November 12th Update

I should have done this update yesterday, 11-11-11, such a cool date, and it's like won't be repeated again for a very long time (100 years). I certainly won't be around to see it. But I needed to finish a couple of drawings before doing this update so I had to delay it. Still 11-12-11 is sort of a cool date but not quite the same. Oh well, I am not going to beat myself up over the delay.

Above is a sketch I did based on the Every Day Matters list. The drawing of a peanut butter jar is my take on challenge #7 - Draw a bottle, jar or tin from the kitchen. I love peanut butter and so far at least I am lucky enough to not be among those who are allergic to peanuts. With luck I never will be, though one of my Aunts did develop a peanut allergy late in life so you never know.

Anyway my drawing was done with graphite in the sketchbook I have set aside for this project. I am not being very consistent about getting these done, too many other projects, but they make a nice filler for when I am at a bit of loose ends.

Below is an update on my sparrow drawing.

I actually did most of the work on this several days ago, but today I spent some time refining outlines to have a bit more accuracy. Eyes and feet needed slight re-positioning. I will let it sit for at least another day then I will check details against my reference photographs once more before starting the tricky part, inking in the birds.

Sorry the image is so light, but I am using a 2H lead for the outlines so I can erase them later when I finish inking the images.

Below is another Nature Journal Page.

Wednesday I drove south and visited another MA Audubon site.  Allens Pond in Dartmouth, MA is another coastal sanctuary, within the boundaries of the sanctuary is an ocean front beach, an estuary, a fresh water pond and some wooded areas.

I started my visit to this property by walking the beach and doing a bit of beach combing. Picked up a few shells, made a few pictures. The only bird in sight was a lone sea gull that eventually got a bit nervous about my photographing it and flew off. The tide was coming in so it wasn't a good time for shore birds. I then spent over an hour walking the more inland paths out to and around a fresh water pond. I heard more birds than I saw, but that is fairly typical.

Drawings for this visit are top, a couple of views of a honeysuckle vine that I think is a bit confused about the season. This vine had both berries and flowers. The drawing shows a section of vine with flowers, and another section that still had leaves but also berries.

The bottom drawings are of a couple broken shells that I picked up on the beach. One is the the inside of a Moon Snail Shell (the darker one to the left), and the other is a slipper shell that has lost the top of the slipper. The beach at Allens Pond had a lot of slipper shells and just about nothing else. Interesting how different beaches have different types of shells.

Last I will leave you with a couple of photographs I made Wednesday afternoon:

A view of the beach at Allens Pond, as you can see this is a very rocky beach. A more sandy beach which is used by the town is just beyond that rocky outcrop with the shrubs.

This photo shows the path that leads the visitor out toward the fresh water pond. The boards are because the path was very wet in spots and walking on the boards at least keeps the path from turning to mud. Notice the stone walls lining the path. I see a lot of stone walls on my walks but the person who built the ones down here was an expert. Many of the rocks he used were cut/dressed and the walls are higher than I a usually see them.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are welcome.