Mappy Sketch

I am working on the Mersea Island/Coast Road map.

My illustrations often show the world through rosy specs but I must confess to not actually needing my rosy specs on when it came to sketching out this little map.  I'm beginning to think I live in Toy Town!

The list I hankered after in my last post is not forthcoming so I've gone ahead and made it up anyway.  (Click on the picture to see it better.)

Calling everyone who knows the area,  any ideas about anything else to add (or remove)?

All comments gratefully received  (click where it says COMMENTS below or hop over to my facebook illustration page -by clicking here- which is a very chatty place indeed).

Mersea Island

There is a whole world out there but West Mersea Town Council and Natural England have got me well and truly shackled to my home turf and woe betide me if I cross the Strood* to the other side.
(You mustn't worry- it's quite a nice place to be shackled.)

So this is it; the final artwork for the info board (Natural England logo still to come).

Only this isn't it, because now I have two more to do!

The next board is to be a map of the Coast Road area.   The plan is for the board to be put up opposite St. Peter's Road, looking out to sea, to enable all our lovely visitors to know what they're looking at and what's around the corner.

I have been given an initial working brief,  translated (by me) into this very rough scribble- it's going to be a bit tricky to squeeze it all in.

This is what the area really looks like (the other way up)- via google earth.


View Larger Map

Deciding what to include is a knotty conundrum.  I was given a definitive list of a select few species for the St Peter's Well Meadow board.  This time it's not so clearcut.

Some buildings are deemed to be landmarks, for instance the Victory pub,  but if I include the Victory,  what about the other pubs and cafes? - won't they feel terribly left out?  How do I fairly decide which businesses to include and which not?  Oh help!  I shan't be able to fit everyone in.

I think the carpark, the public loos, and where to get an ice-cream are the main things visiting folk want to know.

I'd prefer to show traditional boats, our fishing fleet (Mersea is a working port), the lifeboat station, the names of the creeks, islands and mudflats (Middle Ooze is a good one!), directions hither and thither (to the village/to the strood) and maybe a shop or two.

If I include the Yacht Club, should I include the Dabchicks?   How about our new red squirrels?  Stacey's boat trips?  the barge Dawn? the Company Shed? the Chandlery? the sailmakers? Fresh Catch? the Art Cafe? our boatyards (Peter Clarke's and the other one)? the Coast Inn? the Blackwater Pearl? the Oyster Bar, shipwrights, accordion players, carpenters, crab-fishers, Uncle Tom Cobley and all?

I'm hoping a magic fairy will devise an agreeable little list for me! -and they will, because what I keep forgetting is it is not my map, it is West Mersea Town Council's map, and so all the decisions (thank goodness) rest with them, not me.  Everyone is mulling it over very hard.

What do you think I need to include?  Speak now (before the next council meeting) or forever hold your peace.



*little footnote for all the non-mersea-ites:
Right at the top of this post I mentioned the Strood. The Strood is the name of the causeway which joins Mersea Island to the mainland. You can usually drive across it, but it's covered for an hour or so at high tides cutting us off from the rest of England and turning us into a real island.

* another little footnote:
This has to be a record breaking post for the number of links I have added (trying to be all-inclusive, but really, have I nothing better to do on a Tuesday morning?)! Feeling super high-techy and clever but if I have missed you out I am sorry (thinking of YOU, Spartan Wetsuits, and a myriad of others).

Little Pictures

I've finally finished all the artwork for the first Discover Mersea information board.  Lots of little pictures make up the big picture. Here are a few of them...

Mapping Habitats

Here's the Discover Mersea map I've been working on in all its greeny glory.

The Wobbles.

Things are always happening.  Work things, home things, life things, all sorts of things happen and I often enthusiastically think,
"Ooh, I'll post this up on my blog so all you lovely readers can see too."

Feeling shiny and bold I naively believe the world wants to know,  but then somewhere along the way I get the wobbles.

