Phenology is the study of seasonal changes in plants and animals from year to year, such as flowering of plants, emergence of insects and migration of birds, especially their timing and relationship with weather and climate.

I’m using that definition loosely, exploring nature around where I live, taking a daily photo of anything I find, and painting a daily record of that on a Phenology Wheel. I also make note of the average temperature every day, daylight hours, and phases of the moon.
You can click on the pictures to embiggen them.

Inspired by Marion at https://youtu.be/5lnOMWTNDoY?si=gKzPNH6wn4H2yniU

I started on January 1st, of course 🙂 And for this month took note of the weather, usually at the same time, 1-2pm, and painted the view from my bedroom window. A small start really and my first ‘original’ paintings, instead of copying from pinterest or following tutorials.

In February I started going out every day to find things to photograph. This month I had to ‘cheat’ (not that I can cheat when I’m the one making the rules, of which there are none 😁) as I went away for 4 days to visit family down south, so I got ahead and painted 3 future days so I’d be back to the right day on my return. I found a lot of buds and learned plant, tree and flower names.

More flowers to find in March. I had a trip out to Birkheads Secret Gardens with Sophie, and also went round the previous month’s buds to see their next iteration and paint them again.

Flowers again but also creature features! Flowers from Birkheads Secret Gardens and from around where I live, plus my garden for birds and bugs.

In May I decided to go with leaves, had shot most of the flowers around where I walk. Also visited Howick Hall in Northumberland and got a few from there. At the end of the month I went down south to visit Ben again so had to do 5 days in advance to keep on track.