三角帽子

It was windy but a lovely day. I finally felt that It's nice to be back in Japan. Because I finally started something that I wanted to do since I came back... sketch Japanese birds and scenery!



I visited this place with my friends to watch lapwings the other day and found this fabulous scenery of paddy field with little triangle haystacks. The mountain is so close! I couldn't help going back with my paint box.





Lapwing, the bird I could see in almost every nature reserve in East Anglia, is a scarce winter visitor in my area. It has reduced its number because their habitat, rice paddy has decreased. I heard that this place is one of a few places where we can still see more than a dozen of them in the area.  



三角帽子の絵を描きにもう一度行きたいんですけれど・・・と突然言い出したわたしを、ヤマセミさんがお忙しい中、時間を見つけて駅から田んぼまで送り迎えしてくださり、半日、大山を目の前にする田んぼで絵を描くという贅沢な機会を得た。こうしてちょっとずつ日本の風景を描きためていきたい。
ヤマセミさん、お世話になりました！

Autumnal colour

It is getting chilly and leaves are turning red and yellow in my area. The landscape is shouting "it's autumn!!"



Mandarin duck
「オシドリは遠すぎて、だめですね」　大砲のようなカメラを抱えた人たちは、ちらりと双眼鏡をのぞいてそう言っては、諦めて別の鳥を探して移動していく。
宮ヶ瀬のオシドリはシャイで、岸部近くの湖面に張りだした枝の下を静かに泳いでいる。湖の対岸から望遠鏡を向けても、こちらを気にしてさらに枝の奥へと入っていくように感じるほどだ。でも、そんな野生のオシドリらしいオシドリが見られるのは、とてもすばらしいことだと思う。



Daurian Redstart, one of the commonest, cute winter birds in Japan. Somehow they are quite tame and stay at a same spot for long time so I often get enough time to sketch them.



赤いカラスウリ、みつけた！
This morning, I went out just after the sun rise and visited a very small valley with a small pond a few kilometers away from my house. This small natural area is hidden in between the apartments and the golf courses and I don't think not many people, who lives in this area, have even realised that it is there. But I found that a kingfisher often visits this small, shallow pond! Wildlife know where to go in this built-up area.



Grasses were also in bright yellow and in between them there were goldenrods.



I missed those Acer trees in autumn in England. Autumn needs this red colour!



Japanese Grosbeaks. This sketch is actually from a few weeks ago, when I visited Yamanashi. Birds were feeding on the remaining Dogwood's fruits. The grosbeak crushes seeds so the tree won't be happy having them eating up the seeds...

大磯宿場まつり

少し前になるが、ジャパン・バード・フェスティバル、大磯宿場まつりと秋のにわか露天商が今年も無事に終わった。お祭りの屋台の食べ物、おもちゃを見ると、日本だな！と感じる。自分がブースにいるとまったく他をまわったり、スケッチする時間がないのだが、宿場まつりでこまたんの「あおばとや」の目の前には屋台があったので、店番をしながらスケッチ。日本に帰ってきて以来、ちょっとしたプラスアルファのことをする時間がどうもない！



Banana Chocolate, a typical street sweet at festivals in Japan. They dip the whole banana on a stick into melted chocolate and let it dry, put some decorations. Those venders are very good at judging how many they can sell until the end of the festival and stop making them. There were nearly ten bananas left when they started clearing up a few minutes before the closing time. And they were all sold one by one just in time for the finish time!



Super balls (bouncy balls) dipping is kids' favorite! (I know that the perspective is not right at all in this sketch! I started to drew the child and the lady completely separately in the beginning...)
ワイバードブース、日本ワイルドライフアート協会、こまたんのみなさま、お世話になりました！　たくさんの方がブース、店に立ち寄って、声をかけてくださり、とてもうれしかったです。ありがとうございました！