Small delights blog
‘Small Delights’ began as a lockdown project. I was looking every day for something in my surroundings or during our hour’s exercise (remember that?) to break the monotony and bring delight – or even awe – and then to draw it. I soon started to share the drawings with a few comments on this blog for friends to enjoy.
I’ve continued with the project – although no longer daily. I’m inspired to continue with it by reading writer and theologian Richard Rohr’s comments “Your task is to find the good, the true, and the beautiful in everything”.
I love drawing and always find something new in my subject, no matter how familiar I thought it was. Mary Oliver writes “Attention is the beginning of devotion” and drawing certainly makes us pay attention. This is a search to find “that which connects all things and speaks to our souls if only we will stop and look.”(Richard Rohr).
Small delights: In praise of watercress
A stem of watercress We live close to a chalk stream, and in the next village there are watercress beds. The drive down a very steep and narrow lane opens out to reveal large, square beds on the river full of dark green watercress which make an impressive - and to my...
Refreshing Rosemary
Rosemary At our last house, we had a large Rosemary bush in the garden. This cutting has rather a way to go to catch up! Rubbing the leaves and releasing the refreshing scent feels somehow cooling to smell on this hot, hot day. "There's rosemary that's for...
Small delights: don’t forget your mat
Vintage helter skelter Today's small delight is a vintage (1950s) fun fair, and in particular, the helter skelter. Wooden and colourful, it was reminiscent of a mediaeval tower, complete with flag atop. The words 'helter skelter' are rather delightful to roll around...
Small delights : the negative test result
Covid test result I never expected, when I began this blog, to be including a piece of plastic. But this piece of plastic has become familiar to us all over the last couple of years, and it is in fact a delight to see a negative result after 11 days of positive...
Small Delights: walking barefoot in the grass
walking barefoot in the grass Today's small delight is that of walking barefoot in the grass. It's something I hadn't done in years. It was an unexpected pleasure, and as soon as I slipped off my sandals, I was transported back to childhood. The grass was wonderfully...
Small delights: a bear at the Palace
What a wonderful four days of celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. And the unexpected star of the show (after of course Her Majesty) was perhaps a little bear from Peru, enjoying tea at the Palace. If you haven’t seen the clip from Saturday night’s concert,...
Bluebell heaven
Who doesn’t love bluebells? I’ve really enjoyed recent walks in the bluebell woods. Perhaps it’s because we missed a year with the pandemic, but they've seemed even more magical this year. Now that we have lost the seasonal delights of many foods, perhaps the few...
Cherry Blossom Time
What could be more lovely than the cherry blossom in the sunshine? We are lucky enough to have a cherry tree in the garden. Yesterday in the breeze the lawn was aswirl with blossom-petal confetti, but there is still plenty left to enjoy today. It was a pleasure to...
Small delights: wild garlic
Wild garlic The woods are pungent with the smell of wild garlic at the moment. Unlike our usual cultivated garlic, it is the leaves and the flower rather than the bulb which are edible and full of garlic flavour. The flower heads are very pretty white globes of little...
Small delights: the Easter Garden
The idea of creating an Easter Garden in church goes back at least to the Middle Ages. After the lack of floral decoration during lent, a sudden explosion of greenery and flowers is a welcome sight, and a visual reminder of the empty tomb. This sketch is based on the...
Small delights : One a penny, two a penny…
Today’s small delight has to be a Hot Cross Bun. Like strawberries, these can be found in the supermarkets nowadays throughout much of the year, but I like to eat them only at Easter (and strawberries in the summer). My buns have just currants and spice - no...
Small delights: the wild teasel
The delight of yesterday was getting out with the sketchbook and feeling the warmth of the sun. My eye was drawn to these dried teasels with their large brown oval heads and the little curved ‘flicks’ of dried leaves at the base of each, reminding me of the ends of a...
The Sunflower
Today I’m sharing an image of the sunflower, the National flower of Ukraine. Artists round the world are doing the same. The flag of Ukraine, a blue horizontal stripe over a yellow horizontal stripe, is often thought of as representing the sky over a field of...
Small delights: the crocus
After a battering by storms at home and the storms of war abroad, I thought a small delight might provide a moment’s respite. What better than the crocus, harbinger of spring. In the language of flowers, white croci usually represented truth, innocence and purity....
Small delights: the bedside table
There’s something comforting about a bedside table. It’s likely to be the last thing we see at night, and the first thing we see in the morning. Somewhere to put a lamp and a pile of books. It suggests reading, relaxing, getting ready to sleep or getting ready to...
Small delights: knowing your onions
Today’s small delight is the humble onion. Present in most kitchens and an ingredient in most savoury recipes, where would we be without it? I have a love/ hate relationship with onions as I love the flavour they add, but don't like the tears they can induce. I...
Small delights – the potted plant
Looking at the houseplants today. This one is Mother-in-law’s Tongue. Not a very pretty name for a rather attractive plant. It’s also known as ‘snake plant’, but I’m not sure that’s much better. Houseplants bring a bit of nature indoors, give us something to care for,...
Small delights: Looking at leeks
Happy New Year, all! Looking no further than the kitchen for today’s Small Delight, and three leeks. I spent five minutes just looking at these before I began to draw. Really looking at something is an interesting thing to do. Even if you don’t draw, spending...
Small delights: happy Christmas!
Time to wish you all a Happy Christmas, and thank you for accompanying me with my drawings through 2021. This is the Virgin Mary as Stella Maris, ‘Star of the Sea’. The figure is based on a statue on the Brittany coast, which is sited on the Pointe de Kerpenhir,...
