Week 1 - 1 January 2018

Wow, what a warm start to the New Year! I’m an incredibly cold soul and I’m only wearing a T-shirt and jumper, rather than the normal thermals and 2 jumpers. The garden is still pretty gloomy, and due to the warm weather, I have held off planting my bulbs at this time of year. This is something I have done for the past few years now, hoping to plant them mid-late January, so I have daffodils at Easter. I notice that my Day Lilies have already sprouted, which is far too early!
This week’s drawing is of a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a frequent visitor to our garden, bullying all the smaller birds away from the feeders. They like to frequently attack the telephone pole, which I hope is for insects rather than a personal dislike against our 21st century communication to the outside world! I have mentioned it to the telephone engineer who regularly checks on the pole, but they assured me that they couldn’t do too much harm! Phew, where would I be without my access to Netflix on these wintry evenings?

Last year, the Woodpeckers had a family close to the garden and decided to perch on the single storey extension roof below our bedroom window early one spring morning, or should I say VERY early….! I was woken to a cross between a chirp and screaming and wondered what on earth was going on. After peeking out between my bedroom curtains, I saw that the baby woodpecker was sitting on the roof, whilst mum went off to find it food, which it would bring back and feed to the youngster. All was well for 30 seconds after feeding, when the youth would holler for its mother to hurry back with the next morsel. I do love rural living, and watching them really made my day but next time could it possibly be slightly later in the morning?

Week 1 - 31 December 2019

Dusk - the skies have been amazing over the Christmas holidays, so I couldn't resist doing this pastel drawing from a walk this week from the public footpath in Henfield. It is another warm start to the New Year, just like last year. The garden is still full of birds, including the Woodpecker.

Week 2 - 8 January 2018

Ah, this week’s picture is of a Blue Tit. These are one of my favourite garden visitors, as they tend to visit in a mob. They begin by lining up on the branches and roof surrounding the feeders in what appears to be a somewhat orderly queue. Alas, this never appears to last long, as one fellow might take too long on the feeder and there is then a free for all, where they all cram onto the feeder squawking and knocking each other, so that the feeder becomes an out of control children’s swing. They remind me of the teenagers of the bird world, first all relaxed, cool (or at least that was the word in my day) and chilling, before excitement takes over and they all bundle towards the music stage!

Week 2 - 7 January 2019

Columbine - The first few shoots have appeared in the undergrowth. This is not a flower, instead the leaves from Aquilegia. I think it is a little early for these to be showing and again due to the warm weather. The garden, same as last year, is completely full of birds, including loads of blue tits.

Week 3 - 15 January 2018

l was rather surprised to find our periwinkle in flower at the end of last week, not just one flower but three! It is early flowering, but I think this is the earliest I have ever seen it. I know some gardeners think this plant is invasive, but I think it is great ground cover as it roams about covering the ground and stops the nettles from coming through, and of course it is purple - my favourite!

Week 3 - 14 January 2019

Pulmonaria's - these are just getting into full flower, and are the first signs of spring. No sign of the periwinkle in flower yet this year, unlike 2018.

Week 4 - 22 January 2018

A Rosebud! Yep it is the 22 January 2018, and I have a rosebud in the garden. I was walking around the garden last week and photographed all the new activity and then drew this picture over the weekend for week 4. So, in fact, this has been in the garden for a while, It is not that I don't have Snowdrops or Hellebores but I am interested in documenting the unusual and the early to show the changing seasons. January is far too mild, and the rosebud is approximately 4 months too early. I wondered at first if the rosebud had been preserved in frost from the summer but of course we haven't had many frosts because of the mild Winter, so this has been provoked to flower because of the warm weather.

Week 4 - 21 January 2019

Hellebore's - These flowers are in flower at a similar time as last year. I love these flowers as they are out long before the snowdrops and signal spring..

Week 5 - 29 January 2018

Teasels, my prickly favourites, which annoy my beloved, as they constantly snag at his clothes and generally get in the way in the garden. They are fascinating plants, though their flower is not overly exciting, these architectural structures last all winter (or longer if someone didn’t pull them up in frustration), which attracts flocks of Goldfinches to feed on them. I read in BBC Wildlife Magazine a few years ago that there is a theory that the rainwater that collects in their leaves may actually be full of enzymes digesting the drowning insects. They may in fact be a secret carnivorous plant on our doorstep!

