About

Richard Bell is an illustrator and writer, based in West Yorkshire. Since 1998 his illustrated Wild West Yorkshire nature diary has featured the wildlife of gardens, woodland, heaths and waterside on his home patch in the Calder Valley and beyond. In January 2011 he made the move to WordPress format.

You can see his published sketchbooks, walks and local guides at Willow Island Editions. He’s currently working on a Sherlock Holmes book project which involves drawing at a number of locations – including the Reichenbach Falls (left) where Holmes fought with his arch-enemy Moriarty - associated with the detective and his creator Arthur Conan Doyle.

10 thoughts on “About”

  1. dave

    Seasonal greetings
    We will be home in Horbury on Christmas evening and staying at Hilary’s mums for a few days. Are we going out on Boxing day morning.
    Dave

  2. admin Post author

    Great to see you again and enjoyed exploring Calder Valley Wetlands (99% iced over) for the first time.

  3. dave

    I went for a walk down by the river Calder again yesterday afternoon. I saw the Smew near the sewage works and about a dozen Goosanders.

  4. Sharon Bryant

    Richard, I was wondering if you would share your experience of moving from your earlier format for Wild West Yorkshire to this new blog/web format. The new blog is beautifully readable and I was wondering if this is the reason you switched. I started an illustrated blog with WordPress.com a year or so back and am thinking of switching over to WordPress.org. Are you using web hosting as the site suggests?

    1. Richard Post author

      I’m enjoying using it so far Sharon, although I’ve got a lot to learn but the main advantage for me it that it’s much quicker to add a post compared with setting up a page with all the appropriate links in Dreamweaver. When I was looking into WordPress I set up a test blog on wordpress.org but I soon discovered that I was limited in how much I could tinker around with the design – I couldn’t mess around with the stylesheet. Best of luck with your new illustrated blog.

  5. Ann Hyde

    As a follower of your blog for about a year now, I really wanted to pass on my heartfelt condolences to you both at this sad time.

    1. Richard Post author

      Thank you Ann, as I said in my post, it’s been good to have so much to do during the last week and it’s helped that everything has gone so smoothly and people have been so kind and helpful. All I have to do now is find the right words to say at the funeral service . . .

  6. Sharon in Vermont

    My condolences to you and your family for your loss. When my father-in-law died, I was asked to write his obituary and composing it was both challenging and illuminating, balancing the humor, as you put it so well, with the sadness. In the end, it turned out to be a unexpected gift to my inlaws, the humor especially, as they were able to see something new through those few brief paragraphs of the man who had been so central in all our lives. I wish you comfort in the discovery of your own “right words.”

    1. Richard Post author

      Hi Nick,

      Thank you for the suggestion; I hadn’t come across the ‘subscribe’ widget, but it’s taken only a few minutes to find it and add it to the side bar.

Comments are closed.