An afternoon in the garden

Today we ventured out to the botanical gardens , up in the Montjuic area. It was a rather hefty walk from our apartment to the gardens (looking back, we probably should have just gotten a cab) so by the time we arrived, Dan and I were quite happy to post up on a bench while I sketched and he took in the scenery. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and as we were one of the few people in the park -- it made for an extremely peaceful afternoon.

The park itself is pretty great. It is divided into geographic sections devoted to particular region of flora and was teeming with some really interesting specimens. I've been to a fair amount of botanical exhibits (it is kinda my job...) and I was impressed at how many plants they had that I had never seen before. Also birds. There were lots of the little animated green Quaker Parakeets putting on shows and squawking with their friends.

How great are these guys?? They look like colorful bottle brushes, or some type of alien q-tip.
When we arrived back home (after a siesta of course), I decided to clean up and ink over a few of the sketches in my moleskine. Much to my frustration I somehow managed to lose my trusty xs faber-castell pen while we were in Venice, so the lines are a bit thicker than I would have liked.

I may see if the local art store carries a similar pen, I really prefer my lines as thin as possible when doing work like this. And it will give me a chance to stock up on a bit more watercolor paper before heading back to the states. I'm pretty sure my bag is going to be painfully close on the weight limit for our flight... but how can I pass up afforable Arches paper???
That's right, I can't.
I can however throw out some shoes...