Good morning,

Happy November!!

Please find November’s free mobile phone wallpaper below.

Click to download, then choose to ‘set as’ or ‘use as’ your home/lock screen.

This month’s little nudge and prompt to put down your phone is.

‘Stop scrolling! Go look at the sky and sketch what you see’

November and the darker months are a great time to sketch the sky, pa…

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Good afternoon,

Coming from an, is it warm out? or do I need my coat? kind of Yorkshire. We’re still in this liminal period, which is much longer this year. Usually as we hit the Autumn Equinox the weather becomes cooler, but it is still very warm in the daytime. I’m enjoying the beautiful sunshine, but am really hankering after some nippy weather.

It’…

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A gentle nudge to encourage you to put your phones away and get outside this October.

What signs of Autumn will you go and see this October? It’s a great time of year to see some amazing spectacles of nature.

Salmon begin their incredible transformation and migration up our rivers to spawn. We are lucky to live not far from some rivers that still have S…

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I hope everyone had a good Summer. A big welcome to new subscribers, many thanks for supporting me here.

I had a very busy Summer, with a few difficulties but I still managed to make some entries in my nature journals.

I took quite a bit of time off, some of it enforced due to 2 injuries (I think I need a bubble wrap suit this year!), but …

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Good morning from a warm but Autumnal feeling Yorkshire.

I hope you all had a good Summer. I’ll be recapping Summer in my July/August ‘Diary of a Nature Journaler’ video which I’m hoping to get out by early next week.

We have had a very busy Summer, and I took a lot of time off to spend with my children. My eldest has now headed out to France for her ye…

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I’ll be closing up the doors to Raspberry Thief for a few weeks from around the 17th July to the 10th of August to spend some time with my family. Unusually for us, we haven’t had any proper time away together this year. I’m looking forward to some time switched off.

It’s a year of lots of changes within our family as my eldest goes off for her year a…

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I have been trying to tune in and notice my local birds more for a year or so. Not that I didn’t notice them before, but trying to feel more of a connection to them. Listening to them, it is difficult to put into words, but really listeni…

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I’ve updated the July mobile phone wallpaper I made last month. It’s a slightly different file size that should work with all types of smart phones.

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Click on the image to download, then choose to ‘use as’ or ‘set as’ and add it to your lock and or home screen.

I’d love to see photos of how it looks on your phones.

Many thanks for your support.

Angela

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We have had some good Hawthorn years over my 10 years of nature journaling, but this year it has been a collaboration of all the frothiest plants being at their best. From the Blackthorn flowe…

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It’s time to turn outward, mentally and physically. A time of renewed energy, and embracing the joy of life as we watch nature renew herself for another year. I’ve written a bit more about Beltane here if you’re interested.

April has been a beautiful month, and a wonderful build up to Be…

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We have have had mainly settled weather, and lots of sunshine. With shifts between some warm days, then returning…

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We arrived! It’s Spring, the sun is still there in the sky. How was your February? Mine flew by in a flurry of illness, and work. It’s actually been my busiest February since I began Raspberry Thief! Being self employed it is hard to say no, when work comes in, as some months there can be no income at all. I got …

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How is everyone? Did you manage to get through January OK? It has been a strange one here at Raspberrythief HQ. I have been ill for the whole month (and into February), so it has taken me a bit longer than usual to keep up with work (one of the downsides of self employment is no sick pay). I did try and get outside most days, but the weat…

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January, and Winter in general is a great time of year to try and learn how to identify trees from their twigs. So armed with a bunch of twigs from different trees, I challenged the group to see if they could identify them. They did a pretty good job, and we spent the session sketching them and creating our own field guides.

I’m hoping these will be helpful for them, identifying the trees where they live.

Whilst chatting it reminded me of a project that I did with my daughter in the Winter of 2021. I’ve shared the post I made about on my website below.

Branch Painting Friday

Every Friday at the same time in the Winter of 2021 (January through to March) my youngest daughter and I went outside and drew the same branch on our Bramley Apple Tree. Watching the changes not only of the branch, but also of the weather, the acitivity of the birds and the sounds of nature.

We called this nature journaling project #branchpaintingfriday.

