Sunshine and sculpture...
What a joy a little sunshine can bring to the soul. Feeling that tingling warmth on your skin, listening to nature warming up and singing it's song, buds bursting and new shoots growing.
On one recent sunny sunday, to help celebrate BTO's National Nest Box week, I held an open day event in Penlan Farm in Kidwelly and had children as young as 5 wielding hammers to construct both bird and dormouse boxes. Little solitary bee hotels were made from recycled bottles and newspaper and a larger site-specific bug hotel was packed full of all sorts of organic materials making a warm and welcome home for all manner of mini beasts. We even had our first resident, a very appreciative ladybird, moved in within minutes!
I've had a fabulous couple of weeks working at events and with schools being constructive and creative. I'm often trying to spot a variety of wildlife for not only pleasure and personal interest, but also for other creative means. Working, as I do, on public commissions, I often head out for a walk to try to capture what I aim to carve in its natural environment. Feeling like an explorer looking for certain mosses, sedges, birds or trees, the first hand experience informs my work as much as the botanical images in books or reference photography on line. Sadly, I haven't ever seen a Yellowhammer (pictured on the frame) since their decline, but I'm lucky enough to have a garden full of other birds such as the house sparrows and nuthatch on the second image.
It's great to be creative with things in life - I've been making bird feeders from willow whips with my son recently. They're not perfect by any means, but the connection to these materials he now has gives him another layer of understanding about the natural materials around him. Willow bends to make all sorts of creative shapes, brambles and nettles can be made into twisted rope (after a little preparation) to hang things on, broken bricks and twigs can be gathered to create little habitats and we even made a dragonfly from four leaf skeletons tucked into a piece of plaited reed! I would encourage anyone of any age to get out there and be creative with natural materials - you might surprise yourself with what you create! Why don't you surprise me with it too and post me a picture!