I stopped in surprise on seeing a blackbird with white feathers on the neck the other day. On my way home from the shop  today I met a couple of birdwatchers. We stopped for a chat and one of them said that the bird I described was probably a ring ouzel.

       'Skilled in dragon management and virgin reclamation' ( U.A. Fanthorpe ). I have been reading about Saint George because he is, iconographically, to art  what the golly was to Robertson's Marmalade. Finished Alpers's The Art of Describing, Dutch art in the seventeen century. I'd like to read a book  that is less about what artists might have meant and more about what they did. The facts, m'aam, are more interesting than theory. By that I mean, I want to know about the commission, the materials, tools used and the way in which they went about composing and painting or sculpting. Did they hack or splat away freehand or do preliminary drawing?

        I have ordered a copy of Anne D'Alleva's 'Methods and Theories of Art History, Laurence King.