Curlew sitting on drystone wall, above, another curlew in flight, wings and primaries spread.
A curlew feeds in the cottongrass.
#WorldCurlewDay, a day when the curlew stands for all species caught in the climate and biodiversity crisis. I will take a walk on the moor after lunch and be grateful for their presence.
I prefer the name chickadee. One day I will be quick enough with the camera to photograph the behaviour.
Sitting in a budding azalea, a Coal Tit - a small songbird with a black head and bib, white cheek patches and...
a white stripe over the crown.
Just before I took the photos, this coal tit was working round the stonework of our dining room window, searching for tasty spiders and webs for nest-building.
Hardback copy of How Flowers Made Our World: The Story Of Nature's Revolutionaries by David George Haskell.
He's done it again. No-one writes on nature quite like @dghaskell.bsky.social. What he did for trees in The Songs Of Trees he does here for flowering plants. One of the most important - and most difficult - things in nature writing is conveying scale and depth, and Haskell is an absolute master.
Photo. A swift (out of focus) flies across the daylight moon (in focus).
Photo. Swifts flying at sunset.
One more month and swifts will return
In the teeth of it all
Screaming
We have a UK native in the garden too, common name dog's tooth violet, E. dens-canis, but its flowers are now past their best. The name dog's tooth refers to the shape of the bulb, I believe.
Dropping from a slender stem, the white/purple checkerboard flower of snake's head fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris.
Hanging white/pale green, five-petalled flowers of Erythronium californium 'white beauty'. The nearest we can grow in our garden to the avalanche lilies of the Cascades of the Pacific North West.
Putting on a show in the garden today, two member of the lily family, snake's head fritillary and dog's tooth lily (also fawn/trout lily). Details in ALT text.
Hodaka Yoshida - Ibiza, Spain
#ShinHanga #Woodblock #Print #JapaneseArt #Ukiyo-e
Wood engraving print in black ink of a long mountain ridge. The view is from the north and all the deep corries are in shadow. The mountain and the terrain in front of it are composed of thick beds of hard sandstone, tilted gently down to the left.
Monochrome source photo for the engraving.
Second print of the day, a 15x5 cm lemonwood engraving of Liathach, Torridon, NW Scotland. Almost everything in view is 1,000 M year old Torridonian red sandstone, the deep beds tilting gently down to left. From photos taken on a hot afternoon in May 2025, the deep north-facing corries in shadow.
Print in black ink from a 10x10 cm wood engraving. The partially ruined wall of a mediaeval abbey. Above a doorway flanked by blind arcades three tall windows with pointed arches are lit by the sun from the right. Grass grows on the broken top of the wall and through the windows you can see a wooded valley side.
Rievaulx Abbey, N. Yorkshire, England. A print from a 10x10 cm engraving on lemonwood.
#WoodEngraving #art #printmaking #history #architecture
I'd put my money on it being a Light Emerald, Campaea margaritata.
10x10cm engraved block of lemonwood and an engraving tool. A ruined mediaeval (12C) monastery. Three large, pointed windows above a round-arched doorway and round-arched arcades. Woodland can be seen on the hillside behind the wall. Many hours in I realised I had forgotten to reverse the drawing. The print is therefore the mirror image of reality. This is the first time I have made this mistake and hopefully the last. I can reverse a digital reproduction, but anyone who gets an original print will have to live with an alternative reality.
Print in black ink from the block.
First test print of a 10x10cm wood engraving in progress - part of the ruined 12C monastery of Rievaulx, N. Yorkshire. There is still work to be done.
I made a huge irreversible mistake right at the beginning, fortunately unimportant for this work. Details in ALT text.
Photo. Three shapely, leafless oaks on the crest of a grassy slope in weak, hazy sunshine.
Oak trees throwing shapes in the hazy afternoon sunshine.
We are privileged to live here! Some of the plover flock will stay on to nest on the moor, along with the curlews, and small numbers of redshank and snipe. The oystercatchers nest along the river, even closer to home.
Golden Plover, a medium-sized wader, with a short bill. Black face and breast, the back is bright spotted white, black/brown and gold (dominant) from the top of the head to the tip of the tail and part of the wing.
