One of the various impractical things I’m doing to prepare for Alan’s arrival is to draw a series of animals, using oil pastels, with the idea that we’ll frame them and have them up in the nursery and that he and I will look at them and have engaging ‘conversations’ about what the animals are doing / thinking / considering doing. I’m drawing ‘woodland creatures’ and, if I’m honest, this is largely inspired by Colin Dann’s Animals of Farthing Wood series although so far ‘Fox’ is the only main character I’ve attempted and otherwise I just have some of the lesser characters (frog / rabbit / mouse) and I don’t think any of those actually made it all the way to White Deer Park so I should probably think about doing Kestrel, Badger and Adder if I actually want it to pay true homage to the series.
Anyway. Woodland creatures is a pretty clear mandate, right? We all know what counts as a woodland creature. Except that Jeremy’s suggestions have included ‘Bear’, ‘Raccoon’, ‘Possum’ and ‘Skunk’ and I am reminded that here in America the woods are a little more hazardous and smelly . I could bend to the fact that I’m raising my son in a country where foxes are not at the top of the food chain (we’re ignoring people) and allow that, here, bears live in the woods.
I could, but I’m not going to.
Overall it’s a battle I’ve already lost, but at least I get to say what animals are allowed in my wood.
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