A little more motivation

I woke up this morning feeling seriously de-motivated. It’s becoming a more regular occurrence – it could be something to do with the darker mornings or I might be going through one of those ‘what on earth shall I do with my life’ cycles – and I really felt I should do something about it.

So, after I rolled out of bed, I decided to go for a morning walk to the nearby meadow and I have to say, I’m so pleased I did!

As soon as I got to the meadow, I heard a loud chirping in one of the trees. There was a beautiful bright red robin there singing its heart out. The camera on my phone isn’t great, but I painted this tweeting robin in its honour. I tried some different watercolour styles with this one and I really struggled to leave it alone! After a final touch of pencil, I stopped myself from adding anything else to the poor creature!

Back to the walk. Just as I turned away from the robin, I was treated to a more unusual sight – a greater-spotted woodpecker flew out of the bushes and landed in a tree that was also occupied by a huge pigeon. I watched the woodpecker moving up and down the tree for a bit, feeling very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.

As I followed the track down through the meadow towards the River Stour (for my fellow northerners, it’s definitely more of a beck), I took in the views around me. I could see lots of sheep in one of the adjoining fields and, even in the greyness of this September morning, the scenery looked beautiful. I crossed a very small bridge and spotted a little bird in the reeds and nettles. I think it was a wren.

I then paused for a little while on the bank. There were a lot of brambles on this side of the river and I could now see lots of goldfinches darting in and out of the greenery. They were joined by at least one blue tit, a great tit and some long tailed tits. It looked like they were having one hell of a party!

I continued through the field – usually it’s full of sheep but they were clearly elsewhere this morning – and there was one final treat in store. In the grass near the edge were two green woodpeckers. They were chasing each other around and were a bit spooked when some cyclists came down the road that passed near them. In their panic, they flew straight past me and landed in a tree somewhere closer to the river. It seems green woodpeckers are really quite abundant around here – I’ve seen so many recently and have learnt that they have a very peculiar call!

When I arrived home I definitely felt like I’d regained a bit of motivation. And I suspect the main cause of my mood this morning was actually the grey. Just a few hours on, I already feel like I could do with another walk!