A flock of 734 golden plovers in a blue sky with a little wispy cloud
Wheatear, a small passerine. Blue/grey back, black wings, white front with peachy throat and bib. Black eye stripe. Distinctive inverted black T ends the tail.
Stonechat, male, rich chestnut breast, brown back/wings, black head, white partial collar.
Glorious morning on Ilkley Moor. Highlight of walk was a flock of at least 734 wheeling and piping Golden Plovers. The first wheatears of the year have arrived, stonechats are busy and the skylarks are singing. The photo of the plover flock was taken this morning, other photos are from other walks.
Ornate, round arched, church doorway in pale red sandstone. The surround is intricately and deeply carved with animals, including humans, foliage and abstract patterns.
Close up of human figure in carving interlaced with foliage and serpents.
Kilpeck, Herefordshire. Early 12C. #AdoorableThursday
Doorway of ruined mediaeval monastery photographed in 'warm' winter sunset light.
Wood engraving print, 100x65mm, in black ink, with pencil and engraving tool for scale. An ornate stone arch in a ruined, mediaeval monastery framing a distant arched window. First test print, work in progress.
Warm light in a cold, winter sunset at Byland Abbey in N Yorkshire, England, January 2025. One of several mediaeval monastic ruins in the area built in the beautiful local sandstone/limestone. A year later, a wood engraving in progress, the first test print made this morning.
First test print in black ink of a wood engraving on the 100x65mm block of lemonwood on the right. A multi-peaked mountain rises above an island-filled loch.
Slioch (The Spear) overlooks Loch Maree and its islands. View from NW on the high point of the track from Poolewe to Slattadale. NW Scotland.
First test print of a wood engraving, 100x65mm. There is probably not a single 1cm square that doesn't need further work but all will be small refinements.
Photo. A view through trees, across a green valley to a snow-covered moorland, all under a clear winter sky. The snowline stands out clearly, the transition from white to green is abrupt.
A walk in winter sunshine on the north side of the valley, looking south to snow-covered Ilkley Moor. An otter below the weir as we crossed the old bridge. Kites and buzzards crossing the sky without a wingbeat.
Rugged mountain under deep snow and a blue sky
Share a photograph of mountains that you've taken
Mountains inspire awe, which is easy to feel but hard to express. The duet of engraving & poem "Sgùrr nan Gillean" by @johnaltringham.bsky.social & me tries to capture this emotion with minimal means. Last planned installment of our "Light and Time" series.
Free at open.substack.com/pub/blots/p/...
Watercolour. The side of a colourful stone building with a history. Most of it is dressed sandstone but at the base is a more rubbly section. Some windows still in use (with satellite tv dishes) , most are bricked up, but with different materials, probably at different times, because another building was once attached to the wall. The line of the gable is still obvious due to differential weathering.
A palimpsest of a wall... the sort of painting you start when there's another long, wet day ahead of you.
Watercolour based on a photo taken by @thisismyglasgow.bsky.social
A giant knife blade of rock, Forcan Ridge in the Scottish Highlands cuts into the sky. The 3rd "Light and Time" duet (4 planned) pairs a splendid engraving by @johnaltringham.bsky.social & a poem by me on the mountain as part of a cycle that is shaping it.
Free at open.substack.com/pub/blots/p/...
A spectacular geological formation on the Isle of Skye has inspired the second "Light and Time" duet of a wood engraving by @johnaltringham.bsky.social, and then a poem by me. Enjoy!
Free at open.substack.com/pub/blots/p/...
Love it! Gorgeous colours/composition.
The wood engravings of @johnaltringham.bsky.social speak to me, often in the form of a poem. So I was happy when John agreed on a project, in which we show his and my work side-by-side. Share our joy in creating & savouring nature-inspired art.
Free at blots.substack.com/p/light-and-...
Rough sketch in walnut (brown) ink of a wet and misty moorland edge.
A rapid sketch in walnut ink of what the moor might have looked like the last time I was up there if it hadn't been enveloped in rain and cloud.
For those who like to know: the Shiant Islands, between Skye and Lewis, NW Scotland. The nearest island is 1.5 km long, Adam Nicolson has written an excellent history/natural history of this tiny archipelago - Sea Room.