wood duck

dabbling in wetlands

nature’s colours feed the soul

perfect waterfowl

Wood drakes (i.e., the male wood duck) are spectacular – with colouration that is among the most incredible of all birds. They are dabbling ducks (feeding primarily off the surface of water), and also have the interesting natural history of nesting in tree cavities in forests, sometimes not proximate to the wetlands where they spend their time hanging out and eating. Their populations can be helped out by the installation of wood duck boxes. I was extremely busy last week, so doing any art seemed impossible, but I decided on Friday to toss my tiny watercolour travel kit into my backpack, and I found two squares of watercolour paper to bring along. I was thinking about wood ducks (you will understand why, if you read all the way through this post) so decided to try drawing them in miniature form, and the piece above is one of the results. The process, while on my commuter train, looked like this:

This blog is about the uplifting, amazing, and awe-inspiring ways of nature – whether small trees growing out of sidewalks, snapping turtles, pigeons, or the glorious wood drakes.

Life is difficult for many right now – wars, tragedies, climate change, and everything in between. It’s downright awful and at times like these it can sometimes be difficult to see or appreciate beauty,

I get it.

At the same time, nature can help us heal, or give us pause from the awful; maybe even just for a minute as you walk through a park or glance up at a passing flock of geese. It can give some comfort in difficult times, perhaps.

I was reflecting on this very topic one day last week when I read my weekly newsletter from James Clear (it’s one of the few I subscribe to and read regularly) and in it he posted from The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry, and it’s worth reproducing here:

“When despair for the world grows in me 
and I wake in the night at the least sound 
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, 
I go and lie down where the wood drake 
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds 
I come into the peace of wild things 
who do not tax their lives with forethought 
of grief. I come into the presence of still water. 
And I feel above me the day-blind stars 
waiting with their light. For a time 
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

Stay well.