Things are looking up! For the first time in ages I got out into the garden today. This has not been possible for some time because of a combination of the weather and medical prohibitions. I am not out of the wood yet on either of those counts, but it was possible to size up … Read more
As we watched the Men’s Final from Wimbledon this afternoon my wife suddenly let out a cry of, “Hedgehog! hedgehog!” At first I wondered if this might have been a comment on Djokovic’s prickly response to the partisan support of the crown for his opponent. Then I realised that, sitting by the window, she had … Read more
Contemplating the best way of moving forward the composition I’m planning at the moment it struck me that I should probably try a technique I’ve never used before. It is, however, a device which Stanley Spencer used regularly. I have made good progress with drawing a “collage” version of the piece I want to develop. … Read more
Yesterday I rigged up my new toy …. the “trail-cam” I’ve just acquired with the principal objective of observing the hedgehog in the garden. This morning I had the exciting task of seeing if the system worked. Sure enough, there were pictures …. but why so many? It seems to have been quite busy out … Read more
This morning I remembered that after the death of our visiting hedgehog I had not got around to retrieving its feeding dish. To my surprise, when I pulled out the dish from the refuge it had been licked clean. I know that when I looked last there had still been a good deal of food … Read more
I’ve continued to think today about the work of Sean Jefferson, whose pictures I’ve mentioned in the last two postings. A stimulus to this persisting interest is a vague sense that there is something missing from them. This might well seem a peculiar response to art work which is so obviously and superabundantly full of … Read more
I’m settling into those end-of-year, preparation-for-winter tasks in the garden. High on the list was a re-ordering of the wood store, so that last year’s dried fire-wood is clearly separated from this year’s wood that is still too moist to burn. This laborious task involved a re-orientation of the “hedgehog hotel” I constructed, in which … Read more
This sound advice has governed my day. I know that I promised myself that I would write a letter (in French) in response to a fellow artist with whom I occasionally correspond. It is a noble aspiration and one that eventually I expect to fulfil. However, the woodpile needed reorganising ready for the winter, and … Read more
It was my wife who first spotted the signs. So I had little choice but to tell her what is going on. She understood. She came into the kitchen asking about the droppings she had spotted on the lawn. Did they belong to a hedgehog? Indeed they did, and the interesting fact was that there … Read more
Last year a hedgehog decided to take up residence in our garden, and I have been putting out food for it regularly. Also I built a little shelter for it, although I don’t think that it actually lives in there. We have only met directly on two occasions, and seen it a couple of times … Read more