The Secret Blackbird

The Secret Blackbird is hot off the press! More adventures in accidental ornithology, as Geraldine looks into the whys and wherefores of garden birds disappearing in the summer.

"Suddenly, every summer, there's an uncanny silence throughout the land, and I'm asked, where are the birds? Has my robin deserted me? Is it the global warming? Is the country going to the dogs? Have the blackbirds left the sinking ship?

This book explains what's going on; why our birds disappear in the summer, what they are up to, why they aren't singing, and when they will come back"

Available from Etsy (click on the link to go to my shop!) 

playing around with pictures

I'd been looking at the cover design for The Bald Blackbird, and not been happy with it but couldn't quite work out what to do. It just looked wrong, and lacking in something.



So I did this picture of hawthorn blossom
And then I removed the background from it, and copied and rotated and resized it a bit...


...and cleared some space behind the foreground things....



...and then stacked all the images up in layers, and ended up with the final version that I put at the top here. Fairly happy now. Paintshop Pro is really very useful.

On the other hand, it would be nice to create pictures that were finished entirely on paper, too. I was looking at some of David Inshaw's pictures the other day and thinking how nice they are. Bet he doesn't use PSP!

autumn drawing near

I've been trying to be more organised with the way I use my time. Well, it's never too late to try... I've finally finished the illustrations for The Coffee Thrush, which is waiting to be rushed to press just as soon as it's all formatted up. Here's a few of the newest pics. There's a slight hodgepodge of styles going on. Not sure if that's a good thing.

young blackbird

willow warbler songlistening to a song thrush