Chickadee in My Yard

I was delighted when Cathy invited me to join Sketching in Nature a few days ago ... and looked forward to creating a new drawing the next time I was out in the field. But the rains have come. Day after day of rain. Today I sat in my rocker, next to the front window, and with the fire keeping me cozy and drew this little black-capped chickadee in my yard. A family of three were filling up on black oil seed and flitting about in my little hawthorn tree.

I literally bump into the hawthorn every day, but was suprised at what I hadn't noticed before. Each leaf has a tiny pair of mini leaves at the base of its stem. Also, the nasty spines don't seem to grown until that section of the branch is over a year old.