Spring goings on.

Spring has arrived. The past few days has been all sunshine and birdsong. I hadn't meant to leave this blog post so long, (almost a month! oops) especially with it being a giveaway one, but things get in the way sometimes and time ticks on and there seems to be a never ending of 'things to do' this time of year.

So, ......drumroll.....I put the names in my old fallen birds nest, as it was a manageable amount to count this time.

 And the lucky name that was pulled out was...
                                  'Emma Elliott'

Congratulations Emma! Please private message me your address and I will get the print off to you. :)

Thank you so much,  to all of you that took the time to comment and for all of your kind words about this blog. They are much appreciated. Xxx

The garden is filled with wonderful distractions. Each year the primroses spread even more. Soon I will have a primrose lawn. What a wonderful thought. 

This little one below, has become very brave and perches within 12 inches from me to have daily treats upon the wood stump. Mr blackbird is not very happy about this and often chases her off. I'm calling her a 'her',  but in all honesty she could be a 'he' as with song thrushes both sexes like robins, are similar I believe?

Mr handsome here doesn't mind sharing at all, but Mrs Thrush often chases him off. Mr Blackbird always shares with Robin, so I think that he is chasing Mrs Thrush away because she doesn't share nicely with his buddy Robin? Watching them everyday you really do get to see their personalities coming through. It's a little like a little ornithology soap opera. ;-D 

The other day I did a bit of a Simon King/Chris Packham impersonation and hid behind a low hanging tree using it as my wildlife hide. It was interesting and I found out that there are more visitors to the tree stump than previously thought! 

I do love the ice blue eyes of jackdaws. Such magical looking birds. 

Talking of ice, I didn't get around to showing you the other icy art work that I completed a while ago. Again inspiration from Lapland. The title is 'Each breath a Star' and it is available in my shop as a print here.

I am currently working on new wooden items now. Below are some talisman lucky charms in progress. 

I think the Lapland inspiration will stay with me for a little while longer yet. ;)

I have lots of cutting out of wood to be done and gardening this weekend. What are you up to? 

Whatever it is, I hope the sun shines for you.  

Wishing you a magical Spring and Easter time.

From myself and my feathered friends.  X

January you disappeared so soon

So January has gone for another year...
We've said goodbye to early morning tiny frosted fingers on stems and branches. Not that we had many this year at all, with it being so mild.  The month whizzed by and for me (after my wonderful adventure) has been filled with restocking my shop with prints and cards. Re-ordering bits and pieces, doing my tax return, having a sort out, tidying up, with quite a few trips to the charity shop to drop unwanted items off and hibernating  somewhat.

The garden is green and snowdrops are blooming. Even the bluebell leaves are quite advanced and some primroses are in flower. This is good news for any bees that are awake of course. I did see a bee on a snowdrop the other day...

On Sunday I participated in the 'Big Garden Bird Watch' You've probably heard of it. Each year it is run by the RSPB over a weekend and people sit for an hour and record the bird sightings then add them to the database. It's a great help to the RSPB for finding out how our bird numbers are doing and of course is a pleasurable hour spent just sitting quietly watching these beautiful creatures.

My recordings were as follows:

x 2 Robin x 3 Blackbird x 2 Collared Dove x 2 Dunnock x 3 Blue tit x 2 Coal tit x2 Jackdaw x 2 Wood pigeon x 3 Great tit x 1 Long tailed tit x 2 Chaffinch x 1 Magpie x 1 Songthrush.

This picture below was taken on another day. It seems I have a new friend that has figured out that Robin was getting special treatment on the tree stump. I decided to give the mistletoe berries to Mr or Mrs Song thrush  in the hope that Mistletoe berry + Song thrush = bird poo + berry seed = Mistletoe  

Not sure it will work, but all the berries were eaten...

Robin still comes to my hand occasionally but prefers the tree stump most often these days.

Like last year, he has begun to stay further away as he has paired up ready for Spring. Here they are together. 

Mr Blackbird is never far away. 

The kitchen is scented with hyacinth and is a great reminder that Spring is on the way. I'm always so glad that I took the time to plant these back in Autumn, when they finally come into flower.

Some of the new postcards, now in my Etsy shop...

I also managed to finally finish this painting that I began before Christmas, after my visit to Wistmans wood. I have named it  'Journey through Wistmans'  

It will be available as a print, as soon as I get a good scan of it, the next time I go into town. 

I hope your January was a good one?

Karen
 x 

A veil as thin as smoke

Days are quiet here now. My son has returned to university and daughter is back at school. September has returned and in the garden the flowers are still blooming, holding on as long as they can while the sun is still warm. There seems to be a lot of purple around. Here below is Verbena bonariensis one of my favourite plants. It's so pretty, the bees and butterflies love it, and it's quite a tough cookie.  Standing tall and very rarely falling over even in the heaviest of rains and wind.

This year, sadly there has been a distinct absence of butterflies here. No where near as many as we normally have.  Here though below is a blue butterfly enjoying the Oregano that I spotted the other day.

It's been a good year for the apples and the blackberries which are are abundant in the hedgerow.    

When the days have been warm  and dry, I've been sat with the doors open and re positioned my chair by the door for maximum daylight.

I wasn't alone, there is always company just a few feet away

This is what's been on the easel.  An A3 sized painting on wood. Here are some progress stages.

And the finished piece. 'A veil as thin as smoke' the colours are slightly different here. In reality the original is probably somewhere in between. Prints are available here for anyone interested.

Now I'm busy painting toadstools and the odd bee.

Two birds, three hares.and a garden

"That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!"   

(From Robert Brownings  poem 'Home thoughts from abroad')

'There on the grey stone in the grass was an enormous thrush, nearly coal black, its pale yellow breast freckled (with) dark spots. Crack! It had caught a snail and was knocking it on the stone. Crack! Crack!
“Leave him alone!” said Thorin. “The thrushes are good and friendly-this is a very old bird indeed, and is maybe the last left of the ancient breed that used to live about here, tame to the hands of my father and grandfather. They were a long-lived and magical race, and this might even be one of those that were alive then, a couple of hundreds years or more ago."
(From the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien)

This song thrush is on my garden path,  going about it's business, keeping the garden snails in check, tap tapping and cracking them on the stone.  Busy, with a mouth filled with food for a fledgling, that chirped in the overgrown flower bed near the hedge. I followed the precious sound, discovered the baby, then quickly snapped a photograph. It turned out a little out of focus because I tried to hurry, I didn't want to delay it's snack that was eagerly waiting to be delivered. Hopefully this one will survive to adult hood and bless us with it's sweet song. 

  

The foxgloves are in full bloom now standing tall. They remind me of glowing lanterns with the evening light behind them.   

The bees are enjoying them, buzzing in and out of the bells so fast I managed to capture a bottom.

And a leg. :-) 

Latest work to show, are three pieces on wood, which will be heading over to the 'The Names of the Hare' exhibition at New Brewery Arts, Cirencester, Gloucestershire this July.

'Following the song for evermore'

'Magic in the spaces between'

 'The Geminids call'

If you are in the area, please do visit, I'm sure it will be a fantastic exhibition. :-)

Going back to The Hobbit, that was mentioned at the beginning, I will end with this wonderful song from the last film. I only just caught up with the final instalment in the film trilogy, just last week, so do forgive me for being 'late to the party' so to speak. I just love this song and had to share. I feel quite sad now that it's all done and that I won't be seeing the familiar characters anymore.

Enjoy your weekend. x