I’ve started moth trapping again (only with light!), and was really pleased to see that they were running a trap at College Lake on Friday night. The colours and patterns on the wings of moths can be very exquisite, but they do get a bad press. Of the 2,500 moths that live in Britain only two species will eat clothes. Clothes moths (or rather their larvae) only eat fabrics derived from animal sources, such as wool, they are attracted to items left in dark, undisturbed places and they prefer dirty clothes to clean ones. And think of all the birds and bats that rely on them for food!

I visited College Lake on Saturday morning to see what they’d captured, so here are a few of the photographs I took before they were released. My favourite is of the buff-tip on silver birch; what amazing camouflage!

Today has been a day of trying new things! A couple of weeks ago I was introduced to acrylic paint, and so I thought I’d see what happened if I sat with paints and paper and no pencils. I’m quite pleased with the results. I think I like them because you can layer the colours as with colour pencils.

I’m also experimenting more with digital art, drawing round photographs in Adobe Illustrator, then using blocks of colour and a Photoshop filter. I’m not quite there yet, but I’m going to preserve with this.

Apologies for the lack of blogging over the last couple of weeks. Life has been a bit hectic, but I will be back soon!

By the way, I’m loving the acrylic paints now!

 I think the art class is teaching me what I really want to do! On Thursday we tried acrylic paint, but I got more on me than the paper! I really want try more digital art; I love the idea that you can start with a blank canvas and paint in Photoshop as I did with the birds above. It’s not a work of art, but I had fun trying out different brushes. I also love combining my coloured pencils with a little Photoshop filtration. I drew these beach huts on black paper AGAIN!

I’m currently on a drawing and painting class at West Herts College. A morning a week for ten weeks. It’s been strange going back to Dacorum because I worked there for thirteen years. I wanted to try different techniques and become looser in my work, but now I’m questioning that! I seem to be drawn (excuse the pun) to finer work, and I got in a bit of a mess when painting with ink. It’s acrylic next week!

I’m on a mission to draw every day, so here are a couple of this week’s. They’re mixed media as I am combining a little Photoshop filtration with my coloured pencil drawings. I hope you like them.

On Saturday I headed of to Norfolk for a few days of wildlife photography; it was very cold and very rewarding. On the way up I visited Penthorpe Natural Reserve, where I was able to photograph male and female bearded tits; aren’t they beautiful?

It’s taken me a couple of days to sort through my photographs and put in my entries for British Wildlife Photographer of the Year; it gets harder every year as my portfolio increases!

My lovely family gave me a birdcam for Christmas 2014, but last year there were no takers for the nest it was put in. I’m pleased to say that we have a resident this year! The home is still being furnished, but watch this space!

According to Radio 2 the National Trust are charging people to go into Dockey Woods to see the bluebells! I don’t begrudge paying, but I don’t want to visit if they’re are crowds of people. Instead I’ve been photographing the flowers in my garden.

I used the 7Dii for these. I really do need to update my website as I’ve got loads of new stuff.