Turtle Days

I am not the only one out and about these past few days. Above are a couple of horseback riders I saw at Ponkapoag Pond in the Blue Hills Reservation, Canton, MA. yesterday (June 10). Not sure if you can tell from the photo but the horses are wearing net head protectors to keep the bugs away from their eyes and noses.

Painted Turtle

But the focus for todays post isn't human visitors to the parks I visit. It is the Painted Turtles that I have been seeing the past couple of days. They also seem to be on walk about, though their purpose is entirely different from mine or the horseback riders above.

In the past couple of days I have come across 3 painted turtles out of their ponds wandering the paths that I walk. Above is the first that I found, in a rain puddle at Ames Nowell State Park, Abington, MA. I fear I was mean and pulled the turtle out of the puddle in order to better photograph it. It took off through the grass (2nd photo) and wasn't in the least harmed by my handling.

Above are the two painted turtles I ran across yesterday at Ponkapoag. Note that the turtle in the lower photo has mud on her tail and back of her shell. She was heading back toward the pond.

And finally, this photo which I actually made last year in DW Field Park here in Brockton, shows the activity that has them out of the ponds and on the trail, digging a hole and laying eggs. It is that time of year for painted turtles. They leave their ponds to dig holes in sandy (or not so sandy) soil that is in a location that will get direct sun some hours a day. They will then lay eggs, between 2 to 20 depending on the size and age of the female. Once she covers her nest hole with dirt the nest is usually indistinguishable from the surrounding ground. Casual observers would never know she had been there. It takes about 90 days for the eggs to hatch, and the baby turtles will dig themselves out and head to the nearest body of water.

That is it for today. Hope you enjoyed the photos and learning a bit more about turtles.

A Change of Purpose

Originally the purpose of this blog was to document my development as an artist. Laid off from my job I had decided to go back to school and develop my ignored art skills. The problem is after so many years I find that my focus has mostly switched from drawing to photography.

Last fall I purchased a new camera which is allowing me to make much better photos of everything, including birds, which with my old camera had been pretty much off the table unless I was right on top of them.

To get these photos I spend more time outside on walks. Which is good don't get me wrong, but it leaves less time for art. Then when I am home I have to spend time on the computer evaluating and sorting the photos I have made so again more time spent that can't be used for art. Then there are the other chores of living, cooking and eating food, shopping for food etc. Now I know that creating drawings doesn't have to take a lot of time but... OK I will admit it, I am just not motivated at the moment. So my other activities of reading and playing games on my tablet seem to come out ahead. All this means that I have been neglecting the blog, not good.

I have decided to stop letting lack of art for the blog stop me from updating it. I have photographs. Granted I share some of them on Facebook, others I post to a photo sharing site for artists. But I hope those who follow my blog will also be interested in reading about my walks and looking at photos. I am not ruling out posting art. If I make some I will post it.

Earlier this week I visited Houghton's Pond in the Blue Hills Reservation. I was looking for anything interesting to photograph per usual, dragonflies, butterflies, birds, and wild flowers top my list, but sometimes there are frogs or toads or other animals. The walk that day seemed a bit disappointing. There was a Spicebush Swallowtail, one of the 4 black swallowtails in MA. but it didn't stop fluttering its wings so the photos I made of it just didn't turn out well. Note: there is a Spicebush Swallowtail on my butterfly page that did hold still if you are curious about what they look like.

There were these blooming water plants, that so far I have not been able to identify, blooming in the pond that feeds into Houghton's Pond. As I was about to leave the site I decided to go look at another pond that is at the far end of the parking lot. There was a family of Canada Geese swimming around and feeding. Then I noticed a bird in the tree just above me. And made the next series of photos. 

 Just a tail is visible in the above photo and also what looks like some grass hanging down.  There aren't a lot of orange birds so my interest was caught.

Here you get to see the head, identifying the bird as a female Baltimore Oriole, note the mass of what looks like grass below her.

 In this photo she is holding something in her beak, looks like a dried grass to me.

My final photo, when I first started photographing her I thought she was hunting for food in the branches of the tree,  and I was trying for a body shot, turns out she was building a nest, I will l have to keep on eye on this tree in my future visits to the Pond. 

Last photo is a view of the beach at Houghton's Pond where locals can come to swim (well get wet, the lifeguards don't really want people swimming) and sit in the sun for free. It is a small pond, the walk around it is about a mile, but they have picnic tables and grills so it is a popular spot.

One last comment, my Esty shop is closed. Esty has made changes to their payment policy that I am not going along with, I will be taking down the links at some point but just wanted to post a FYI.

March brings some sketches

I can't believe it is March already. I was going to do another Feb. update, then I caught a cold and just didn't have the energy to draw, so the update didn't happen. The sparrow sitting at the feeder in the above drawing was going to be the header for that update, instead I stopped working on it and finally finished it this morning. Not totally pleased but I was tired of working on it so it will have to do.

I used another of my personal reference photographs for this little guy. Drawing with various graphite pencils in one of my smaller sketchbooks.

The next 3 images are from my Scavenger Hunt sketchbook. All drawings are done from life using a .1 Copic Multiliner pen. I am not doing any preliminary pencil work, so sometimes there are mistakes that I try to modify and/or correct. I think all the images are self explanatory. The Scavenger Hunt lists are posted weekly in the WetCanvas Art From Life forum. Artists can use any media for their artworks, I just choose to use pen and ink as a challenge to me. 

Above is a 2nd page for the same hunt as the top page. I am fairly happy about the shoe, but the cereal box isn't proportioned correctly, it was/is a large of box of Cheerios and should have been taller in the drawing. Ah well, that is why we do these studies.

Only one page for the current Hunt (which ends today, March 1). Top is a potato peeler that I purchased way back when I moved out of my parents home into my own apt. Been a long time, and they now have fancier peelers, but this one still works so I use it. The other two items are a flashlight, and a tube of paint. Not my best work but at least I managed a couple of drawings. Finally starting to have a bit more energy and am not quite so bonded to the tissue box.

Photos for today: The lakes and ponds in my local area are all full and overflowing. This photo is from Ames Nowell State Park in Abington, MA. Not much green as of yet, but hopefully the winter snows are behind us. Oops shouldn't even think that, as I write I am hearing a weather forecast for light snow on Friday. Ah well, I can only hope that the adjective "light" is the operative word, one April 1st we had about 20 inches of heavy wet snow, that was no fun at all. 

A first sign of Spring, I found these snowdrops almost blooming in the garden at Borderland State Park, in Easton, MA. on Monday. We have had quite a few warmish days (temps in the 60's) so wasn't entirely surprised. Just hope the trees don't wake up too quickly only to be hit by a cold snap in April. That happened last year and it wasn't good for some fruit trees. Course the cold last year also killed off a lot of the Winter Moths so there was some good that came out of it.

That is it for today. Am thinking about what I want my next project to be. I should be painting, maybe, check back in a week or two to find out. In the meantime comments are always welcome.