Haltingly temperatures have improved. The rain has stopped long enough for me to draw for several days. I have joined the Amsterdam Botanical Gardens. This is the trunk of the Turner's Oak there. A hybrid of the Holm Oak and the English Oak, the original grown in the Essex nursery of a Mr Turner in 1783. This one is of a later date but equally fascinating. I am quietly obsessed by the convoluted form and I draw it regularly.
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| Turner's Oak |
I bring my large paper roll into the gardens and I have gained a new friend perhaps because I am a little unusual and sit at duck height on the ground. I am visited daily in the hope that I might finally learn to bring food with me. Apparently this duck and its mate spend the whole summer every summer in the gardens. They nest under cafe tables.
