Taking a Line for a Walk in the Park

Saltwell Park (pencil, 8 x 10.5 ins)

They tell me we're to have an Indian Summer. After the disaster that was August, that can only be a good thing.

Today gave the appearance that they might be right. It was a beautiful day with just a touch of a breeze to irritate me but keep the rest of the folks happy.

I went for a walk in the Park. It's over a year since I was there last, because of the work they've been doing with Lottery/Heritage Money to put it back to it's former Victorian splendour.

I'd intended to walk right through, taking in the refurbished Saltwell Towers and the Lake with its swans, geese and ducks, but I knew there'd be lots of mothers and kids and screaming and I wasn't really in the mood.

On a whim, I'd taken a sketchbook so I decided to pick a quiet part of the Dene and do a bit of drawing.

Close to the bridge over the stream there's a good view of one of what I guess should be called Turrets. As a boy I was told they were called The Frying Pans and only in recent years did I come to question whether that might be true. Too late to ask my dad whether he was having me on

I made the right choice. With the exception of a lone jogger and a child who ran past screaming "Ice-cream-ice-cream-ice-cream!" I was undisturbed

There's something remarkably calming about drawing from the subject. I really ought to do it more often