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On the Back of an Envelope
Richard Bell’s Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Friday 18th December 2009
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SCRAPING AND SWEEPING powdery snow from the driveway puts me in a Christmassy mood,
as do the snow-
At the Horticentre, up the hill in Overton, the resident speckly grey cockerel ambles
behind us as we study the spare fairy-
There’s not much in our vegetable garden at the moment. The leeks on the left are looking and tasting good but the Brussels sprouts are too loose, probably because the soil in our raised beds isn’t hard enough for them. As usual at this time of year the greenhouse is still full of old tomato vines. We always have a late season with tomatoes and I ate the very last one only a week or two ago. Other than that, there are parsnips and a few winter lettuces in the cold frame.
Richard Bell’s America
Here’s me on my next big trip (left). Thirty years ago I was halfway through my tour
of the country for my Richard Bell’s Britain wildlife sketchbook for Collins. Last
summer I attempted to get a publisher interested in commissioning Britain Revisited,
drawing at all the same places 30 years later. I failed to find a sponsor so I’m
hoping to continue revisiting the locations as and when I can fit them in. Barbara
and I have visited 13 of the places so far -
But wider horizons beckon -
I look forward to setting off down Route 66 at 120 mph to draw in 39 states in 365 days! That’s if, as he points out, I can find a sponsor!
‘Read what Audubon took with him to tour America,’ Derek writes, helpfully, ‘Setting off from CINCINNATI & the OHIO RIVER.
PEN, PENCIL & GUN
TO COLLECT -
“BIRDS OF AMERICA” AQUATINTS’
When Barbara says ‘There’s a robin over there!’ I assume she’s referring to some kind of Christmas decoration but it’s a real robin that has come in and is hopping around in the little forest of artificial Christmas trees.