This was a very grounding and interesting practice, that helped us create a pause in what had become very monotonous weeks. It was amazing what we noticed, even while the branch stayed the same for weeks, the sound of birds changed and the weather slowly changed around us. The seasons moving from Winter into Spring. All these interesting things are part of our trees environment and neighbourhood. We are also part of that, our tree feels like part of our family. Drawing the same subject over and over is a really valuable way to get better at drawing. I’ve found drawing and painting the same species every year, I get to know it and know how to portray it better each time.

Here are a few of my sketches.

You can find the rest of them in a Flipbook using the link below.

#Branchpaintingfriday Hey Zine Flipbook

You can also find them on the project page on my website.

In March of 2021 the RSPB asked if I would create a short video of our project for their #natureinlockdown feature. It was shared on their social media pages.

Sound captured on a snowy #branchpaintingfriday

Why not give it a go at trying to identify and draw your local trees?

There are lots of resources out there to help you identify your local trees.

The Tree Council - Has a good article on how to approach identifying trees in Winter. You can also follow them here on Substack

TreeGuideUK - a great guide. Giving options of using tree shape, winter bracnches, buds etc. to help you identify your tree.

The Woodland Trust - Have some great spotting sheets, and kid friendly tree identification resources. They also have an app.

Trees are a subject that I return to again and again, I’ve done several projects and workshops centred around them which you can find on my website. There are also several tutorials over on my Patreon membership about trees.

Happy sketching,

Angela

Images copyright Angela Hennessy ©2026

If you share or use any of the ideas here, please remember to reference me and link to my website.

Many thanks again for your patience whilst it took me a little longer to get December’s diary edited. I hope you are all well, and had a lovely festive season. January for me is a time for rest and a bit of a reset, not in a ‘resolution’ rush into the year kind of way. But a time to enjoy this pause before Spring arrives. No commitments…

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I can only imagine how our ancestors must have felt at this time of the year, as we slowly move back to the light half of the year. Yet still having the dark days of Winter to survive. ‘Survive’, a word that has changed its’ meaning for those of us in the Western World (mostly). Not survive from hunger, but survive the stress, commitments, cost to our pockets. This kind of thinking can help if you struggle at this time of year. Getting outside to take a pause in nature, can bring us literally back down to earth. To remember what is important.

I had plans yesterday to be on a hillside welcoming the sun! However the weather gods in Yorkshire decided to descend a mist on us. My expectations were for a short time ‘ruined’!!

We decided to take a walk locally at a nature reserve, and guess what? That was enough!. It was enough to be outside with my family. Walking, chatting, spotting birds, hopping puddles.

Coming home to good food, clean pyjamas, and a log fire.

I learnt a lesson. Even though I am aware, and try my best not to get sucked in by heightened expectations at this time of year. Being together is enough. Being thankful that I don’t have to survive hunger and cold this Winter.

I’m a member of the Resurgence Trust, and I received their most recent magazine this morning. This first page resonated with me so much.

I wish you all lightness during these dark days. Wishing you all a wonderful festive season.

December’s Diary of a Nature Journaler will be posted in early January as I take some time with my family.

As I come to the end of writing this post ready to share with you a friend has shared this wonderful radio episode from back in 1986 by BBC Radio 4. I thought you might enjoy it too.

Blessings

Angela

November can go either way as I have documented over the years, and can often be very soggy and miserable. It has been nice to have some balance between the two seasons this year. …

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Back in 2020 I began an ongoing project reviewing and illustrating some of the books that had a huge impact on me and changed the way I view the world. It’s something that I haven’t done for quite some time, and I’d like to return to the project. This type of project brings the book, author and it’s content closer. It has also helped me to keep more of the books content in my memory. Using our hands, drawing, or writing (not on a keyboard) has that magic ability.

I thought I would share some of these book reviews, and some of the ones I have already drawn/painted. I have mainly painted the book covers. But this book called to me more. I want to also share my vulnerability in being a beginner. I am not a portrait painter. It’s not one of my strengths or real interests, or something that I practise. But I am happy to have a go, and try. I loved trying to capture Wangari’s beautiful, warm, friendly face.

Raspberrthief Reads : Wangari Maathai - Unbowed

I’ve recently started a new project. Illustrating some of the books that have had an impact on me, and the connections and threads I end up following. Using the project as a way to improve my skills, particularly drawing people and faces.

I’ve been reading a lot of books about trees recently. Initially inspired by reading ‘Unbowed’ by Wangari Maathai. Wangari’s story stayed with me well after reading her book.

