Herbationes

Spring flowers but no April showers I'm continuing my posts about the illustrations I did last summer for Lia Leendertz's 2019 edition of  The Almanac - a seasonal guide   ... it's great to know that the book is encouraging people to look for and enjoy the seasonal changes in their gardens and the countryside. Here in the south-west corner of Suffolk there has been no rain since early March and in the past week with the temperatures around 23˙C it feels more like mid-summer than spring. The opening page of the April chapter in The Almanac is a close-up of a Blackbirds nest. We have blackbirds nesting in and around our garden, this year they have been very secretive about exactly where the nest is, I think that the young have now fledged and are hiding in the undergrowth waiting for their parents to bring food. We see them searching out food on the lawn and the male Blackbird sits on a tall branch to sing a glorious song in the evening. For the illustration I pla...

The Suffolk coast is sliced by a series of large estuaries, the main towns a largely at narrow crossing point miles from the coast and the main south-north road, the A12, further inland. So a coast road isn't possible and each broad finger of land between the estuaries seems to have its own character. The Shotley peninsula is between the estuaries of the River Orwell and River Stour, a area of undulating farmland, small secret valleys and hidden villages. Today it is quiet and off the beaten track. detail of Philips Suffolk Map 1895 A walk from Shotley Gate, along the Orwell and Stour estuaries via Shotley and Erwarton (6.8 miles) Sunday 30 December 2018 Weather: mild, 9˚C, still and misty Park at Shotley Gate near the Bristol Arms pub. (please click on the photos to enlarge them) From Shotley Gate you can see across the merged Orwell and Stour estuaries to the ferry port of Harwich to the south and the vast cranes of the international container-ship port ...