Monday 6 April 2009

The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

I'm on a roll now.
When we were first semi retired we decided that we would sell up and work half the year, summers in the UK and have the winters touring in our caravan abroad. Well we did not get abroad very much as we were often given more work covering for others who were taking holidays or asked to look after sites during the closed season which we never refused as we loved moving around this country, each place was like a holiday to us and of course we loved our caravan life.
At a particular basic laid back camp site we used to unlock the gates at 7am and creep back into bed for a cup of tea, while the kettle was boiling we hung a nut bag out and this bird used to sit sometimes alone, sometimes with his partner and devour a lot of the nuts while the squirrels picked up the ones they dropped and then would chase them off and finish the rest. I always tried to get a good picture of "spotty" as we called him but I am very happy with this picture that I painted.
Now we have been fully retired for 7 years (apart from voluntary work) we are catching up with our hobbies and making use of all those things that we put away - as many have "for when we retire".

2 comments:

PeeJay said...

What a wonderful story! I can certainly sympathise with the 'for when I retire' as I've got loads of it. Stuff acquired over the years in case I couldn't afford it on a pension and all the plans of things to try - including learning to watercolour. Just need the time now 'cos, despite 'retiring' aged 55, 3 years ago, my time is still no nearer being my own. Beautiful painting Anne

Sylvia R said...

Anne this is just out of this world, I would love to travel but with OH being the way he is we'll never be able to go away. Unless we buy someting like an american mobile home...
Thank you for sharing your wonderful work.xxx