Lavenham

My friend kindly took us around to some beautiful fairly tale villages, Clare, Long Melford, Lavenham and Kersey in Suffolk. Many houses are painted in yellow and pink and orange, quiet version of Burano island, and either have pargeting or Timber-framed.



The houses are all leaning this way and that way because the timbers have moved over the century but they are still standing firmly and people are actually living in there! This is what I really love about here. Old buildings are not just kept as historical attractions or museums. So many of them are still used as somebody's daily home and because of that they are lively.



Although they are all in different bright colour and sitting right next to each other, somehow they look so pretty. It maybe because the colour are actually in quite similar shade and tone with lots of white in it.

Spring birdwatching

Garganey（シマアジ）



Nuthatch （ゴジュウカラ）
A nuthatch poked its head out of a nest box. I was quite surprised because it was using a nest box put up as low as about 1.5 meter in height. And then I realised that it maybe all right in the UK because there is none or very few dangerous snakes to invade their nest.



The sky was pure blue without a single cloud and it was reflected on the still surface of the mere.



A quick sketch of a bittern!（サンカノゴイ）



I am still not sure if it was a 1st winter female Stonechat or a female whinchat. But since it had a white throat rather than orange one, I am thinking it might be a Stonechat.



A sneaky sketch at the RSPB indoor meeting.

おめでとうございます！

ヤクザル調査隊の好廣先生の退官記念に。先週末にあったヤクザル調査隊による退官記念パーティには100人以上が集まったという。イギリスからは、とても遠くて参加できなかった。
普段は誰しも別々に生きていて、近くに住んでいても顔すら合わせないことが多いから、日本にいようがイギリスにいようがあまり関係ない。でもこういうみんなの思い出の１ページとなる出来事に参加できないと、間に横たわるユーラシア大陸が大きく感じる。結婚式や記念イベント、3.11の地震の記憶だってそうだ。みんなで「あの日」と思い出す、何となくの一体感がなくなるから、自分が別世界にいるような気がしてくるのだ。



Yakushima Macaque
Lino print with pencil on top. I fell in love with this method that Erin E. Stead does. I need more experiments!

ヤクザル調査隊

今年もヤクザル調査隊員の募集がはじまったようだ。わたしが参加したのは2006年、2007年。なんだかずいぶん昔のような気がする。でも先月、この調査で出会った知人がイギリスに来るというの連絡をくれ、二人で一日ケンブリッジ観光をした。いまだに続く友人関係と濃密な思い出を築いた調査だった。



Poster for the Yakushima Macaque research.
初参加者はほぼ先着順に参加の可否が決まるので、ご興味があればお早めにお申し込みください。

◇◆◇ ヤクザル調査隊 ◇◆◇
屋久島の山の中でキャンプをし、定点、追跡調査によりヤクシマザルの群れの個体数や行動圏を記録する調査。
2013年の調査期間
前期：8月10日〜21日
後期：8月22日〜9月2日
募集人員：約40人
参加費：15,000円（半期）、30,000円（全期間）
申し込み締め切り日：7月7日
本格的に社会人化する前に、わたしももう一度参加したい、と思っているのだが・・・。

Roma

After Bologna, we headed down to Rome. I love the funny shaped pine trees!



"Where do you live?"
"...Colosseum..."



ちょうど3月はじめに見に行った「トスカ」の第三幕の舞台、サンタンジェロ城。
先週、BBCラジオのプッチーニについての特集番組で、プッチーニは「トスカ」を作る際、写実を徹底しようとローマを訪れて、地理を把握したり、街で鳴る鐘を聞いたりと、さまざまなリサーチをしたというエピソードが語られていた。サンタンジェロ城からトスカが身を投げても、テベレ川までは距離があるので、川に落ちることはあり得ない、などという点まで言及しているらしい。
自然科学をベースにしつつお話を作ろうと思うと、話としておもしろくまとまるラインと、科学として正しいラインを維持するのに苦労する。写実主義の芸術家は、誰でも抱える悩みなのかもしれない。

And of all the amazing things in Rome, the Cappella Sistina was something beyond comparison. When I think back I can still feel the great, powerful atmosphere under the paintings and still hear the low voice saying "silent please!"

Now the Italy trip, one of the last and the biggest events of my pretend student days, is over. I need to move on and step forward somehow!

Bologna Book Fair

The Bologna Children's Book Fair was inspiring as it was two years ago! It was very much overwhelming. There were so many publishers from all over the world displaying thousands of wonderful picture books of all kinds. And there were so many illustrators with big portfolios and when they open them, I could peek their beautiful, strong, artworks.
But this time I found myself not just being overwhelmed but enjoying a lot more, knowing what to do!

The first thing we did after arriving the fair was to go to this year's Illustrator's Exhibition and find our amazing classmate, Zack Rock's artwork! Congratulations Zack for entering the exhibition!




This is our Cambridge School of Art stand, which was always nicely crowded thanks to all the visitors. Thank you so much Pam Smy, Marta Altés and other volunteer members for organising the stand!
It was so nice to see many people from our course especially from my year and to be able to catch up with them. We have Bologna Book Fair for the reason to get together even though we got separated in different part of the world after the course. We should really meet up in Bologna in every few years!



And the web gallery of our school's stand has just opened!

It was also great to know that Japanese illustrators were doing so well at the Bologna Book Fair. This year 16 people entered the Illustrator's Exhibition and Satoe Tone won the International Award for Illustration! Congratulations! The Japanese TALENTS exhibition was held in the city of Bologna during the book fair, which showed original artworks from picture books by 21 artists, including Taro Miura and Ayano Imai, who became famous after discovered at the Bologna Book Fair some years ago. And I can not remember how many Japanese illustrators I came across at the fair!

Now I am so motivated to work!!

海の都

Before the Bologna Children's Book Fair, we visited Venezia again! I was so excited to go there because I had started to read an amazing book about the history of Venice, Storia della Repubblica di Venezia by Nanami Shiono.



Venezia from Lido. I learned from the Shiono's book that the Campanile at the piazza San Marco used to be lighted at night for the ships coming in from the Adriatic sea passing Lido inlet. This must be the first sight of Venezia that seamen saw, coming back from their voyage.



ベネチアのラグーンは水深5メートルほどの浅瀬が多く、至る所に船を誘導する杭が打たれている。
フランク族を迎え撃ったベネチア人は、こういう杭をすべて引き抜き後退し、潮が引くのをまって小舟に乗り換え、大勝利を収めたという。



Murano
This time we also visited Murano and Burano, beautiful islands!



This time I somehow didn't manage to make any nice sketches. It was too cold and raining!
In Venice all the campo and campiello (squares) have a well or two called Pozzo. But these are not for pumping ground water but for collecting rainwater and purifying it. Venice has available water but Venetian could not use it because pumping ground water causes land sinking. Shiono also writes that until 12 century everyone in a parrocchia (parish), rich and poor, used the same water from the same pozzo.