Green Banks

10-14 May, 2nd Microseason in Rikka (Beginning of Summer)

Hello and thanks for reading my newsletter, on art and the seasons.

This microseason felt like another in which I saw everything changed - the banks of the Water of Leith are covered in new growth - cow parsley and (real) wild garlic - the gorse has bloomed its characteristic ochre - and even, in some places, a variety of red too!

I had a bit of time off on Friday to take a longer walk, photograph the wildlife, and do some sketching outside. I also made a list of birds I saw and heard on my phone, which I then added these onto BirdTrack - an app created by the British Trust of Ornithology. My favourites were the dippers, who I saw on three occasions, the Kingfisher, who landed on a nearby branch, and two bank swallows who circled overhead in Roseburn Park.

In thinking about Spring in its fullness, I stumbled upon this entry in Fenacular - a sort of website-journal, where writers can submit a response to piece of artwork. This was a response to Claire McGinley’s Cow Parsley. I couldn’t have put it any better:

“Spring builds like a wave, slowly at first, gathering pace. Shivering snowdrops raise their heads, followed by crocuses and swathes of golden celandine, harnessing the winter sun. Gaudy daffodils, then clouds of blossom, herald the imminent explosion of green as the world unfurls into leaf. ‘Green havoc’, Fiona Benson calls it – add in the birds for a cacophony of sound, and colour. Meanwhile, tumbling over hedgerows, come great drifts of cow parsley, their pure white spume frothing on the crest of this elemental wave.” - Jonathan Foulkes on Cow Parsley Bank, by Claire McGinley.

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Sketchbook Notes: I tried something a bit different this week- a sort of ‘field notes’ page in a small Seawhite Brighton sketchbook. I purchased a couple of these because of the price - only £2.50 - but I have been pleased with the texture of the paper and its durability! I was able to paint on these without any tearing or even much warping of the page.