Beginnings and endings

I’ve been sowing seeds, some in pots, some in the ground. It’s the third anniversary of this project – a good time to wrap it up. I look for something conclusive to draw. I have in mind a whole garden sketch. But in Spring, nature is in no mood to … Read More

Springing forward

It’s the weekend when the clocks go forward. The first tulips are out. In the nearly-three-years of this project, sketching plants has taught me a lot about time. But today, it shows me a parallel universe. This project started in the surreal stillness of lockdown, in an unseasonably-warm Spring. I … Read More

A visit to Mother Nature

Mother’s Day. Neither mother, nor with a mother to visit, I head instead for what’s newborn in the garden. The tulips are in bud. But what catches my eye first is a magnificent caterpillar. I should mind its nibblings – but look at it, an elaborately-plaited braid of a thing… so … Read More

Out of the old

There’s a dead shrub in the garden, undermined by the ivy, left standing for bird feeders. But wandering my urban plot for things to draw, I see that it’s hosting new life, green with lichen and this year for the first time, sporting rich red-brown fungus, waxy, gathered into its … Read More

As the rose goes

Stripes. Borders. Feathers of tightly-folded leaf unfurling. Wonderfully alien-looking serrated scrolls presenting new stems. Colour so vivid I have to start with highlighter. Never mind the chill wind – the roses are going for it. It takes a lot of colour (and a lot of looking) to show this new growth. … Read More

New blooms

Deadlines. In my other creative life, I’m a designer – and I’m working the weekend. But coffee brewed, I’m pulled out into the garden by the first sweet peas, a new variety grown this year (I can only remember the Grandiflora bit, which won’t help you at all…). All showy Edwardian … Read More

Catching a moment

I used to think of a garden as a slow sculpture. But some things change so quickly that I have to catch them as I spot them… The first ripe alpine strawberry zings out among flowers and green fruits. Just typing this has reminded me to harvest it – they’re intense … Read More

Early to rise

Warmth! Early to rise, I’m out in the garden when everything gets going. Spotting a snail curled around a spent daffodil leaf, I scurry for some paper and settle with my coffee. The snail, of course, is now travelling in a straight line but soon it’s on the curl again. … Read More

Visitors in May

I thought I was done with drawing the aquilegia. But brava! Here they are, in the sunshine, like a visiting troupe, flowers full-out, all costume and show. And the show brings fans – I sketch in a passing hoverfly… The buds, though, are like something from the imagination of a … Read More

Here, good cheer

It’s wild garlic season. Wandering out to survey my small landscape, I spot the first flowers sparkling in the shade. It becomes a trio of Spring firsts… The aquilegia, drawn in leaf last week, is now in dainty green-purple flower. I notice nibbles in the leaves. There’s an orderly queue … Read More

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