Today was just a little wander into the local woods. We're really lucky here, to be able to scamper (I am dreaming about the scampering bit) into the local woods like little bambis (clearly, I AM dreaming) and find a lovely sun baked area to wallow in for a while. I mean hammock.
 |
| Gratuitous Sidewinder pic :) |
We both also like to play with fire a little bit so he took his Bushbuddy and I took my ever faithful Sidewinder, my Evernew pot this time showing a great deal of tenacity in clinging to its pot cosy as a result of the tarring I gave it last time. Wrestling over, Thomas had a brew on of some super secret coffee (unless you're one of the masses now on Twitter having received Growers Cup, oops), while I was still messing with burning things before putting my pot on and Solbærtoddy quaffed. I did taste the Growers Cup. I wont say any more about that.
I'd brought along a mini library of books, which I enjoyed setting out on the rock face so I could pick relevant ones to variously spot trees, wild flowers, birds, butterflies, bees, birds, trees, and trees. I'd also taken the rudiments of a sketch kit with me. Rather than getting messy though (ignoring the tar and feathering from the Sidewinder) I just did a quick 10 minute pencil sketch of layers of light and shade and pattern in woodland.
 |
| This was hard! |
As usual, the more you look the more complex it became as more details are noticed and hair goes more grey as more decisions need to be made about what to record, what to leave out, what tone each layer is and how to employ counterchange with the right approximate tonal values. Which is to say in a very basic sense, how grey to shade something so that it stands out against something else. Drawing (and much less painting) for me is a wrought affair of ambition in what I want to capture, against my waivering ability, which isn't helped by lack of consistent practice. However,
Kolby Kirk (the Hike Guy), aka Condor on the PCT, and subsequently
Russell Stutler and their work which I've linked to, have both gee-d up my enthusiasm to get cracking again. I think I need to ditch the colouring in bit for a while and get back to basics of drawing and getting an approximation down before I go deeper.
 |
| Pre-hanging boyfriend |
Apart from then I get diverted by Thomas in his hammock and I want a go too, so I put up his Blackbird next to his Hennessy and get swinging, staring into the trees, noticing how it's as if the land - sky relationship is reversed, and actually, the dark blue-grey pine needles twinkling at me in the sky above are very like sunlight glinting off water, and the hopeful mossies / gnats / biting insect flying things which keep sticking their proboscis into me, are actually whining just above the waters surface ready for trout to snatch, and I'm on my back, floating just under the waters surface, looking up at the blue, blue sky and laying there, dreaming.
 |
| This is a view |
 |
| Stars on the forest floor |
