I spent my outdoor exercise and recreation time on Saturday and Sunday in the local Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne. It is the start of Spring, the weather was glorious, especially on Saturday.

I am remembering to take my sketchkit with me so that I have access to a large range of colours. During the time we could only exercise and not sit down under a tree, for example, I was only taking my sketchbook and one or two watercolour pencils, or just my ink pen.

On Saturday I went for a long walk and then stopped to sketch the following scene. I have sketched this tree though the seasons, but yesterday it felt important to capture the beginning of Spring and the people having picnics, and catching up in small groups.

Today (Sunday) I went for a very long walk around and around the paths of the Fitzroy Gardens. I stopped for four sketches.

The two birds were very quick. Only a few minutes.Standing up. I have sketched them both before, so have to think less about the shape and colours to choose.

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I sat down to sketch these two slower sketches. I realised that both have the theme of bursting with life. The first is a tree (trying to find out what it is) that has little shoots bursting from the base and trunk of the tree. The second is a mushroom bursting through the mulch around the base of a tree. It caught my attention as I am always looking up or down as I walk through the Gardens.

I try and mix up my weekly art blog posts with a combination of practical posts about watercolour pencils and my sketchbook or projects from that week. Please let me know if you have any watercolour pencil questions. I am missing sharing my enthusiasm for these with my classes and interaction with people.