Author: Val Littlewood

Leaf of the Day: Bald Cypress Knees and Lizards at Kraft Gardens

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Eerily beautiful and tranquil, the huge primeval, moss draped, pines of Kraft Gardens dominate this narrow strip of land on the banks of Lake Maitland here in Winter Park. It’s a strange place situated in a very wealthy suburb where great mansions and estates, many built in the 1920s, jostle for prime waterfront locations and moorings, so it is one of the few places that the lake shore is accessible to us mere mortals. There is a strange austere exedra too, built by the shore, where you can sit and while away an hour or two with a book. It has the lovely inscription “Pause Friend And Let Beauty Refresh The Spirit” carved in fine Roman capitals .

Nobody much will bother you but remember you are not alone here. Far from it. Should you feel a prickling of the hairs on the back of your neck it is because you are being closely watched by the many many creatures who live or pass through this little haven. Squirrels, hundreds of lizards, anhingas, ducks, herons, egrets, woodpeckers and ospreys will have seen you and be monitoring your every move. Initially you see nothing but gradually you become aware of rustlings, chatterings and dartings and, sensing something approaching, look out of the corner of your eye to catch a glimpse of a white egret or two strolling amongst the trees or squirrels playing. Every footfall scatters lizards by the dozen.
Yesterday, because it is nesting season, the great trees were alive with building activity, affectionate chirpings, squabbles and flappings. There must have been 20 egrets, some flying backwards and forwards with huge twigs, 12 very noisy anhginas, and 2 great grey herons. An osprey glided in from the lake with a big fish in its talons and perched high on a pine tree eating its prey. On the lake a pair of gorgeous mandarin ducks, so handsome and glossy, pottered about in the reeds making plaintive cheeps. They very conveniently perched on a raised nest box for a while so I was able to sketch them.

So today I am posting some photos and sketches from Kraft Gardens. I was fascinated by the “knees “of the Bald Cypress (taxodium distichum) which grow along the water line, they are the most extraordinary shapes. The Bald Cypress is a characteristic tree of southern swamplands growing in stagnant pools, and forming wide buttressed trunks, together with these strange woody “knees” which project from the water. The knees are outgrowths from the tree’s roots and it seems that they provide extra aeration for the root system. Clinging onto the knees are the wandering roots and leaves of the adventurous syngonium podophyllum the Arrowhead vine.

My favourites are the sketch of the anhihga in the tree and the waterlily leaves, both have potential to be developed futher. They are done with a Pilot pen the V5 which is soluble so to add a bit of shadow just wet with a brush. It’s a very useful and quick sketching aid.
My sketch book is 6 x 8 inches.

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Bald Cypress Knees



Leaf of the Day: Red Leaf

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Today I cycled to Kraft Gardens for a couple of hours in order to find a leaf to start the coloured pencil work with. I actually have a veritable nature table here, full of leaves. It’s a perfect example of my normal displacement behaviour which I wrote about here. Finding something thoroughly absorbing and apparently vital to do rather than start the difficult task ahead must be well known to many.
Kraft gardens was delightful and I did find this leaf. I made some sketches, which I will post tomorrow, and managed to fritter away a bit more time, putting off the evil hour of the coloured pencil work. I have been avoiding starting this project for days as coloured pencil is new to me apart from colouring in roughs or adding a bit of pzazz to a watercolour. I did have a few fruitless hours playing with them, in an aimless way, and making a colour chart (more excellent displacement behaviour). The most daunting task was sharpening them all and then, when I did finally sit down to do this drawing, I seemed to be working with an ever increasing fistful of them, dropping them on the floor and generally getting in a temper with them. Some are waxier than others and some grittier leaving little black specks on the paper here and there.

It has been very frustrating but it is mainly, of course, because I don’t yet understand how to use them well, which paper to use and if the ones I have bought are the right ones for this fine work etc etc. I just have to experiment. This first attempt is on a very smooth cartridge with the Prismacolor set.
There are some things I quite like about them but I am used to paint which I can apply thinly to achieve pale tones. Here you have to use pale coloured pencils and you really have to think hard about which colours you are going to use. It is, I suppose, a very good discipline for me.
I am reluctant to post this today but I did say it would be the good and the bad. I do like some of the colours and I always say to my students if only half an inch of a painting is successful then it hasn’t been a waste of time. I am now going to have a large gin and tonic…
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Red Leaf

Leaf of the Day: Woman’s Tongue

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I found this pod a couple of weeks ago on the seafront in Sarasota. I just could not identify it, however after my visit to the library I have found out that it is the pod of the one of the albizia trees, albizia lebbeck. The delicate pods are about 6 to 8 inches long, flattened and papery and they rattle. I am sure I don’t need to explain the origin of the name to you, do I!
There are many other albizias some with longer curling pods which is why I had difficulty finding this one in the guide book. It is, apparently, a very naughty and invasive tree ( category one!) here in Florida, wantonly seeding everywhere and its lovely pods even described as “trashy”by one commentator. The flowers are pretty, very fragrant pompom affairs, all in all a very girly plant, chatty, decorative and just a tiny bit louche!..
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Woman’s Tongue

