Find the Bunny

June 8, 2014
charcoal

my trusty Peugeot atop the bridge

Last Sunday morning, I bicycled to Peet's for a cup of coffee My route crossed Waban Arches, a tall stone bridge that overlooks Fuller Brook and the Charles River. Directly below the bridge is a forest and a small winding stream. As I gazed down at the sea of green trees and the tangled branches, I saw an interesting shape on a log resting on the ground below me. It was gray colored and motionless but it didn't look like part of the tree. If I gave my imagination free rein, I believed it was a small rabbit. Could it be? I was about 100 ft. above the ground and couldn't see all the details of "the bump on the log."

Annie Dillard, in her 1975 Pulitzer Prize winning book "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" suggests that the key to seeing animals in the wild is to assume that they are "artificially obvious." The "bump" didn't look like anything but part of the tree trunk. But to me, it was obviously (artificially so) a rabbit.  And, lo and behold it was! The "bump" finally wiggled one ear. Then it waggled its other ear. The spell was completed and the bunny soon began to forage on the leaves that were near the log. It did seem like an odd place to see a cottontail though.

I'm used to seeing rabbits assessing my carrots, lettuce and beet tops. These rabbits must be the Eastern Cottontail which was introduced into New England in the early 20th century. As a matter of fact, the native  New England Cottontail is flirting with "endangered species" status in Massachusetts. The culprit of course is suburban sprawl which converts rabbit habitat into people habitat. We have acres of National Parks for newly minted millionaires in metrowest Boston: long live the burghers of Wellesley and their progeny! The rabbits accept the crumbs and slums and just move further out …but I digress.

detail of the rabbit

the gray diagonal shape in the middle of this cell phone pic is the log. 

"Waban Arches" in Wellesley, Massachusetts. This the historic structure that I rode my bike on. The views are marvelous.

The Hunnewell Pinetum

Early this morning (March 21, 2012), if you'd been walking around Lake Waban in Wellesley, you would have run into me sketching this marvelously pruned pine tree in the Hunnewell Pinetum. The sun had just topped the slope (to the left in my drawing) and I was down on the shadowed lake shore path. Occasionally walkers and joggers would come along. Dogs would lope along too, their collars jangling. But mostly what I heard were the birds: robins, mockingbirds, sparrows and mallards out on the water. In the distance, on the far Northwest end of the lake, a pair of swans were making a ruckus. A breeze picked up and I rolled my sleeves down and noticed the high clouds of fog retreating. Such a beautiful morning!

If you look carefully, you'll notice a bird at the very tip-top of the pine tree. What a fine observatory: "Port out, Starboard Home!" eeeeeeeeeeee!

I've included a few other drawings of the garden and a photomontage taken one rainy day last year. I wasn't dressed for the weather and  it was miserable. So I decided at the least to trespass a little :-( and take some quick photos of the Pinetum from places the public is not allowed to go.

Here's a link to a short history of the Hunnewell Pinetum (pdf file). There's also a Wikipedia entry.

If you're curious about it and want to sketch there sometime, let me know; I'd love to show it to you!

Pine Tree at the Hunnewell Pinetum, Wellesley, Massachusetts
colored pencil
© 2012 Rob Dunlavey

when? A cold day is all I remember!

drawn from Tupelo Point on the Wellesley College campus
07-16-2011

also from Tupelo Point (using a gold colored pencil)
11-25-2011

Swirlyland

07-16-11 Lake Waban, carbon pencil

This is a view of the Hunnewell Pinetum (in my house, we call it "Swirlyland") from Tupelo Point on the Wellesley College campus. The body of water is named Lake Waban. Tupelo Point doesn't have a lot to recommend it although it is a famous Wellesley landmark of dubious repute. A family of swans has taken to nesting there and they are messy birds. Feathers and less-poetic swan memorabilia are everywhere --so watch your step if you try to join some students for midnight al fresco entertainments.

I balanced precariously on a small boulder perilously close to the lapping waters to draw this. But the weather was gorgeous and the water was warm. I was amused by a group of boisterous young Danes visiting this country who decided to take a swim (not allowed by the college police). The young men added a boisterous Scandinavian charm to the afternoon. If I were Karl Larssen, I would have persuaded them to model for me and it'd be just like the Garden of Eden …again. Heaven on Earth.
Say "Hello!" to Summer… again!

Four for the Fourth

Four cormorants this morning

Lake Waban, July 4, 2011

Hoarfrost

Lake Waban, Wellesley College is on the opposite shore

I walked around Lake Waban several days ago. Another snowstorm was predicted and I knew this would make the path impassable. The heavy Boston snows this winter have constricted my sketch outings so, with my art supplies in hand and a few dollars in my pocket I headed to the lake which is a short walk from my house.

There's a large wetland area which had the only open water. It was congested with ducks, Canada Geese and a few swans. There are cottonwood and alder trees here. Their willowy young branches painting the gray skies with a cheerful promise of leaves and nesting opportunities for the migratory birds.

I took these crude photos with my cell phone. They remind me of the French Impressionist painters Alfred Sisley and Camille Pisarro

The trees in the wetland were covered with hoarfrost. It was so beautiful (and I was getting very cold) that I couldn't attempt a drawing. I guess I didn't have the nerve. I'll try again before the winter is over.

the white trees in the middle distance are coated with hoarfrost

branches are festooned with fine dendritic ice crystals

Hoarfrost is caused by moist air moving over cold surfaces like tree branches and stalks of sere aquatic plants. You find it in many other places but there needs to be this gentle flow of moist air. The ice crystals form on these surfaces. The crystals are lacy and very delicate. Imagine the branches covered in snowflakes. It's as if the snowflakes come from the trees!

I did do one drawing of the young trees. I need to return to this spot.

The End

Endings are just beginnings right?

Goodbye to Summer.

South Natick Dam: one more mallard

(colored pencil, 23 sept. 2010)

Hello to Autumn

Lake Waban: a solitary swan

(colored pencil, 24 sept. 2010)

Staying focused

So many delicious and disastrous distractions in life!  Amidst the swirl, I observed this turtle the other morning. This was just above the dam where that heron was hunting a few days before. I watched it for ten or fifteen minutes as I drew these yellow flag irises. Finally, it wriggled down into the slime and was gone from my sight.

It takes some doing but sometimes the ONLY way to get one foot to follow the other (and to not be stuck) is to draw what is exactly in front of you. In the process, you leave the labyrinth of the mind and its imaginings which get replaced by sensory input from the world. It's a vital fact of my artistic life that I am constantly searching for a growing edge while at the same time, I'm cultivating and enlarging the ground I've already claimed. It's good to take notes of things that are stimulating and beautiful.

Below is a view of nearby Lake Waban I did in my sketchbook a week or two ago. It's another early morning haunt: I walk Ellen to the school bus then head the other way toward Wellesley College and the lake. It takes about 15-20 minutes and then, presto! There's this beautiful lake with a walking path that goes around and a great place to get a cup of coffee about halfway around.

Lake Waban

 

farm animals

a view of the South Natick Dam

another view of Lake Waban: anchored sailboats and a fisherman's bobber stuck in a tree.

I need to get to work now. Enough of this "tripping through reality" as captured in my sketchbook!

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