
Next stage in the Squirrel Battle is in progress. Bird netting does NOT deter them from the veggie seedlings — they bite right through it. It’s time for a full frame, chicken wire enclosure.

Next stage in the Squirrel Battle is in progress. Bird netting does NOT deter them from the veggie seedlings — they bite right through it. It’s time for a full frame, chicken wire enclosure.

Even though I look at the ocean every day, I’ve always felt intimidated by painting water. But I watched a few “watercolour sea foam” Youtube videos this morning and had a crack at it. Not a masterful result, but I had fun and will try again for sure.

Fuchsia is such a weird word. Even though I am good at spelling, I keep thinking it should be ‘fuschia’. In fact, knowing that I find the word tricky, I looked it up before doing this lettering and STILL spelled it wrong. I had to move the letters around in Photoshop to correct it. Doh!

Hiking boots and hand-knitted wool socks. Yes please.

We looked for newts in the pools where Annette and I had found them last week, but nary a newt was seen today.

The mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona) is native to the lowland forests of eastern Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and western Cameroon. Its natural forest habitat has been impacted by widespread clearing, and it suffers from being hunted for food. However, it’s an adaptable species and the population does not seem to be declining significantly. It is generally the commonest monkey near rivers in the region.

The Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is found in the temperate zones of the Andes from Venezuela to Bolivia at elevations of about 2500 to 3600 m. It has the longest bill in relation to its body size of any bird in the world. I’ve only shown about a third of its bill in this sketch.
Reference photo by Vivek


I got to see something very special today.