Before I set off to Epsom common I always look out of my kitchen window,  this morning our local crows were perching on the scaffolding, occasionally diving off and letting the updraft lift them back up. As I made this picture a pigeon came past and in the very top corner of the frame a seagull was turning West and screeching at the morning.

I prefer to make pictures from a distance of animals, I expect they are fed up of having long lenses pointed at them all the time.

The caterpillar of the Cinnabar Moth eating away at yellow Ragwort, Epsom Common

The caterpillar of the Cinnabar Moth eating away at yellow Ragwort, they brazenly flout their waring yellow and black markings, which I think potential predators read as 'I am poisonous, don't eat me'

They become a black moth with red wing markings, If I was a moth I would love to be dart shaped, and decked out in black and red. As the goths of the moth world they dress in black and fly in the day despite the sun.

Drawing by Sarah Anderson 2013 made as we walked through Epsom common high and low meadow

 Sarah Anderson 2013

We walked through Epsom common's high and low meadow on to Woodcock corner, along the edge of Newton Wood to Ashtead common and within the Triangular earthwork, where I always think time stands still, or at least doesn't sprint past, we drew. Sarah Anderson made this drawing of one of the ancient oaks. There was a fire in this area in the 80s and all the trees are charred.

There is a timelessness to Sarah's drawing, made with pencil and some water, quite beautiful.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME

The more I visit Epsom & Ashtead commons the more I realise that it is time that is of importance to me and hence to this residency. The privilege of simply walking a familiar route, and is nearly always the same route that I walk, taking my own sweet time and seeing the changes in the plants, the animals and the trees, it is enough for me. I feel a pressure to make something, a photograph or a drawing, but it is enough surely just to be in a space.

To prove that I do make something here is a photo of a Meadow brown butterfly on a thistle.

DEAD TREE

katrina Naomi, Oil Pastels on paper

Katrina Naomi, a poet, responded to one of the dead trees within the triangular pre-historic earthwork on Ashtead Common with this startling piece, which is an oppositional affirmation of life, with it's vibrant colours and inherent energy.

DRAWING

Christine Nicholls, Epsom Tree, pencil on paper

Sunday was a great day for conversation, walking and drawing, and it seems that we had some very skilled artists along, Chrissie made this elegant piece of work in less than 15 minutes, quite something.

SECOND ARTWALK

Yesterday we had almost the perfect weather for the second Artwalk of 2013, the showers typically only came when we sat down to eat or draw, the rest of the time sun and some light winds accompanied our progress. The sun has bleached the coulour out of the grasses revealing spiders webs full of seeds and grass hoppers clinging to stems.

Some very impressive drawings were made before the rain, and I hope the artists involved may upload their work over the next few weeks. For me the conversations we had were the highlight of the day.

Walking, conversation and art, a perfect day.