When I was small and we lived for a few years in Brisbane, my father showed me how these flowers looked like little soldiers, and how you could remove their helmet and coat and tunic and leave them cold and bare in their long pale underwear.
Most of the rest of the world knows them only in troops, the bunched flowers of the Cockspur Coral tree – Erythrina crista-galli. I found that out this week.
I collected this one from the bitumen on my street. The wriggly pattern is probably bug damage, from its shape.
Drawn in my pocket Moleskine sketchbook with Faber Castel manga markers.
I let this one decay for a day on my desk. He turned from brilliant scarlet to being shot through with purples and greens.
Drawn in my pocket Moleskine sketchbook with my beloved Prismacolours (beloved at least among coloured pencils).
(So you see, I am conquering my resistance to using a Moleskine on other than special occasions).
Kathleen Jennings 
Lovely! More Moleskine sketches sez I!
And more there will be.
These are lovely. Floral artists often produce something far too precise but these have life and a real charm.
I know what you mean about the moleskines too. It took me four years of carrying one around on a daily basis before I got into the habit of just using it generally. They’re such perfect little books it almost seemed criminal to make general use of them.
Fortunately, I found a website telling how to make sketch books yourself and now make books for special projects.