A couple of miles from where I live is a piece of ancient limestone meadow land. Barnack Hills and Holes is a 50 acre site which was first used by the Romans 1500 years ago for the quarrying of the limestone. In medieval times the stone was quarried to help build Peterborough and Ely cathedrals. The legacy from this is a hummocky landscape that is carpeted with a profusion of wild flowers, many of which are very rare and exclusive to the site. I have walked these mini hills and hollows many times over the years and today I think it was looking at it's very best. We walked through carpets of orchids, quaking grass , bell flowers, thyme's, rock roses and emerging broomrape to name just a few of the 300 recorded species of wild plants. Marbled white butterflies,dragonflies and many species of bee were abundant and the drone of insect life was constant. I must take my wildflower guide with me next time, I used to know the names of many, many flowers but like all things if you don't use it ,you quickly lose it.
My drawings are leading me slowly to an idea for a piece of work at last, I won't be using colour other than cream, greys and black but my exploratory work is highly coloured, how does that work?
These are not finished but nice to have around to doodle into as the mood takes me.
One of the pics I took today had a horizon line of mixed grasses and seed heads against the backdrop of the sky. I have started drawing this image with a view to stitch at the weekend, that is if the North Norfolk coast doesn't tempt me, who knows how long this summer weather will last - it seems wrong to be inside stitching during these precious days.
A lovely reminder of the past heady days of summer. I particularly like the middle drawing.
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