A conference brings me to England and then it is an extraordinary pleasure to spend days wandering the steep contours of Deer Park Farm in Devon. After the last several years showing and talking about field journal art, I am rediscovering the joys of playing (thinking less about product and more about process) in my field journal. The English countryside is hedge-rowed and exotic, at least to my North American sensibilities. Outside Ash Tree Cottage windows, Coal, Great, and Blue tits visit the feeders, along with clown-coloured Goldfinches (how unlike ours) and Eurasion Nuthatches. In travel, the familiar becomes exotic.
The Viridian Life:
Musings of an academic naturalist
Oh, this is so lovely. I wish I could ramble through other landscapes with such a great eye — and the ability to draw things….(I keep notes but they don’t have such wonderful texture.)
Oh Lynn!
This was so worth the wait, I’m so glad I decided to check on your site today, this beautiful piece awakens both the homesickness for university and the excitement and fascination of travel. I had to go to Hawaii to find bird song I could not recognize. Thank you so much for sharing this. It is greatly appreciated.