Park Watercolours Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Thursday 29th July 1999

THE DUAL-CARRIAGEWAY VERGES on the outskirts of Leeds are sprinkled yellow with the flowers of Autumn Dandelion. The Hawthorn hedges are festooned with large white trumpets of Bindweed. I don't get a close look from the car, but these could be the North American species, Large Bindweed, a garden escape. The flowers are larger than our native Hedge Bindweed and large bracts completely wrap around the 'mouthpiece' of the trumpet.

I have to wait in the city park in Wakefield for half an hour or so. As it's a sunny afternoon it's a good excuse to sit on the grass, eat an ice cream and sketch whatever happens to be in front of me, such as the cirrus clouds.

Then I notice the way the light is catching an old thorn tree by a log litter bin. An appropriate subject, this is Thornes Park, after all.

Finally the photographer I'm meeting arrives and asks me to sit and sketch by the small lake, which is illuminated by a low sun.

Richard Bell, wildlife illustrator E-mail; 'richard@daelnet.co.uk'    Next day    Previous day   Nature Diary   Wild West Yorkshire home page