Week 5 - 28 January 2019

Frosty Field - This week has been full of snow and heavy frosts. The fields outside of our garden look incredibly beautiful frosted in white. This image was inspired by the frosty mornings and the sun rising behind the Oak Tree.

Week 6 - 5 February 2018

This is the view from our back garden of a beautiful old oak tree that is a whole ecosystem to insects, animals and birds.  They are so majestic dominating the landscape with their branches arcing out into a wonderful geometric pattern. I find the branches are just beautiful at this time of year, especially early morning in the frost with the sun breaking through the mist.  You maybe able to tell I love trees and I painted them so much at university that I earnt the nickname The Tree Lady…!

Week 6 - 4 February 2019

Fungus - It has been a fairly damp year and this fungus is growing very well on our Willow tree.

Week 7 - 12 February 2018

The Hellebores have been in flower for a while, but this week they were all hanging in bud and flower. Sadly you can never see the inside of the flower when they are on the plant as they all hang like magenta bells. Therefore I cheated this week, and put one in a vase so I could see the beautiful colouring inside.

Week 7 - 11 February 2019

Snowdrops - the entire field next to our fence looks like snow at the moment. We have them growing wild and multiplying like crazy in our garden. It is the first bit of colour in amongst all that green.

Week 8 - 19 February 2018

Snowdrops, even though I think I saw the first snowdrop bud in early January, it is only now that I think they might be at their peak. The field that backs onto our garden have swathes of snowdrops all in bloom, so at the first bleary eyed glance in the morning when I open the curtains, it really does seem as though snow borders the field. Instead, it is this hopeful little flower signifing that spring is on its way.

Week 8 - 18 February 2019

Rabbits - these have finally woken up and are currently at all the grass verges and I see them each evening as they hop across the lane as I drive home.

Week 9 - 26 February 2018

Daffodil.  This daffodil has been out for weeks and it has been my only one, all alone braving the weather!  It is now having to cope with snow and ice too.  However all my other daffodils are still tight buds and no where near flowering, so I thought this week, I would dedicate it my lonely, stoic and cheerful daffodil!

Week 9 - 25 February 2019

Daffodils - I had one stray one in flower in the back garden since the beginning of the year, however it is now that all of them have come out in force and have turned the front garden yellow.

Week 10 - 5 March 2018

Pheasant. Last week it was cold and snowy and peering in at the warmth was this handsome fellow. He is the resident pheasant in the field at the back of the house and at last count had approximately 6 females following him around. There is another pheasant that resides in the front field but alas he has no females!

The grass was heavily frosted with a light dusting of snow, so that the grass was pale and against this backdrop was the vibrant colours of the pheasant.

Week 10 - 4 March 2019

Tulips - These are early tulips and are the first ones to flower each year.

Week 11 - 12 March 2018

Anenome. This brave bud survived a week of snow and sub-zero temperatures. I can't believe that in early February we were enjoying lunch in the garden in beautiful sunshine, that is when we first spotted this Anenome bud. It was tightly closed then and remained so until the warm sunshine of this week and it finally opened completely on 11 March.

Week 11 - 11 March 2019

This is Sophora Tetraptera and is flowering when it normally flowers, I notice that it flowered late last year as I documented it flowering in early april a whole month after when it usually blossoms.

Week 12 - 19 March 2018

Last week over 8 frogs were spawning in our very tiny puddle of a pond. As many may know I love frogs so I just had to sneak out with a camera and photograph them. I think we now have so much spawn that it has displaced all the water, but really looking forward to seeing all the little froglets in the summer.

They normally spawn slightly earlier in the year, but I think it was delayed slightly by the cold snap we had a few weeks ago.

Week 12 - 18 March 2019

Periwinkle - this is an indication that not all plants flowered late last year, my periwinkle is one of the first to flower, but this year hasn't flowered until mid-March, where as last year it was mid-January, a 6 week difference.

Week 13 - 26 March 2018

This week is another Blue Tit as so many were in the garden last week because of the snow. They were squabbling over the peanuts and fat balls we put out to feed them. We also had several Long Tailed Tits and a Jay, but they were just too elusive to catch on camera for me to draw!! I love these birds, but they seem to disappear during Spring and Summer to raise their little ones.

