To fill the pages of an empty lockdown diary, I've begun colouring one of the loveliest distractions that punctuates my days at the moment, trying to identify all of the different birds that we hear on our mooring.
I still haven't spotted the blue tit I've been recording, but hearing them in the early hours of the morning made me feel less gloomy about my punishing pregnancy insomnia. It's taken me weeks to work identify the call, and I've since loved hearing this Tweet of the Day podcast about them.
I love the idea of blue tits following the milk cart up the street to steel the caps off milk bottles; and recruiting human helpers to free their chics from a flooded drainpipe, perfect picture book dust!
According to The Woodland Trust, most blue tits begin building their nests in March, but I've been hearing 'ours' loud and clear since the beginning of the year, and apparently, creating their nesting site early will give this beauty a bit of an advantage.
I often add coloured pencils to my watercolour or gouache paintings, but I've really enjoyed working exclusively in crayons in this diary. I've been using this Staedtler Ergo Soft pencil set that a friend gave to me, they don't look like the fanciest pencils but the quality is superb and they became a favourite when we ran The Moon and Nude life drawing classes at the animation studio Chucklefish in 2019/20.
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