Leaf of the Day: Elephant’s Ears

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I bought this beautiful elephant’s ear plant a week ago and this is probably the smallest leaf on the whole plant. It’s very handsome, dark green with pronounced white veins. I think this is alocasia amazonia but there are many different varieties and sizes. It is native to the swampy tropical areas of South-East Asia and in a favourable spot can grow huge leaves on 3 meter long stems. I am hoping this one will survive in our flat long enough at least for me to make some good drawings.
I spent most of the day out and about and have joined Winter Park Library, an excellent library, which is within cycling distance for me. They have a good section of reference books so, at last, I can identify some of the trees and flowers I see around me. I have had a seed pod now for 3 weeks, unidenfitied and therefore undrawn. I carefully went though every book on trees and plants in the bookshop across the road and spent hours trawling the internet to no avail. Thank goodness I have found out what it is… it tomorrow’s drawing.
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Alocadia or Elephant’s Ear

Leaf of the Day: The Devil’s Backbone

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What a marvellous leaf to start my March drawings with. This strange and leggy plant grows by a sidewalk tree on Carolina Road here in Winter Park. The structure of its zig-zag stem is astonishing. Pedilanthus tithymaloides has other common names; Slipper flower after its Latin name, Rick Rack plant and Red Bird Cactus because the flower resemble tiny red cardinals. I think this one has been suffering somewhat from the cold weather as many of the branches were leafless but there were one or two little scarlet flowers appearing here and there. This is another member of the euphorbia family. While trying to identify this I found it comes in different variegated colours and with different degrees of zigzag. This one has a pale green stem,the green leaves have red edges and some red patterning.
Some of the leaves themselves have have a wavy spine running under the leaf, almost like another backbone or a dragons crest.

I am hoping to achieve 5 images a week in March. Some will now be more complex and some in colour but I am reluctant to leave the pencil drawings which I am enjoying so much. There are few things that make me happier than sitting down with BBC Radio 4 some sharp green pencils and something new and beautiful to draw.
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Devil’s Backbone

Sweet Mocking Birds and Unoiled Grackles

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It’s a cool Monday morning; its 6.am, not yet light, and, before the sound of traffic on the mighty I4 highway cranks up some decibels, I am listening to the gorgeous little mocking birds who have already been singing their tiny hearts out for at least half and hour. There is one in the tree outside my work room and one a few roof tops away and they are calling to each other. These tame little birds are everywhere perching on wires, in bushes and on fences accompanying your walk through the city streets.
Maybe they are not the prettiest birds to some eyes but, like the English nightingale, any shortcomings in the dress department are compensated for 10 fold by their song.
While I am working they are my constant companions along with the chattering squirrels, some little wrens and and the ubiquitous and raucous grackles.
Male grackles are big glossy showy birds. Like old fashioned, brylcream-slicked teddy-boys they strut about in local neighbourhood gangs, their brilliantly blue iridescent feathers shimming in the sun as though doused with oily petrol. I am not sure exactly which species crowd in the trees and shout at me in the afternoons as there are 3 different ones, but the noise they make is incredible.
Imagine an excruciating mix of rasping creaks, pops, and whistles, scrapings of nails down blackboards, polystyrene screeching and the wheezings of desperate asthmatics..I just don’t know whether to rush out with my inhaler to administer relief or go and buy a shotgun.

I could not find a recording of the grackles that does justice to an up-close-and-personal musical encounter but the excellent Cornell “All about Birds” site has some snippets of sound with some images

Great tailed grackle here
Boat tailed grackle here
Common Grackle here

After that soothe your poor assaulted eardrums with some more mellifluous notes from the mocking bird here

Leaf of the Day: Violets and The Bulow Sugar Plantation

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Today is Saturday and the first day of March. Chris and I headed out north-east of Orlando to find the Bulow Sugar Plantation .
All that remains today of this once prosperous plantation is the ruins of the mill and some wells. The land, 6000 acres, was bought in 1820 by Charles Wilhelm Bulow a rich merchant from Charleston. Here he grew sugar cane, indigo and rice, but after only 3 years died at the age of 44 and the plantation, plus a substantial legacy, was taken over by his son John Joachim (apparently a dashing young man who liked to live in style). He built a sugar mill which was the largest in Florida, a grand house where he entertained Audubon, and the plantation prospered.
This high life and the fortunes of the plantation were cut short by the Seminole war in 1836, when Indians burnt down the plantation and the mill. John returned to Paris where he had been educated and died very young, at the age of only 27.

