Some of my blog posts are planned in advance and other just happen.

Yesterday I went to my local library to collect a book I had on reserve. I came home with four books, three magazines, four plant cuttings and two bees.

It is these last objects that my blog is about today.

My local East Melbourne Library (part of Melbourne Library Service) has a community garden out the back, (including a beehive). It was created by locals with help from a City of Melbourne grant for locals to enjoy. It was started a few years ago and was not touched over the past year while we were all in lockdown in Melbourne. Now we are gradually opening up some enthusiastic volunteers gave it a well-deserved cleanup and hard trim.

As soon as I had the idea I started to visualise how I could see the plants across two pages of my sketchbook. I picked the plants, found the bees caught up in spidersweb, and did a quick sketch on the page to see where I wanted to place each plant.

I carried my precious cargo home and quickly started drawing them, as the plants wilted quickly in front of me. I have kept the bees and added them to my collections of bugs, feathers, and nests.

It was not what I had planned for the afternoon, but I felt the need to document it and am pleased with the result. I could have spent a lot more time on this page, but have decided to leave it as is.

Below are some of my previous pickings

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and here are the books I borrowed

• English Pastoral by James Rebanks
• three Country Life magazines (UK)
• The Button Box : the story of women in the 20th Century told through the clothes they wore
• The Cartographers Secret by Tea Cooper
• the Greek Coffin Mystery by Ellery Queen
• Tell Tale by Jeffrey Archer