I have a doubter who lives on my shoulder.  I have mentioned him before.  He does not believe in my blog or in my artful path of seaside righteousness.  He whispers misgivings in my ear.  He will not shut up. He fills my head with The Wobbles (yes, I've given them capitals this time).

Wobbly behaviour gets me nowhere.
"Have the courage of your convictions Leafy," I tell myself.
 "Keep going, post away!" and then,
"What an idiotic waste of time. For what reason are you boring the world with your drivel?"
"You are a fool Leafy, vain and conceited."

Then I hear my grandmother's voice,
"She hides her light under a bushel," she said.

This was said (by my grandmother) in praise of my mother (not me) about a worthy piece of writing (her firsthand account of the war in Beirut and life in Damascus) not some silly piece of colouring in.  

I am still wondering whether one should or shouldn't hide under a bushel.  Vanity is surely a sin, and -quelle horreur-  I am sure my grandmother would never dream of being so brass-necked as to show off her light on the internet for all to see.

I can only conclude that I am a charlatan.

It's always a thrill to see your name in the paper, for however minor a reason.  There it was, LEAFY DUMAS, in Tuesday's Gazette, bold as brass.  (I took a photograph of the aftermath of last Sunday's lifeboat shout, and it was published and duly credited to me.)  The lovely folk at Visit Mersea Island posted the Gazette article here. I proudly shared it on my facebook page but 40 minutes later (my doubter having done his work) I took it down, ashamed of my blatant showing off.

I have been glueing together my daughter's optimist.  The Dabchick's spring sailing programme starts soon and we must be ready (although I am not sure we will be).  Our opi is a very beautiful, very old wooden dinghy that we love dearly, but after going to sea with a galumphing grown-up sized skipper (whoops... it might have been me) the bottom started to come away from the sides.  I am quite pleased with my epoxy efforts and I thought I might photograph the mend and share my progress here, but I didn't and I haven't (it's that bothersome doubter again).

Between boat mending and learning the battles of the English Civil War (even salty seagirls have school history tests) I have been working on the map part of the Discover Mersea info boards.  I love maps. A few more tweaks and (doubter be damned) I will brazenly show you all.

Now for a bit more brass-neckery...

I sold one of these yesterday.

Like most of my work it is not actually in my shop (yet).  Yes, I know it should be but it's not,  so for the time being if you would like one too, please contact me via a comment, an email or through fb.

A bientot!

Out on a Shout

Today was extraordinary and I hardly dare mention it for fear of jinxing the sunshine, but for the first time this year it felt warm(ish) and almost summery.  I started off with two jerseys and a woolly hat, and ended up in shirtsleeves- fancy that!

We also had the first lifeboat shout for a couple of months -my first shout of this year.

(A casualty thrown from his RIB and a swamped motorboat -his rescuer- stuck on a lee shore.)

The eagle-eyed amongst you might notice that this picture shows the old style lifejacket.  We've recently been issued with new lifejackets (that are slightly less cumbersome but more difficult to re-pack) and we no longer have maroons. I think I might have to re-do these illustrations.

I have been rumbled...

I must confess to not really knowing my godwits from my guillemots.

Someone much cleverer than me pointed out my failings (in the kindest possible way) and thank goodness they did because it absolutely would not do to have an information board showing information that was not quite right.

I would like to apologise to Mr Dunlin and Mr Godwit for not painting them as properly as I should.

Feeling a little bit humbled and armed with the Hamlyn Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe (which incidentally is much clearer than google images, my own bird book, a friends' borrowed bird book and the real thing) I set about rectifying my wrongdoings.

I am proud to present a new and improved dunlin (nicer beak, more accurate markings) and a new and improved godwit dressed in his proper summer plumage.

If you want to play spot the difference(s) my original-little-bit-wrong-birdies are in my last post, Waders and Worms.

Wishing you all a very happy Easter.