Week 13 - 25 March 2019

Magnolia - this is the first year that my small Magnolia tree is groaning in flowers. It has taken several years for it to settle in, so it still flowers a couple of weeks after the larger trees along the side of the road.

Week 14 - 2 April 2018

My early tulips were flowering in March as normal, and this week I captured this fading bloom. Another day or so and it will drop all of its petals; I have been inspired by flowers at the end of their life for a while and it has inspired an entire series of work which can be seen here.

Week 14 - 1 April 2019

Lady's Slipper - these are slightly later than normal this year, these pretty pale pink bulbs love the damp clay soil of Sussex. They love our front garden, which is on the north side of the house so remains very damp, which is why we built a pond!

Week 15 - 9 April 2018

This is Sophora Tetraptera (yes I did look that up!!!) apparently it's common name is New Zealand Laburnum, I really hope it isn't related to the British laburnum as we have it happily growing by our eating area in the garden, oops! I love this early flowering shrub it most definitely signals spring to me, and most years when it is in flower I decamp my studio into the garden and sit under this tree in the sunshine and paint. This can be as early as February but this year it is late flowering in early April, it is normally in flower by March.

Week 15 - 8 April 2019

Forget me not - even though it is currently bluebell flower season, I thought I would feature this little overlooked blue beauty. This tiny flower covers our garden blue at this time of year, providing vital food and pollen to insects.

Week 16 - 16 April 2018

Bellis Perennis, the little daisy that grows in the lawn, this is now flowering in the grass verges. My favourite flower is the daisy, more the ox-eye daisy as they are a lot showier than this little flower. The "weeds" such as these daisies, buttercups and dandelions are often the first flowers to show their heads before we get the opportunity to mow the lawn after the long winter. These are the first flowers I will pick of the season and brighten up the windowsills by putting them in inkwells.

Week 16 - 15 April 2019

Peacock Butterfly - One of the very first butterflies to wake up after winter and feed on the spring flowers before laying their eggs. It has been frequenting our garden all week, flitting from "weed" to "weed".

Week 17 - 22 April 2019

Goldfinch - I see these birds in the garden mainly in spring and autumn. During spring they hop around our lawn eating the dandelion seeds. We leave our grass long, and like the bright yellow dandelions bringing spring colour to the garden. By letting these flowers go to seed we also help the Goldfinches as they begin to nest.

Week 18 - 30 April 2018

Apple Blossom - This year the tree is groaning in blossom, last year we had very little because we had to prune it quite hard. The Cherry tree, strawberries and red currants are all in flower and setting their fruit, I think if we don't have another frost, this year will be a brilliant fruit year. We will soon be covering the Cherry Tree in netting so that the birds don't steal our cherries again!!!

Week 18 - 29 April 2019

Apple Blossom - Both our Cherry and Apple Tree is hanging in blossoms making it feel like spring. My concern now is that a late frost doesn't damage them and the young fruit that is set.

Week 19 - 6 May 2019

Red Campion - The grass verges are covered with these pretty pink flowers at the moment as well as the pretty purple/blue Bugle which is just starting to flower.

Week 20 - 14 May 2018

Aquilegia/Columbine - I love this little flower, the back of the flower looks like alien antennae. I only tend to grow the wild ones which naturally seed in the garden. We have incredibly dark purple ones which look almost black and these which are pale pink/lilac. This for me, is the best time of year for our garden, we have the columbine, with the Irises and the Ox-Eye daisies about to flower and the cow parsley is in full bloom.

Week 20 - 13 May 2019

Goats Beard - I spotted this beautiful flower in the verge of our lane when I was off on my daily walk. I was struck by the symmetry, I have never seen it in flower before I have only ever seen the large clocks, so I had to look this one up!!

Week 21 - 20 May 2019

Ox-Eye Daisies - These have been looking beautiful along the grass verges throughout May, but I'm still waiting for the ones in my garden to flower. There are masses of them and the buds are set, but they are obviously a little shy this year. Sussex county highways let these flowers flourish on roundabouts, along the centre of dual carriageways making the county look beautiful at this time of year. Sadly however it is very obvious when you cross the border into Surrey as they have all been mown taking away a vital food source for insects that was doing little harm.

