A New Bud Bloom book

A merry band of nature journalers showed up at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma onThursday to see what was happening with the buds and blooms of spring. Some of us had our mini accordian sketchbooks and all were ready to enjoy one of those all-sunny spring days in the park. We refreshed our memories about John Muir Laws‘ three principles/steps for entering into a dialogue with nature: 1) I notice…  2) I wonder. . . and 3) This reminds me of. . . which got us ready for what was to come. 

At Point Defiance Park in Tacoma you are first greeted by the ducks in the pond. Turtles too, but they were so still that I mistook them for copper sculptures. Crows too, or maybe they were Ravens, definitely the big noisy, formidible sort that could shame you into handing over your last bit of sandwich. And all of this was punctuated by a noisy blend of lawn mower, honking Canada geese, and a variety of exotic animals from the zoo “next door” that whooped like they were enjoying a really good joke. (I imagined baboons)

I had a solemn purpose which was, by hell or high water, to fill one side of my mini accordian folded book with bud and bloom sketches. (see my post about preparing for this)

Off we went beyond the pond, to find our buds and blooms.

Golden ink and watercolor on 3″X8″ double page in accordian book

My plan was a simple line sketch with 2 or 3 watercolors and to keep track of the time/temp/other meta indicators. 30 min max per sketch. 

So as not to lose time looking for only the most spectacular new blooms, I stayed in the same place for this second one, an abundant groundcover in the grass beneath my feet, which involved leaning way down to examine the micro-view. My leaf snap app was not specific about this rugged form of daisy underfoot. Certainly it’s a distant relative to the showy summer daisies in my garden bed. Fleabane was one possibility and the word calls up images of fairy incantations, which I like! Not very scientific, I know.

Next I walked through the rose garden, discovering that of course it’s too early for roses here in the PNW. But the next garden included tulips, and we were in luck.

Except I think watercolor is my last choice for trying to get a natural red. So my choice of the flippin Miss Flippins tulip soon turned into a humbling lesson. I mean, how many different pigments do you need to make a convincing deep red in bright sunshine? Well I never found out, and then my 30 minutes were up.

Right around this time I started to experience the familiar sun-blindness where the light dims and shapes become be less distinct. But there was still time for the white bleeding hearts! 

Then we had our picnic lunch back at the pond, where the turtle sculptures were in slow motion, the raven showed up for a handout, and we shared sketches from the day.

I hadn’t quite succeeded to fill my sketchbook pages on location, so I snapped a picture of the show stopper crabapple tree and finished this at home.

But the book is only half done! Time to turn it over and continue on the other side. My white irises just bloomed and it will be a steady flow of blooms in the yard until the sunflowers and lavenders do their final show and. . .