Fifty shades of HB

Here is Harvey,  a busy day as usual, so much to fit in, so little time between long naps to do it!   This was taken after his hour of madness,   I was outside checking the car, oil, water,  etc, so he took advantage of the door being open.   I was quite happy for him to run himself ragged,  of course after all that running around he fell fast asleep.   Then the cheeky tyke 'stole' the leftovers from my plate!   I'd made myself a roast,  haven't been bothered about food lately, but today had a hankering for somehting nice.  So I roasted a lamb steak,  did some roasties, veg...  it was delicious,   but I couldn't manage it all,  so Harvey decided to act as a hoover and vacuum the plate after I'd put it in the kitchen.  Plate was licked clean,  little wonder he was purring. 

I've been working on this for the last two afternoons.  It is of a Goshawk,  which I'd never heard of until I read H is For Hawk, by Helen Macdonald  in which she writes about her grief after her father died.  It is a beautifully written book,   and I can highly recommend it.   She learns how to fly a Goshawk called Mabel,  her connection with nature helps her through her grief.   They are magnificent birds,  I picked up a bird book yesterday from a cheap book shop,  the sole purpose is to use it to draw birds.   I found I was fighting with myself again,  wanting to draw what I thought I was seeing,  luckily I managed to capture what I actually saw.    I'm falling in love with drawing,  and using the pencils is so relaxing. 

Yep, those trees again!   I can't seem to leave this alone,  keep going back and doing a little more shading,  doing more to the foreground,  I put in some birds. 

Yesterday I went into The Atkinson in Southport, there was an exhibition featuring LS Lowry and Theodore Major,  I'd never heard of the latter,  his work was both dramatic, dark and disturbing.  It was quite a contrast between Lowry's work and that of Major.    But I came away feeling very inspired.   I went into Waterstones,  it was freezing inside the shop!   Worse they had no lift, and the art books were upstairs.  I just about made it,   sadly they didn't have much, which surprised me,  but then I spotted one,  flicked through it and realised it had tons of information in it,  so I bought it.  It's a proper art work book, with a lot of exercises in it.  So I start it on Monday, it is spread over six weeks.    But have to mention the journey downstairs,  it was agony,  with the freezing weather, plus the cold in the shop I could barely move,   my wonky leg is giving me a lot pain,  and my left knee seems to have come out in sympathy.    I was glad that I'd parked the car on Lord Street,  and not in the park and ride.    Mind you seeing the car in the sunshine made me realise how dirty she was, so she had a bath at the car hand wash at Tesco,  she looks all sparkly now.   My car washing days are over,   there is no way I could lug buckets of water downstairs,  let alone the washing part. 

As from tomorrow it is supposed to get warmer,  I've just looked outside and my car has a nice layer of frost all over it.    All for now,  thanks for stopping by.