Week 22 - 28 May 2018

Iris - I wait eagerly each year for these to come into flower around our pond, well I say pond, but it is more of a puddle. However this small puddle attracts so much wildlife to the garden, dragonflies, toads and frogs.

These flowers have inspired so many of my paintings, every few years I return to these flowers to draw and paint, these are only a few paintings which they have inspired over the last 15 years,

Week 22 - 27 May 2019

Bugle - Perhaps an under rated little flower because it is only 3 inches tall. If you look amongst all the showy verge, wildflowers like the campion, at the moment, you will see the bugle tucked in between. The foliage is of a dark green and reddy brown colour and the flowers are very pretty blue/purple. They appear to grow like mint by putting out runners and popping up everywhere. So probably hated and despised by those who like tidy gardens. I let it thrive in my front garden which is wild.

Week 23 - 3 June 2019

Cranes Bill - Also called Geranium (not of the pelagonium variety). This is a horticultural variety of geranium that I grow in my back garden. However it is descended from a wild variety and these flowers really do thrive in our gardens. I have different varieties that flower from May-July giving a bright colour to the garden and lots of pollen to the bees.

Week 24 - 11 June 2018

Peonies - every year these flower when the windy, rainy storms arrive, so I have to run outside (generally in the rain and wind) and rescue these showy but delicate blooms from the weather. I cannot remember the last time they flowered peacefully in the garden without me having to rescue them! This year was probably the best as I only had to do it twice, so most of them stayed outside, because most of the large storms missed us.

This week I combined my love of these intricate petals with willow charcoal.

Week 25 - 18 June 2018

Rose - They are looking their best this week, so many blooms in flower, it is most definitely a rose year! This one comes from my climbing rose over an arch that battles space with the Wisteria. It has a lovely perfume. I used pastel this week to capture the beautiful colour.

Week 25 - 17 June 2019

Broad bodied Libellula - This female darter I had to look up in a book, never seen one before in the garden so really thrilled to have this visitor. It stayed for several hours sunning itself on a plant support. No sign of a male (which are apparently bright blue), so I I hope it found a friend...

Week 26 - 25 June 2018

Honeysuckle - It has been such beautiful weather everything is coming into flower so much so one post a week is not enough to keep up! Honeysuckle has an amazing perfume but it does set off my hayfever!!! Very pretty and bee friendly, it climbs our drainpipe and makes the water butts look almost pretty!

Week 26 - 24 June 2019

Jay - These have been frequent visitors to the garden recently. I think this is a juvenile, as the body is slightly too long and thin and it was very fluffy. I kept having to double check the proportions when drawing this one!

Week 27 - 1 July 2019

Cupids Dart - Also known as Cantanache are beautiful perennialls that flower year after year. The sepals and petals are papery thin and incredibly delicate. However the bees and insects love them.

Week 28 - 9 July 2018

Cornflower - these are a little smaller than they normally are, I can't decide if it is the extremely hot temperatures that have stunted their growth, or I have accidentally sown the dwarf variety... oops, which I didn't really want in the bed! Oh well, they still look pretty! This was a beautiful deep red one that came into flower this week rather than the regular blue or white ones.

The main thing to report this week is the weather, and the extreme temperatures, it was regularly reading 31c in the shade over the weekend (we have a south facing garden) and well over 40c in the greenhouse. It must be now our 6 or 7 week straight without rain.

Week 28 - 8 July 2019

Cornflower - These are looking beautifully blue at the moment and are in fully flower. We have had several weeks are warm sunny days, not quite as warm as last year when it reached 31c though.

Week 29 - 16 July 2018

Helenium - I draw these flowers every year, it is when they are starting to go over that I like them the best because of the shapes the twisting petals make. I sadly think I have lost my older plants as these were planted freshly this year and are making a wonderful show.

Slightly cooler this week, with a very welcome breeze.

Week 29 - 15 July 2019

Love-in-a-Mist - These look beautiful this year and are flowering next to my cornflowers.

I especially like the seed pods to these flowers as they look incredibly unusual with the frondy leaves surrounding them.

