Kereru – In New Zealand Even the Pigeons are Spectacular

NZ 2013

nz 2013 2

I recently spent a wonderful week on the south island of New Zealand at the 5th Global Botanic Gardens Congress. On the very last day of our visit we made it to the gorgeous Dunedin Botanic Gardens for a morning spent oohing and ahhing over the gracious lawns, gardens and magnificent trees. Just as we were leaving we found this beautiful creature pecking away at leaves in trees just near the entrance gates. It was kind enough to pose. You can click to make bigger. More on the lovely native wood pigeon here.

Always With The Birds

A few weeks ago I had a bit of a play with reproducing on the printer a small ink picture I’d done  a while back – painting (colouring in!) has been great fun and an opportunity to play. Having plenty of copies to muck around with takes the pressure off having to stick with one colour scheme.

Big Leaves – Little Birds

Last week’s wild, windy weather brought me an unexpected gift in the shape of a big, fallen nest. It’s the most fabulous structure and there’s no way my photography can do justice to the intricacy and sheer ingenious use of materials in this nest. I admire the perseverance it must take to gather and fashion this motley collection of both natural and man made materials into a home for infant birds. A strong bird built this one – heavy gauge wire, both new and rusted, small pieces of chicken wire (oh, the irony!) cotton, string, branchlets and hundreds of strands of varied fibres are built into this lovely sturdy nest. I’m in awe.

Birds have been on my mind. This weekend I spent a quiet hour or two playing around with disassembling photographs of things I’ve made previously and reassembling them with new components. The big, leathery leaves of Ficus macrophylla are particularly wonderful, changing colour from yellow to ochre and deeper brown on my desk as the days pass and I like the way copied driftwood from this piece remind me of seabird bones. Lots of connections – just like in the natural world.