Fungi on the lawn

Woke up this morning and found this cluster of fungi on the lawn beneath the Silver Birch. Not sure on the identification though, but it made for an interesting grouping.

St Govans Chapel, Pembrokeshire

St Govans Chapel. 269mm x 180mm. Reduction Linocut.

This small chapel nestles, sheltered at the foot of the cliffs on a ledge above the sea (just off to the left of the picture). It is reached from the cliff top by a long flight of steps which wind down the cliff face. This is one of my favourite places along the Pembrokeshire Coast.

Although traditionally regarded as being of Dark Age origin, the existing building is unlikely to be earlier than the 13th Century. There is a little spring beside the entrance which is said never to flow over the chapel floor, from which the healing waters were scooped out and drunk from a limpet shell.

Snipe and Cormorants, Field Drawings.

Snipe. Pen and Ink.

Cormorants. Pen and Ink.

A trip to relatives in Doncaster yesterday, gave me the opportunity to have a walk around Denaby Ings for an hour or so. It was fairly quiet with not much around apart from good numbers of Gadwall and Mallard, and a solitary Speckled Wood Butterfly basking in the late autumn sunshine.

Next Project

Printing is well underway on my next Linocut, intended to be one of my submissions to the Open Exhibition at the Royal Cambrian Academy in January. The subject is St Govans Chapel in Pembrokeshire, an old sketching haunt from my student days. The print is based on a watercolour painting of the chapel that I posted about 12 months ago.

and printing assistant.........

There can't be many four year olds who know what a baren is and how to use one. She just doesn't have the strength to press down hard enough.

Illustrations

Jackdaws
Pencil and Ink Wash. 120mm x 105mm.

Peregrine Falcon Preening.
Pencil and Ink Wash. 100mm x 100mm.

After dithering around for the last couple of weeks, I've finally started on the set of illustrations for the 2008 Huddersfield Birdwatchers Club report. This is something of a labour of love as I've been illustrating the reports since I first joined the club, and this will be the 20th report I've done.

The Jackdaws were drawn as they tumbled on the breeze around the weather vane outside the doctors surgery in my home town. The Peregrine was sketched some ten years ago. I had been watching it for a couple of hours, trying to confirm that the pair were breeding. For the whole of that time it barely moved. Typically it flew off to the nest ledge at the moment that I took my eyes off it!