Week 30 - 23 July 2018

Hibiscus - My Hibiscus started flowering last week, but this week the shrub is now full of flower. When we moved in we had to move it as we wanted to put a greenhouse in its place, so we moved it to in front of the kitchen window. It has taken 7 years before it came into full flower again, so 9 years on it truly looks terrific this year. It is simply loving the warm weather, we have now had no rain since May. Other parts of the UK have but not us!

Week 30 - 22 July 2019

Echinaceas - these are currently looking glorious. They are very tall this year and there are an abundance of flowers which is attracting a lot of bees and butterflies.

Week 31 - 29 July 2019

Hibiscus - The shrub is currently covered in purple flowers, the flowers sadly only last for a day/day and half, but this is the first year that there are so many you don't notice them dying as there is another flowewring in its place.

Week 32 - 6 August 2018

Echinacea - These have been out a few weeks and are now finally drooping, which is when I think they are at their best. The petals curl and extend backwards and the centre protrudes.

Week 32 - 5 August 2019

Butterflies - you can tell that this is the end of the summer season because the butterflies are starting to look tatty around the edges and have broken wings.

Week 33 - 12 August 2019

Sunflowers - these are tall this year, and have many flowering heads. The flowers always turn away from the house and the windows so I am constantly looking at the back of the flowers, so I thought I would draw this viewpoint!!!

Week 34 - 20 August 2018

Sunflowers - My sunflowers are finally flowering, they are slightly stunted this year as I planted everything so late because of the torrential rain and cold this spring. I didn't manage to plant my seeds until May, so they are a little short at 2 foot this year!

Week 34 - 19 August 2019

Tachnia Fly - There are loads of these flies in the garden at the moment. They love the flowering mint and there have been crowds of them for several weeks. These flies are yellow and black so they are mimicing to bees/wasps.

Week 35 - 26 August 2019

Crab Spider - I love these little spiders, they camouflage themselves in the middle of the flowers they range from green to pink/lilac. I saw this one in the middle of a Scabious flower, the spider was bright green, it must have only just arrived because the flower is lilac.

Week 36 - 3 September 2018

Wasps! - Everywhere, definitely more than normal, we have spent the last week capturing them and evicting them back outside the house, rather than their preferred location inside. This one was found amongst 15 of his friends eating jam from a plate on the kitchen side. (Okay, so I admit it, I deliberately left the plate by the open door so I could capture these naughty critters on camera...!) But, still, wow. 16, definitely a lot more abundant than previous years.

Week 36 - 2 September 2019

Rudbeckia - my annual rudbeckia's didn't do very well this year, not many came up from the seeds this year, but the perennial ones have done really well, and have been flowering for weeks.

Week 37 - 10 September 2018

Rose and Hoverfly - My Rose had its second flush of flowers, which was welcome nectar to this Hoverfly. The sun is still warm and shining and although the mornings are cooler it is still beautiful weather here in the southeast.

Week 37 - 9 September 2019

Asters - I grow these most years from seed and they survive up until the first frosts. We have had a few air frosts but not full frosts so they are still looking beautiful and flowering.

Week 38 - 17 September 2018

Cricket - This is in fact a Long-Winged Cricket (I looked it up!) which was hiding from my cat, who loves to chase Grasshoppers and Crickets and, more often than not, is outwitted by these little creatures. What I really wanted to share with you this week was a Garden spider, as their webs are highlighted in the morning chill. I saw one last week, but didn't document it in time to draw it, so I went hunting for another, and they are all deliberately hiding from me. During my hunt, I wondered what my Cat was hunting and found this fully grown handsome fellow hiding from her on the underneath of a sunflower. Who knows, with the cooler weather and the Equinox signalling Autumn this month perhaps I will find a Garden Spider for you...

Week 38 - 16 September 2019

Echinops - These great flowers will grow in the shade and add colour to the underneath of our apple tree. I have wanted to draw these complicated flowers for a while, this drawing took me several hours to complete.

