8 legged tales

It’s the bizarre world of travelling insects again…Denise whom I work with has told me about the spider who clings fearlessly to her wing mirrors. That is not an euphemism, apparently the same spider rides on the car wing mirrors of whatever car Denise is racing at the time. How do I know she races, I can’t keep up with her on the times that I have followed her to work! And if you are interested here is a great euphemism generator for times when words escape you! 

Do not feed the animals

Spent an hour entertaining Samuel with the Alpaca’s of Hare Hatch Garden centre. It was a fun filled animal afternoon also featuring bunny rabbits, goats, guinea pigs and ferrets. Samuel, who is now learning to talk, regards all animals as doggs…specifically putting a lot of emphasis on the G. I think Alpaca’s are really strange and odd looking creatures. Below is an illustration that Debs and I were commissioned to do for Hare Hatch, but sadly it was never used. If you need an illustration of a cow or sheep, please let me know.

Spie-der

I’m not a fan of spiders but curiosity is one of Sam’s greatest assets. This morning he found a long-legged pin bodied spider behind the radiator in our bedroom. He proceeded to intimidate the eight legged beastie by poking it and then running up and down the length of the radiator to find out where it had gone! He managed to press his head close to the wall to allow himself the best view of the dust and creatures…I had a cup of coffee to calm my nerves.

Flat sketching

Inspired by the urban sketchers web blog, I tried a bit of observational sketching. This sketch was a drawn in about 10 minutes and then colour added in the dry.

Ant-igravity

This post is inspired, in part, to Rob Whites facebook post -

Has identified that a grass hopper can wing mirror walk up to a speed of around 53mhp! Beyond this, their powers fail!

I have also had some experience with insects on my windscreen. There is usually an army of ants walking across my bonnet in the morning, I think they are coming from an over hanging shrub. Anyway back to the story, I was driving to London when I noticed that there was an ant on the windscreen his little ant abdomen wobbling in the breeze. As I speed up his little ant abdomen lifted and at 68mph between Reading and Maidenhead on the M4 a cross wind took him flying over the roof of my car. This is a picture of that moment. I like to think that no ants were hurt in the making of this picture.

Potters Delight

Wendy has been sat next to me in the office at Thrive, for around 18 months, although we have worked together indirectly for much longer. When she announced she was leaving to work in a school and because I knew of her love of ceramics and art I knew instantly what to draw. I think I have gone a bit Wallace and Gromit in the actual design. That’s not really surprising as Samuel is always looking at the Aardman animation book that we have in our bookcase. Another influence on my art!

Fun gets in the way of Gardening

Sunday was meant to be a productive day for me in the garden, having paid £60 to have my Bay tree trimmed I became inspired to tidy up our overgrown back yard. Samuel took over the planned afternoon activities, he tried his favourite hobby, eating stones. He helped me wash potatoes and narrowly avoided giving himself a shower when he tipped the bucket over. He was suspicious of the lawn mower but didn’t mind having a ride sat on the mower from the front garden. He kicked the football for a while and sat in his tent, jumping up and down on daddy! Samuel also helped to pick the green tomatoes. Very Helpful!

BBQ

Saturday we meet up with the parent,s and now toddlers from the NCT classes we attended before we had Samuel. There was a large number of outdoor toys in the garden but the most sort after was the toy car with those annoying, oversized supermarket trolley wheels. The slope in the garden made for an interesting afternoon of Child car racing. Experienced chidlers who remembered to pick up their feet were better than those like Sam who let his feet get caught under the car!