Weekends...

Wow, what a weekend. It feels like we've crammed so much in. We went for an all you can eat chinese on Friday night in Cardiff Bay, followed by cinema - we watched Marley and Me and I can highly recommend it. It was really lovely, not crude, and a sweet but also believable story.
Went to Cosmeston Lakes on Saturday morning... well actually from about 10am til 2pm so a bit longer than just the morning. Goodness, trying to sketch birds is pretty much impossible! There's a nice picnic table situated in a little clearing bit where there are loads of birdies and if you put seed down they'll come and get it although some are pretty timid. Oh and there are fat pie squirrels too who also like some seeds! But when you're trying to sketch you realise that they never actually sit still, so I kind of gave up and let Marno carry on taking photos. I usually paint from photos anyway so not too bothered. We saw a few new species (for us) - Reed Buntings, Great Crested Grebes, Mistle Thrush, Fieldfares, as well as lots of little long tailed tits, a goldfinch, chaffinches, lots of robins and blue and great tits and many more. We're not so interested in the ducks it has to be said.
On Saturday evening we went into Bristol to a very old friend's birthday party. I hadn't seen her since my wedding two years ago, and also a few of my other old school friends. It was so lovely to see them. One of my friends was freaking out about the fact that three of us have known each other for 20 years, which is quite a long time when you're only 27!


After going to the meeting on Sunday morning (our church - we're Christadelphians), we went for a little walk in the park by our house and straight away saw a goldcrest, which is Britain's tiniest bird, really high up in a tree. Marno bought me binoculars the other week as a present, and they've been brilliant. I don't really care what people think about us liking watching birds, like if they think its a bit geeky, because they are the ones missing out. Ok its not everyone's cup of tea but it really is fascinating. I love walking too so it adds interest to walks. We also saw some grenfinch, a treecreeper, which I had seen the other day and I think Marno was a bit dubious as to whether I had actually seen it, so I was glad it was there again! There were some Jays having a shouting match with a cat, and lots of naturey things going on.

(Goldfinch in Roath Mill Gardens)

Ohh and to finish off we had a mocha frap in Starbucks! Yum :)
I would put more bird photos up but they're my husbands and I want to concentrate on the painting side as I'm not really interested in photography, though I have tried to force myself into it several times during my art education! So my birds will be purely paintings.
Felt a bit down about various things on Sunday night. Its funny because I'm doing so many exciting things at the moment and I really feel as if I'm starting to realise what I want to do, but other things going on at the same time are there in the background. Anyway, thats enough of that. Everything will be ok.