April Hare

As you may already know, we love to go out walking and so on a sunny April day we decided to explore the Glasson Dock area some more; this beautiful place is a haven for all sorts of wildlife and birds. This time we were lucky enough to see hares running across the fields and not having seen a hare in the wild before I thought I would capture this moment on my journal page.

I started by applying a thin wash of diluted Peacock Feathers Distress Ink with a paint brush; I did this by stamping the ink pad directly onto an acrylic block and then adding water. Next I stenciled some Twisted Citron Distress Ink through a leaf mask by Craft Sensations using a blending tool and stamped some dots using the same Twisted Citron ink and London Fog Memento Ink.  I stenciled blue circles by Dutch Doobadoo using the Peacock Feathers ink and blotted them with a baby wipe to remove and disperse some of the colour. I also added some fine splatters of the same Distress Inks and black acrylic paint using a paint brush. Then I applied the wording using rub-on transfers by Royal & Langnickel, which remind me of our walk. The large ink hare image is from a flyer by Emma Underwood and I painted the other two smaller hares myself using eight different colours of Distress Ink, a black Uni Pin marker and a white Uniball gel pen, which was a fun experiment.

This time we went on a circular walk through farmland and countryside and we were amazed to see hares running over the fields and meadows.

They didn’t stay still long enough for us to take photos and although we managed to get a couple of shots, they were out of focus. If you are interested, here are some fun facts about hares:

• Hares are much larger than rabbits, with longer, black-tipped ears and more powerful hind legs.
• Hares are herbivores, eating grass and other plants.
• Hares are very shy and when in danger to protect themselves lie as still as a statue, tucked in close to the ground with their ears pressed flat along their backs.
• Hares can run incredibly fast, up to 35 miles per hour, although this is usually saved to escape predators.
• In March and April, hares can often be seen leaping about, chasing each other and sometimes having “boxing matches”. This is where two hares (usually a male and a female) stand up on their hind legs, face to face and box with each other. They do this because the female is not yet ready to mate or as a test of the male’s determination. This spring behaviour is where the expression “Mad as a March Hare” comes from.

We also saw some sweet lambs basking in the sunshine on our walk – aren’t they adorable!

As well as these cheeky guys looking out across one of the farm courtyards.

We had definitely walked up an appetite after 5.5 miles, so we went to our favourite café Lantern O’er Lune at Glasson Dock, which I have featured before in a previous post. As T Stands for Tuesday I’m joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth and the rest of the T Gang with our pot of green tea and panini with chips (fries). The panini is Cumberland sausage, Cheddar cheese and red onion chutney which is a lovely combination.

Their panini are always served with a side of coleslaw and the yummiest salad which contains water melon and strawberries – delicious!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, Ground Espresso, Brushed Corduroy, Tea Dye, Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserve)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Dutch Doobadoo Dutch Mask A5 (Geometric Tiles)
• Woodware Francoise Collection stamp set (Flower Style Wood Set FRSWS003)
• Flyer – Emma Underwood
• Old book – The Fox & The Orchard
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Sentiments (Spring #ROY-506 Rub-on, Summer #ROY-505 Rub-on)
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape