Cone Scribbles

Too chilly to draw outdoors today so it is a bit of a cone study. I find drawing cones difficult because they are so very 3-D and they pattern to the right and then the left and open up towards the top and slant off in all directions, whirling and twirling, twirling and whirling...
I received these particular cones in the mail. Isn't it nice to receive cones in the mail? I knew what they were before I opened the box because they smelled so resinous. My mother sent them to me as a surprise gift as she collected some when she was on holiday in the states. Did you know that you can order cones from suppliers in the states who do nothing but collect cones and ship them off to people who use them for crafts and such? Well, they do.  I don't craft with them, I just like looking at them.
So what I have here is a Ponderosa, a sequoia, and a pinyon.  The ink ran though so I will have to do a better study of them later.

Cones

So I also forgot to mention that my husband called me from work yesterday to tell me that he was standing there staring at a Snowy Owl. Yep. They migrate south through to Washington in the winter and on occasion you can spot them. Some years they are easy to suss out and other years there aren't so many. It's all depending on the lemming supply up north. When they fly south, their diet switches to water foul. Ken said that he could even see his feathery feet. He sat there for ages being dive-bombed by dozens of crows ( the owl, not Ken) but not moving in the slightest. He said, "PAH" to those crows. At any rate Ken phoned the Snowy Owl sighting into the Natural History Society who sponsor the Rare Bird Alert. That'a boy!

Coldish again, around -1 and very grey.
sunrise- 7.46 am
sunset- 4.16 pm