ねぐら

On Tuesday morning around ten o'clock, I sat in the garden of a church to draw the front door of a book shop...and I found Wood Pigeons sleeping on the branch. So I just gave up drawing the scenery and began to draw them peeping through the Ivy.



They woke up at 10:30, started to preen their plumage.

Isn't it too late for birds to get up? The early bird will catch the worm but since pigeons do not eat worms, they may not care about that...

時蝿

Another Sunday has passed. A week seems to fly faster and faster these days. That meas I've got used to the life here. But I have to keep it in my mind that I can stay here for only one year and a half and have already spent a month!



Last Sunday morning.



The pub along the river; Normally there are only Moorhens there but it was packed with people last Sunday.



Today I walked along the river to Grantchester again with my sketch books!

時間　それはこの世界のあらゆるものの中にあって
いちばん長くていちばん短く　いちばん早くていちばん遅いもの
いくらでも細かくわけられ　どんなにでも大きくひろがるもの
いちばんぞんざいに扱えて　あとからそれが悔やまれるもの

ピラカンサ

Blackbird(juv.) and Pyracantha
クロウタドリはこのあたり切っての果実食者らしい。朝からこの木にずっと居座って食べ続けていた。


鳥も動物も、脚は描くのが難しいけれど、成功すれば一番、表情を出せる部分だと思う。でも果実を食べる鳥を描こうと思ったとき･･････どう目をこらしたって脚はよく見えない。
ありがたや、と思いつつサボっているような気分で、手前にいっぱい実を描いてみる。

Dogwood

セイヨウミズキ（cornus sanguinea）
Everybody loves the fruits of Dogwood.



I noticed this Grey squirrel eating the Dogwood fruits and maybe also the seeds by the kri kri sound. It was sitting on the branch and eating the fruits holding a whole infructescence. When it finished one infructescence, it just got another one from nearby and came back to the same branch, started eating again.
Since the inflorescence and also the branches near the fruits are too thin to perch for birds let alone the squirrel, everybody was trying hard to reach the berries.
I saw a Song Thrush hovered and picked them, which really reminded me of my graduation thesis!

Berries for me

Every time I walk around the town, I come across somebody sketching
...friends from my course!



ラズベリー。£1.25の幸せ。
This morning, I finally decided to buy a pack of raspberry, which I had wanted to get but had no chance. And of course I met a friend drawing the market square.

馬の町

I took a train for the first time in England! and went to Newmarket with my friends



to sketch the horses. They kept moving and moving so I made so many unfinished croquis drawings.
毎日、毎日、スケッチばかりしているので、2冊目のスケッチブックを使い切った。今後のスケッチブック代と、これを日本に持って帰ることを考えると恐ろしい。

Muntjac

Muntjac at Paradise Nature Reserve
鳥を見ていたら、藪のなかから見つめる視線･･････ホエジカだった。
アジア原産の種だが、イギリスでは20世紀に公園から逃げ出した個体から各地に広まったらしい。自然保護の国ではあるけれど、一度、大々的に自然を破壊し尽くした歴史故か、外来種が多い。家の窓から見えるリスも、北米原産のハイイロリスだ。

一生に一度はしてみたいことは？

One month has passed since I came here! And I really enjoy every single day.



有名な「ため息橋」をスケッチする友人たち。スケッチをしながら、夢見ている無謀なこと、について話した。

「一生に一度はしてみたいことは？」
これは黒と茶の幻想を読んで4人でJ杉まで登ったときに話しあった質問だ。そのとき確かわたしは「留学」っと答えた。叶ってしまったいま、また新しい何かを探さなくては。

Birds and berries

When I was researching for my graduation thesis, I got a book called "Birds and Berries" by Snow & Snow, illustrated by John Busby(!!). It is a monograph about the studies held in the southern part of England to record all the bird species which ate all the berries species there. Because I was doing the research similar to their works in a small scale, I often referred to the book, imagining the birds in England eating berries.
And now, I can actually see them around my house!



Blackberry(Rubus fruticosus) セイヨウヤブイチゴ
Blackberries are everywhere, along the river, at the edge of the common lands but somehow I don't see many birds eating the berries. It may be because, as written in the book, there are double peaks for the birds to eat Blackberries; early September and late October. And it's the time in between now.



Elder(Sambucus nigra) and Collard Dove　セイヨウニワトコとシラコバト
If it's the same case as that in southern England, the reason for the Blackberries' double peaks here must be these attractive Elder berries.
It seems that most of the Elder berries were already eaten up around here, though.
シラコバトは、種子を散布せずに破壊しているに違いないけれど・・・。

Hedgehog

ナミハリネズミ(European Hedgehog)
When I was watching birds in a cemetery nearby, a lady taking her dog for a walk beckoned to me. The big brown ball which she was pointing at was a hedgehog!
She told me that it was the first time for her to see it in the cemetery.

British Hedgehog Conservation SocietyのHogwatchという調査によれば、イギリスでは西部より東部の方が数が多いらしい。しかし東部でも近年、数を減らしているという。
この個体は大きいからオスだろうと言われたが・・・それにしても、ハリネズミってもっと小さいものを想像していた。