Small delights – the gardener’s friend
European Robin Today’s small delight is the Robin. These tuneful birds are so lovely to have in the garden, especially in the winter when we crave colour. Our robin was finding it difficult to perch on the bird feeders hanging in the trees, so we fixed one to...
Small Delights: More than a pretty fruit. The persimmon.
A dear friend brought me a persimmon fruit earlier this week. I couldn’t eat it before I’d drawn it, but it was surprisingly difficult to get it right! According to Wikipedia, it’s actually a berry. Elsewhere I read of the many health benefits claimed for the...
Small delights – admiring the Amaryllis
A friend kindly sent me some money to buy flowers. The local florist offered me three amaryllis heads, and what pleasure I am getting from them. I had thought of amaryllis as being uniform pillar box red, but these are a riot of dots and stripes, deep pink-almost-red...
Small delights – taking delight in the human face
There’s something wonderful about faces. Old, young, whatever nationality they are. Especially when they are absorbed in something. This is Hakuya Noguchi, a fourth generation gold leaf artisan in Japan. And if anyone is in Salisbury tomorrow, Saturday 13th November,...
Small delights: trees in the sketchbook
Ah the wonders of zoom. One of the good things about this last couple of years has been discovering online courses. This week I attended an online day course on drawing with ink and coloured wash. This is a page from my sketchbook where we were asked...
The small delight of people watching
One of the things I missed during the lock-downs was being able to people watch. Yesterday I was able for the first time in ages to sit in a cafe, enjoy a drink, and get out my sketchbook. I like to try and catch people in just a few lines. I’m intrigued by different...
Small delights – a jigsaw of stones
This is another drawing from our recent trip to France. The old church in the village has such solid pillars, but when you look at them, they are made up of a jigsaw of carefully put together stones of very variable sizes. Each one has its place. On this day I was...
Under the pines
We are just back from France where we’ve been enjoying the beautiful coastline of Brittany. The pine trees are such a distinctive feature, providing shade and a wonderful scent. I enjoyed drawing the rough bark, and the twigs which make crazy curved patterns as they...
Shadows on the wall
I love ivy, and I love shadows, so I had to draw these pretty heart-shaped ivy leaves and their dark shadows cast on an old wall.
Pumpkin or squash?
Whether squash or pumpkin, this rather splendid and very heavy specimen was a welcome gift which will probably become soup. However I couldn’t take a knife to it before drawing it. I love it’s solidity, the thick stalk, the ridges of the sections, the speckled flesh...
Who invented paper?
It is unlikely you will recognise what this drawing depicts. It’s actually part of an incredibly delicate and fragile wasps’ nest found in our attic. It’s made of a kind of paper which the wasps make from timber. This little piece looks like a tiny bowl, curling round...
By the Ebble
We are lucky enough to live by the beautiful chalk stream, the river Ebble. I found a peaceful spot today to enjoy it, and make a sketch. The water wound its way between banks full of foliage, dried stems, seed heads and ivy. By I’m told there are otters on the river....
Looking at the back
The more you look, the more you see. Sometimes it’s difficult to know when to stop drawing. I’m calling it a day with this sweet pea. I often think the back of a flower is as interesting as the front. The star shaped calyx, the bend of the stem and the delicate...
Keeping vampires at bay
This one might be a bit divisive, but for those of us who love it, garlic is definitely a delight. I wouldn’t want to be without hummus, or a garlicky tomato sauce, and garlic is said to have lots of health benefits. In the markets in France, there are...
Sweet peas
I'm enjoying drawing the sweet peas today, with their delicate flowers, amazing stems which form unlikely shapes, and full seed cases. I love their energy as the delicate tendrils push out bravely, reaching for something to cling to and give them some stability. ...
Heady Jasmine
I’m so enjoying the Jasmine on the front of the house. The intoxicating perfume wafts in every time I open the door. The white flowers remind me of those whirling windmills we had as children. Apparently the name comes to us (via Arabic and Latin) from the Persian...
A few moments in the sun
A quick glimpse of our (overgrown!) drive today. I enjoyed observing and drawing all the different textures of the trees and bushes, all running into each other, from the lovely smoke bush on the left to our neighbour’s beautiful willow tree on the right, via various...
Refreshing Rosemary
I love drawing with pen and ink, but sometimes it’s nice to use a pencil, as I did for this quick sketch of the pot of Rosemary on the patio. I love the scent released as I pinch a leaf between my fingers. I use it in cooking, but haven’t yet tried pouring boiling...
Delighting again in the honeysuckle
The honeysuckle on the back of the house is now in full bloom, and is a delight. There are clearly lots of varieties, as this one is quite different from the one in bloom last month. The scent is wonderful in the evening and drifts into the house through the open...
Welcome to Aila
Apologies for this one. I’m not used to drawing faces, but couldn’t resist having a go at beautiful Aila (pronounced Isla) from a photo sent by a friend of her new granddaughter fast asleep. It doesn’t do her justice, but it’s perhaps good to be reminded that the...
In full flower
A return to the chives today, now they are in full flower. A mass of fluffy heads and leaves. Too pretty to eat!
A good day to be a bird
The bird bath is great for the birds in this heat, providing water for them to drink, and to wash off the dust. And it’s a source of joy for us - they are such fun to watch
A magical visitor
On the windowsill this morning, indoors, was a beautiful damselfly. I’ve never been as close to one before, or seen one as still. She posed beautifully for me without moving at all. The body was a gorgeous turquoise, and the wings as delicate as if made from the...