Bird and Deer Park Inspiration

My weekend was well spent with a visit to Prinknash Abbey Deer and Bird Park. Being the nearest animal park to me and one that homes beautiful deer that eat from your hands, I have made a point to go to Prinknash as often as I can. This visit was, thankfully, full of sunshine and friendly birds. I fell in love with a peacock, and spent an hour drawing him in my sketch book, whilst he pranced about proudly in front of me. One of these doodles made it onto a tote bag and is for sale in my etsy shop.

I am working on some more of my deer doodles, planning on making a papercut or illustration from one or two of them.

I also have a great fondness for the goats at Prinknash, having spent well over thirty minutes stroking one lovely black and white goat who seemed to love the fuss. I wonder how much proper strokes they get, considering many children visit the park and tend of give a few giddy pats and squeal with delight when the goats eat from their hands.

I am hoping to upload my new drawings and designs this week, and have so many exciting plans in the making, so expect more animal inspired crafty goodies soon!

Adventures with Goats, Chickens and Ducks

Last weekend I had the chance to visit the beautiful animals at Eastwood Garden and Plant Centre. Eastwood is a Garden-Centre-come-Petting-Zoo, nestled in Wotton-under-Edge and is home to chickens, rabbits, Kune Kune pigs ducks and two rather lovely goats called Billy and Angus who were fond of being scratched behind the ears. Something I often forget about goats is that they have horizontally slit pupils, which means they have great peripheral depth perception, but it makes their eyes look a little rectangular and always seems strange when I get close but soon becomes quite normal.

There was great excitement over the ducks too. Daphne, Jackie, Mel and Mitch were Aylesbury ducks, Jemima-Puddle-Duck-type-ducks, and one of my favourite breeds. (On the Jemima Puddle-Duck note, I recently found out that Beatrix Potter based the story on a re-telling of Red Riding Hood, with tweaks to make it more suitable to her child-like audience.) All of the ducks at Eastwood were large with charmingly grubby white feathers and muddy orange feet, and started quacking simultaneously when I stood more than four steps away. Unfortunately it was one of those intensely grey days where the sky oozes a dark blue light and made photography harder than it should have been, so I am looking forward to visiting again on a brighter day!