Flowers at Croft Castle

The herbaceous borders at Croft Castle in Herefordshire looked superb a couple of days ago and there was so much there that I could have drawn. These flowers took my attention though and I took a few photos of some other plants that I might use for drawing practice later. My sketching on an iPad usually draws attention and people are usually quite intrigued by this way of working.

Croft Castle Walled Garden

I began this sketch with high hopes but after an hour and a half I got cold and bored and this isn't a finished illustration. The garden is possibly my favourite and it looked superb a couple of days ago. The apple trees were laden with fruit and the herbaceous borders were full of colour, shape and form. It looked wonderful. I tidied up a few lines when I got home but may try and work something in a proper pen and ink drawing from some photos I took.

Bucknell, Shropshire

I cycled into this village just as it began to rain and decided to shelter in the porch of the church. The row of cottages opposite was a pleasant challenge to draw whilst I hoped the rain would stop. My time here proved quite interesting as a group local villagers kept popping in and out of the church as they were preparing it for some heritage open day the next day. Several were quite chatty and I ended hanging a long hop bine above the church doorway for them - a task more suited to a readily available tall steady bloke and not someone of more fragile and older years. The church seemed to be keeping up with the modern age. Its roof had recently been insulated and a ground source heat pump was being installed in the graveyard. My sketch turned a bit scruffy due to my distractions but it vaguely worked. I continued my bike ride up onto Bedstone Hill, Hopton Titterhill and back to Black Hill near Clun and arrived back at the car drenched.

Black Hill, Obley, Shropshire

I love this part of the welsh border in south Shropshire and I was up here over the past few days with my bike. Every year I seem to try and make a journey to visit this hill and the nearby Hopton Titterhill. This picture overlooking the hamlet of Obley didn't work very well because I couldn't get all the view onto the canvas size in the way that I wanted and with a potentially long bike ride ahead of me I was a little rushed. The picture should be stretched to about twice the width and could have worked better in a more cohesive abstract style. I loved the patchwork fields and distant hills on the right and then Black Hill rises very steeply up to the left with forestry plantations on the top. I had parked the car there and I was now about to begin the steep climb down into the valley bottom to the village of Bucknell. 

Scruffy Dog

After receiving a complaint about the disproportionate number of cats on my blogsite and a request for more dogs, here is a dog.