Early April - a year later

Today it is birthday party for this blog - I started it a year ago. And I celebrated it the only way possible - a visit to the dump of course. It was my first visit this year. The weather or the time hasn't been right - and the place is actually not that fantastic during winter. It is only if our MTB take us that way, but of some reasons they haven't this winter. Too many colds and flues has put an irritating stop to that sort of outings.

But today I took my regular city bike and pedal my way to the dump. I put my bike at the bottom of the hill and left it there and slowly walked over the hill to the see what had happened since my last visit.

At the highest point someone has put a sign with name and altitude, always good to know where you are.

All the giant hogweeds are down for the season and new ones are emerging. But today it was possible to see the deers feeding on the grass.

The only flowering things are coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) and a few Yellow Star-of-Betlehem (Gagea lutea). 

I think I'm bringing the wrong tools for doing good sketches in the field, to few and wrong colors and not the right brush. This setup is good for messy urban sketching, but not for botanical stuff. But I tried at least! And I had an audience of a 5 year old girl who declared "Mom, I want to stay". I told her to go home and paint a flower ... :-)

There are lots of reed growing on the slopes, and they are beautiful this time of year. All swept the same way of the wind, broken and brittle. I took some with me home and painted in the calm of my study.

In the ground beneath all the giants there are lots of shells in wonderful colors. I have never drawn nor painted one so here are my first attempts on them.

Last, the dump showed that it still is ..... a dump. A broken shovel just thrown away ...