Spring is everywhere!

Val's fascinating prints of the blossom in her garden got me racing down to the  Jubilee Wood to see if the blackthorn was flowering there, and guess what........

 

Looks like there will be plenty of sloes for sloe gin in the autumn.......

 

As I walked around the wood I could hear the peculiar clapping noises of pigeons' wings as they tried to position themselves in the thorny hedges for their rather clumsy mating rituals.  I know they're the bane of farmers and vegetable growers but there's still something rather appealing about them - and as a vegetarian I don't mean their meat!!

 

I've been trying to catch their shape and movement using minimal lines and broad washes of colour  which is a bit of a change for me but one which I want to progress, particularly to a much larger scale.....

 

Some quick pencil and watercolour sketches of happy pigeons - before they start eating our allotment veg!