so fresh at the moment. They soon set seed and I guess that in two weeks time there will be more 'dandelion clocks' than flowers.
The bark-chip path that I laid down last autumn gives me a space where
I can put down a square of cargo liner and squat down to drawn the bistort which I planted by the edge of the pond.
One
frog (right): it's not surprising that the pond seems under-populated after the
regular visits we had from a pair of mallards a couple of weeks
ago.
Later, digging into the compost heap I disturbed a toad,
considerably smaller than a golf ball but a similar shape
as he sat with afflicted dignity on my hand when I transferred him to
the safety of a nearby banking, pierced by a few mouse-holes.
This crusty greyish-green lichen is growing on an old piece
of concrete paving at the edge of the pond. After I'd drawn it I took
my hand lens from my art bag and took a closer look at it. It was like
zooming in on the landscape of some alien planet.
The lichen has lobes around the perimeter and all over
the broken crust that makes up the centre there are 
the spore-producing
bodies which The Observer's Book of Lichens aptly describes
as 'resembling jam tarts with red, brown or black jam, and whitish grey
rims'.
From the descriptions I would identify this as Lecanora
muralis, a species which can survive quite well in areas with polluted
air, often on concrete, as here but also on asbestos roofs, rocks and gravestones.
It is less common in places with clean air.
It did me good to take off the entire morning to sit by the pond drawing flowers. I realise that, for the last 18 months really, I've been taking on too much and at times a month has gone by and I've done hardly any drawing just for fun but taking a few hours off seems to have got me back into the habit and when we set off for a meal at Barbara's sister's I took my current favourite pen, the brown 0.8 Pilot Drawing Pen, and picked out a new sketchbook from the drawer. Actually it's not so new, it was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law several years ago and it's just been waiting in the drawer for its opportunity.
It's a hardback A6 notebook. I usually go for spiral bound as it opens more easily on the scanner but this book is for fun drawings only so if I've got a few problems with scanning that doesn't really matter, however it is section sewn so that shouldn't be much of a problem.