You have to hand it to him......

Amazing, lifelike birds and animals all painted onto the human hand by Guido Daniele.

See more here.

Nature by Numbers

My posts are like buses..... nothing for ages and then three come along all together....

RSPB Garden Birdwatch

This is Billy - affectionately known in this house as Billy No-Mates - the solitary pheasant that has adopted us and keeps tapping on the door for attention. He has gone down on my list for the count we've done today towards the RSPB's Great Garden Birdwatch this year. It's been all over the news so I hope some of you have already logged on and recorded your count. It only requires us to count the maximum number of each species that we see in any one hour over this weekend so there will be time to have a go tomorrow too.

Billy is around for most of the day at the moment and I go out and feed him extra titbits. If he acts true to form he'll soon disappear off to find a mate. In the past his forefathers have done this to us and then descended on us with lots of girls in tow before disappearing until the next winter. It can cost a fortune in bird food but I don't worry about that as I love looking out of my windows and seeing dozens of birds here at any one time. He even has the temerity to tap on the back door in a sort of 'come on, I'm hungry' fashion. Ever felt manipulated?

With a large garden surrounded by fields we are lucky to see a wide variety of species but our count has already highlighted change from last year. Yellowhammer numbers are up which is great news. So too are the numbers of woodpeckers and nuthatches, but, on the downside there are no sparrows about today and it is ages since I've seen a dunnock or a greenfinch - although I recorded one greenfinch today and managed to photograph him too. When we first moved here over ten years ago they were common. Now they are a rarity despite putting out niger seed to attract them to the feeders.

Ten years is not a massive amount of time and when change occurs on your own turf within that time it highlights the value of keeping a record. It doesn't matter whether you see a thousand birds or just a few, all data is important so I hope some of you have a go. Have a great weekend all.

Film for Friday..... the last one....

At the beginning of the year I re-started the modules I'm doing with Aberystwyth Uni for my Foundation. I am doing 'colour exploration' and the workload is heavy so when I realised I had another module to start this week I knew that my tight timetable was going to get tighter! I am now doing two full days one after the other and it is exciting but mentally tiring. If I'm not drawing, I'm painting and if I'm not painting, I'm sleeping. I manage to squeeze my blog time into the early morning hours so I am abandoning this film for Friday malarkey because I seem to be doing nothing else and I don't just want to post films all the time. Somehow the pressure of doing something on the same day every week has stopped me doing normal posts so this is the last one on a Friday but it does have a colour theme as I am obsessed with it......

Film on Friday

I can't believe it is Friday again already. It's been a hectic week and I nearly forgot to post! I noticed this morning that some of the snowdrops are up and the daffodils are coming through the lawn already. They are not as advanced as some of the blooms in this manic little film but it was link enough for me!

Film for Friday

I am going to carry on trying to post a film/animation or whatever every Friday. There won't be a pattern or a theme, just as I pick them at random, dependent on my whim that day. This is a beautifully 'spare' film showing the artist Lizzie Buckmaster-Dove working at home giving new life to old books with lovely sculptural results. There is no central source to see more of Lizzie's work but an image search will send you off in lots of different directions if the film whets your appetite for more.

Little Men

I suddenly realised this morning that a collection of images I'd seen all had a thread running through them . The picture above was in Crafts magazine and it shows the Comedy Carpet pavement that has been created in Blackpool. Over the years Blackpool has been the stage for many well known comedians, each of whom has a catchphrase synonomous with them. All of these catchphrases, using typefaces from old handbills advertising the shows, have been formed into one large mosaic. The website for it is fascinating so please follow the link especially if you love typography and variety memorabilia but it was the scale of the two guys cleaning the mosaic floor that caught my attention. They look like miniature figures placed into a stage set. So do the figures in the photographs of the work of land artist Jim Denevan. Following the link to his website will lead to a short film about how he works making patterns on ice, sand and wherever in such large scale. The tiny - but real - men that inhabit the photos I've selected serve to enhance that sense of scale but there are many more beautiful images to pore over.

This whole 'miniature awareness' thread was started a while ago when I found a link to Lisa Swerling's work in a copy of Selvedge magazine. Lisa places figures in shadow boxes and plays with the scale difference. Have a look here at more of her work. I only picked this image because it linked to my title of Little Men and they have given me an idea for a wedding present. My husband has a model railway collection in a small gauge called n gauge. Amongst his figures there is a bride and groom and a vicar all ready for a wedding bash in some train layout somewhere. I intend to rescue them from this fate and make my own shadow box gift for my friend's daughter when she gets married shortly. I shall incorporate text saying 'dearly beloved' or 'cariad' which is the Welsh for darling or loved one. I hope Lisa won't mind being used as inspiration.

Finally here are some of the photos from photographer Christopher Boffili. Having lived with a model railway fanatic for years I can spot the figures sold for layouts a mile off and believe he has used them here to such wonderful effect. These brought a real smile to my face. Follow the link if you want to see more of his work. The little men are under the 'food' heading and the other photography on show really is great, so enjoy.