Buttercups, cows and Black Mill on an early May day, Westwood, Beverley

Watercolour sketch 22x15 inch 300gsm paper.

One of the joys of living in Beverley is witnesing the changing seasons and moods of the Westwood pasture. Though we had seen an early solitary swallow about three weeks ago, yesterday 10th May we saw a large group of them battling against a strong westerly. We had parked near an avenue of sycamores to walk George. The swallows seemed to be stuck in the air, flying rapidly but moving very little against the wind. Today 11th May, joy of joy, the swifts are back, reminding me to get out my swift speakers at home, hopefully they will use my swift boxes this year. We had noticed that the buttercups are really becoming evident now and so I thought I could try and capture an impression of them. Black Mill and passing cows added to the composition. The cows are of varying type and size which can sometimes fool the eye as perspective appears imbalanced. As is the case here a little. A flock of starlings wheeled away in the distance with some more marching upright in the foreground. Skylarks seem plentiful often breaking out of the grass and soaring high singing as they go before descending again some way off. It is getting amusing now, that as we park up, a friendly crow will come over for food. I have watched it collect food fly off, bury it, and then place a tuft of grass over it. Sometimes the logistics of carrying various sizes of food offer it a challenge, and it will often rearrange the food in its beak so as to include as much as possible.