Wangari Maathai was 60 yrs old when she wrote her memoir ‘Unbowed’, a record of an extraordinary woman who worked tirelessly to help the lives of others. Born in ‘British’ Kenya in 1940, in the highlands and foothills of Mount Kenya. She grew up in a green and fertile land.

Wangari was given the opportunity to go to primary school after her brother asked her mother ‘Why doesn’t Wangari go to school?. Wangari said that the decision her mother made to send her to school ‘changed my life’.

She thrived in education and went on to take up a scholarship in the U.S. as a result of Kenya’s independence in 1960. She returned to Kenya in 1966, full of hope and opportunity. She wrote in her book however ‘What I did not know then was that tribalism and other forms of corruption were going to become some of the most divisive factors in our society’

She took a job working for the University College of Nairobi working in the Veterinary Medicine department after being denied a job in Zoology (due to sexism). It wasn’t easy being an educated woman in a mans world, and she came across lots of oppression and double standards. But she fought for equality, along with her female colleagues.

She carried on her education and completed her P.H.D. in 1971, the first woman in East and Central Africa to receive one.

Returning to Kenya after being in the U.S. Wangari had noticed a change in the landscape from her childhood. What was once a fertile, green land with running streams, had now become poor and depleted. ‘ I saw rivers silted with topsoil, much of which was coming from the forest where plantations of commercial trees had replaced indigenous forest. I noticed that much of the land that had been covered by trees, bushes and grasses when I was growing up had been replaced by tea and coffee’.

Wangari visited the village where she had grown up. She was reminded of collecting firewood as a child, her mother had told her to leave the ‘Fig Tree’, ‘Don’t pick any dry wood out of the fig tree, or even around it....Because that is God’s tree......We don’t use it. We don’t cut it. We don’t burn it’. Near the fig tree was a stream, with fresh clean water, the source bubbling up from the ground. Allowing plants that needed lots of water to be planted along it’s banks for food, and little pools full of tadpoles where Wanagri played.

On her return the fig tree had gone, removed by the new land owners, the land was bare, and the stream had dried up. It was then that she made the connection between the fig tree and the water. ‘ I mourned the loss of that tree. I profoundly appreciated the wisdom of my people, and how generations of women had passed on to their daughters the cultural tradition of leaving the fig trees in place......people in that region had been spared landslides, as the strong roots of the fig trees held the soil together in the steep mountains. They also had abundant, clean water’

By 1975 the ‘Green Belt Movement‘ began to take seed.

Wangari saw the connection between empowering women and planting trees to provide and protect the environment.

Taken from the Green Belt Movement Website, Wangari ‘......saw that behind the everyday hardships of the poor—environmental degradation, deforestation, and food insecurity—were deeper issues of disempowerment, disenfranchisement, and a loss of the traditional values that had previously enabled communities to protect their environment, work together for mutual benefit, and to do both selflessly and honestly’

Women grew nurseries of indigenous tree seedlings, for every seedling that was planted they received a small amount of money. This was pivotal in providing the women with an income and encouraging the progression of the movement. These women then went on to teach other women how to look after tree nurseries. The trees were then planted in ‘belts’, providing shade, windbreaks, habitat, to bind the soil to help stop erosion, and eventually a supply of firewood.

‘Participants began to understand that for years they had been placing their trust in leaders who had betrayed them and that they were sabotaging their lives by not working for the common good and failing to use their natural resources wisely.’

Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, and The Green Belt Movement is still ‘growing’ strong today, having planted billions of trees. It’s testament to empowering individuals with the ability to make a change. We’ve seen ‘rewilding’ in the UK grow recently as a way to fight Climate Change and the extinction of animals. It’s important we look back and recognise women like Wangari who have been instrumental in environmentalism since the 50’s and 60’s, this isn’t a new ‘cause’, their voices weren’t always heard or given power. Wangari saw a problem and created a working solution that has changed lives. She didn’t sit in her million pound office talking about it, she went to where the problem was and got her hands dirty.

‘Be A Hummingbird!’ don’t wait around for the powers that be to make a change.

‘ We all share one planet and are one humanity; there is no escaping this reality’ - Wangari Maathai.

‘I don’t want to protect the environment, I want to create a word where the environment doesn’t need protecting’ - Wangari Maathai

Wangari faced many more challenges in her life, she was an incredible lady. You can read her book ‘ Unbowed’ to read about her extraordinary resilience and life force.

©2025 by Angela Hennessy