Week 39 - 24 September 2018

Crane Fly- This is the first week where my inspiration has come from inside the house! In fact it was my husband that found my muse this week. This fly was found exploring our lampshade (see below). So late one evening I dashed off to find the camera and capture this insect. For me, these insects alwasy signify Autumn and they have only appeared in numbers in the last few days. We only turned on the heating this week, there is a chill morning and evening, but there are still times of warmth during the day, so the windows are still open and these Crane Flies bumble in and make themselves at home. We try and capture and release where we can but sadly the resident house spiders have been happily feasting upon them!

Week 39 - 23 September 2019

Dahlia - despite several frosts, these are still flowering and adding cheery colour to the autumnal garden. This year Autumn has come suddenly, with lots and lots of rain.

Week 40 - 1 October 2018

Dahlia - Despite the few frosts we have had, these are still flowering and brightening up the Autumn months. I love the complexity of Dahlias with their many petals often creating geometric patterns.

Week 40 - 30 September 2019

Robin - Autumn is now in full swing, as the birds have begun to return to the garden with the Robin being a regular visitor and snacking on our grapes.

Week 41 - 8 October 2018

Cosmos - These are still looking beautiful. I planted these seeds late this year, and their growth was stunted somewhat by the really hot summer. Now that we have had some rain they are looking their best, making the garden look quite summery. Autumn though is progressing rapidly and the trees have changed colour, and have started to lose their leaves.

Week 41 - 7 October 2019

Blue Tit - These are back in the garden, obviously enjoying the food we have put out for them. I love it when they return in their masses flitting in and out of all our trees and shrubs.

Week 42 - 15 October 2018

Spiders Web - The mornings are not frosty as our days have suddenly warmed up and we are getting temperatures between 20-24c. Even though we haven't had frosts, the morning condensation still show spiders web scattered across the garden. Our entire front garden is left to grow naturally so our path is overgrown and it is almost impossible to navigate through. Therefore as the plants die back and create wonderful structural forms the spiders are creating their webs between them.

Week 42 - 14 October 2019

Cosmos - Same as last year, the Cosmos are still happily flowering and haven't yet been wiped out by a frost. The rest of the garden looking distinctly autumnal!

Week 43 - 21 October 2019

Sunflower leaf - I always leave as many dying flowers and foliage from the summer over Autumn/Winter in the garden because they are vital food sources for the invetebrates, birds and animals during this time. I never "clear" the garden of this unsightly mess, much to fellow gardeners horror because I enjoy watching the Goldfinches attacking the Echinacea and Sunflower seed heads. The decaying structural forms of poppy heads and other seed heads bring their own beauty to the garden too. This decaying leaf has been food to the slugs and snails which in turn will feed the birds and hedgehogs.

Week 44 - 29 October 2018

Mallow - I was very surprised to see the pink version of this flower in full bloom by a roundabout in Horsham at the end of October. I saw Ox-Eye daisies and more Mallow in flower on the A23 outside of Brighton just a few weeks ago too.

Week 45 - 4 November 2019

Mahonia - this is currently in full bloom and both the bumble bees and honey bees are visiting it for the pollen. This shrub always signals Autumn/Winter for me as the purple berries give the birds vital food over winter.

Week 46 - 12 November 2018

Great Tit - It has finally got cooler and all the birds are returning to feed on the peanuts and fat balls we put out for them. I find at the beginning of the season there is an abundance of Great Tits and then later in the season there seem to be more Blue Tits.

Week 47 - 18 November 2019

Leaf - this is the beautiful sculptural form of a dried up sunflower leaf hanging on the plant. I couldn't resist drawing the curves!

Week 48 - 26 November 2018

Bumble Bee - This bee is still braving the weather and still feeding on our Mahonia and he is not alone there have been several flying in between the extremely heavy showers.

Week 49 - 2 December 2019

Nuthatch - I am thrilled, we normally have Nuthatches in the garden but not as regular visitors. This one has been very regular all week. I finally got several photographs of it on the bird feeder. I have the birdfeeders outside my office window so I can photograph them without them easily seeing me. Unfortunately the day I could photograph him it was pouring with rain, so all the photos are very grey and blurry, but enough information to draw from.

Week 52 - 24 December 2018

Calendula - These haven't stopped flowering since the summer, again just as last week I had not expected to be drawing summer flowers from the garden in the middle of winter. These should not have survived the Winter frosts, but we have had so few, they are still flourishing.