It’s a beautiful place to visit. The ruins lie quiet and still amongst pines and oaks. The wide creek which used to transport the sugar to the coast meanders its way down to the Atlantic and you are a million miles away from Disney here.
Apart from the chance to see some real un-Disneyfied Florida history, we went out of curiosity as Chris’s surname is Bulow. A relative possibly? We don’t know really but it made going there even more interesting. Here is Chris by the ruins of the (his)mill.

The woods were full of interesting fungi, plants and fallen seed pods which I have yet to identify and by one the old wells a carpet of pretty violets, their little heart shaped leaves unfurling as they push up through the moss and dead leaves of the forest floor.

The journey was made more exciting today due to the fact that this week is bike week at Daytona.. Bikes of every kind, colour and size accompanied us on the road. I have seen some Harleys to die for.
Today I only have time for a pencil sketch of a couple of the violet leaves.

The next stage of the course begins this month with an assignment using coloured pencils. I shall need some practice as it is many years since I used them. I will be trying a basic Prismacolor set and Bristol board to start with.

PS. I did remember to say “white rabbits” this morning 3 times, so I am expecting good luck this month.
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Violet

Leaf of the Day: Oxalis & Firsts and Lasts

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The last day of February and it was a beautiful day so I went down to Leu Gardens. If only I could share the physical sense of being there, especially when I walked through the citrus garden. The overwhelming scent of orange blossom took me back to Spain and happy memories of driving through the acres of orange groves along the Guadalhorce Valley in spring. I saw many lovely flowers, trees and birds today, including lots of “firsts” for me in Florida. A comical red crested woodpecker was hammering its head enthusiastically into one of the tall palm trees, a pair of brilliant red cardinals darted in and out of the bushes and two stately woodstorks were fishing in the lake margins and then, most exciting of all, there was my first alligator!..I have to include my photo here.

This was a small one basking in the sun with another larger one farther up the bank. It is wonderful to see them properly in the wild and not in some awful zoo doing tricks for tourists.

However back to the oxalis. There are about 800 different varieties of oxalis and this one is oxalis latifolia, or broad-leaved wood sorrel. This huge leaf was growing amongst some ornamental grasses in wooded shade by the entrance to Leu gardens. Its whole stem from leaf to root tip is 14 inches long, showing how far it had to grow to find the light. It is considered a weed here but is very pretty and they do in fact grow a beautiful dark purple variety in the gardens here.
On this trip I spoke to Pedro, one of the gardeners who drive around in golf buggies, about permission to take samples for drawing and all seems fine, I just have to ask. I am very pleased as my inspiration from the Mall borders is getting somewhat jaded. The only problem I have, is getting there on my bike. I will return to the hair raising subject of cycling in Orlando, city of cars, soon.
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Oxalis

Leaf of the Day: Crown of Thorns

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This is a very strange little plant. I saw it growing close by, in the border under the bauhini tree. Initially I had no idea what it was and kept this small piece here in the studio for about a week in water. It is so pretty and I am hoping to propagate it despite the thorns.
The drawing is in pen and ink and comes with a few sketches I had made on the side of the page. (..a bit like showing your workings in the old maths exams). The main drawing is done with a fine felt tip pen, the sketches on the side with dip pen and brown ink which I still prefer for its more expressive line.
Crown of thorns is a succulent, belonging to the Euphorbiacea or spurge family which also includes the poincettia, casava and the hevea rubber plant. (there is the most fascinating short article here about rubber.) Its Latin name is euphorbia milii.
Euphorbias appear to be named after Euphorbus a Greek physician to the interesting King Juba II (approx 50 BC to 19 AD) of Numidia a region of north Africa now Algeria. The “milli” after Baron Milius, who introduced the species to France in 1821.
As you can imagine it was thought to have been the plant used for the “crown of thorns” worn by Christ which may be, in part, because of its pliable stems but there are other contenders for that role.
The latex from the spurge family is toxic and can cause dermatitis, have stupifying effects if ingested, and as the name spurge implies, has been used as a purgative in medicine. It is just another delightfully dangerous addition to my growing list of poisonous plants .. the garden is a hazardous place and my enemies had best beware my newly acquired knowledge!
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Crown of Thorns

Leaf of the Day:Trees and Rooks

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I have three small sketches today. One is a drawing of the rooks in the village which I did quickly from the car when coming back from Lincoln 4th Feb. Its just felt tip pen in my sketch book with a bit of smudgy wash. The second one is the rook from the top of the Weeping Ash(See previous drawing) which I drew from the dining room window. This one is with a dip pen and ink on a piece of paper from a watercolour “experiment” that I had chopped up. It’s brown ink ..I think French Sepia. ( I always try to rescue something from failures.. I have lots of bits of failures! ) The bird was somewhat wind ruffled, but I think it looks a bit more like a blackbird in my drawing.
The last one is a tree experiment done mostly with a razor blade.. a neat trick I learnt on Nicholas’ course. Its interesting to see how the three different techniques work.
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Trees and Rooks