One swallow doesn't make a Summer

On Tuesday I saw my first house martins at Acharacle  and today I saw a swallow.I was almost as excited as when I heard my first cuckoo  2 weeks ago.
 The leaves are starting to appear on some trees but the oaks are still bare. I sketched the trees above today; they are broken and battered but full of life, green with mosses and lichens, studded with bracket fungus  and with ferns growing in the crooks of the branches.

Today is election day.
.I'm not a fan of politics or politicians but for once there is more choice and the result is not a foregone conclusion.Perhaps if no party gets a clear majority they will have to co-operate with each other. Maybe they will even have to achieve a consensus. All will be revealed tomorrow!

Oak tree at Spean

Very rough sketch of an oak near Spean Bridge - not my best effort. I would really like to do a proper study of some of these magnificent trees - the more you look the more detail and different colours you see . There were many more greens than browns in the bark. Maybe the most important aspect of sketching is that it forces you to look and appreciate the world rather than  the end result which is inevitably a poor representation of reality.It's the process that's important , the picture is just an aide memoir of the atmosphere and feeling of the day. Below a quick sketch of the Ben from Torlundy with the summit wearing its normal cap of cloud.