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May Sketchbook page Hannah Longmuir

May Review: Only Joy I have nothing bad to say about May.  She’s been kind to me. May is a naturally joyful month.  All the fresh bright greens in a billion different shades, leaves so bountiful the trees are weighed down, canopies so dense that they form dark tunnels. Bees buzzing, swallows and swifts filling …

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April sketchbook Hannah Longmuir

April Review: New Life The Baby arrived at the end of March.  Life has been a bit topsy-turvy since then.  Here’s a very brief review: She’s safely here! Our wee Trixie girl has joined the family.  Her birth was joyful and peaceful and straightforward and I am beyond grateful for that.  She’s got these wonderful …

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March sketchbook page, hare, Hannah Longmuir

March Review: Waiting for Spring (and baby) I’m writing the March review a little early because by the end of the month I might be completed lost in a bundle of newborn blankets and sleepy, milky days. March has been a month of waiting. I think I expect spring to whizz and pop into abundant …

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You know those days at work when you have a billion important work tasks to do (like preparing for Scotland’s Trade Fair this weekend) but instead you manage to sketch a cheeky beaver called Walter? I’m having one of those. I’m very excited that beavers are now colonising the UK. Seeing a beaver in the …

Walter the Beaver Read More »

This is the time of year – in the midst of the peak autumn glory – that I start to think about hibernating.  I feel the creeping darkness shortening the day, the cold wind nips at my ears, and I have to scrape the car windscreen for the first time since last winter.  I take …

On Hibernation Read More »

I am writing this month’s edition of the Wildlife blog from a very windy isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides.  I’m here for a week with Ross & Buddy Dog.  We drove up through Skye which was showing signs of autumn colours: crispy brown ferns, swathes of faded bownish-purple heather across mountain-sides, slate grey …

September Wildlife: What To Look Out For in Nature This Month Read More »

The last week of June was absolutely scorching here in the Scottish Borders.  The Birdhouse, my little studio, was swelterama so I retreated indoors to work. I’ve been keeping the top half of the stable door in the kitchen open so I can watch the constant too-ing and fro-ing of the swallows to their nest …

July Wildlife: What to look out for in nature this month Read More »

Two weekends ago I spent the weekend in Pittenweem with my sister & the dog. The plan was to spend two full days walking sections of the Fife Coastal Path but it rained a month’s worth of rain on the Saturday. I discovered very quickly that my new bee-print raincoat isn’t waterproof in the slightest …

The Fife Coastal Path (remembering why walking is great) Read More »

For the Spring Pack I compiled my own list of favourite things about Spring (see above).  I thought I’d got it covered but I was blown away by everyone’s contributions in the comments for the giveaway.  It seems that Spring brings A LOT of joy.  Hope, life, love, light, happiness, new beginnings, promise, new life …

The Best Things About Spring [A Shortlist] Read More »

To be honest, this is not the blog post I was hoping to write at the start of March!  By mid February I had psychologically totally moved on to Spring and her busy activity and fresh bright greens.  I was planning a blog post full of sweet meadow scents and new life.  But then ‘The …

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