Another Journey Begins

My sleepy winter self is stirring now the days are getting lighter.  I hope you dear readers had a wonderful Christmas time and I wish you all a rather belated Happy New Year!
I will begin by sharing with you a painting that I did in the last quiet days of December.
                                                    'Another Journey begins'

It's a beginning and an ending. As 2017 drew to a close I thought about what the year had brought and wanted to do a little picture to honour my dear feathered friend who I lost that year. 

I've been quietly recharging on these January days. Wandering beneath the apple trees looking for the wind fallen oak moss and collecting kindling to lay the fire at night. Sitting beneath the golden tails of hazel catkins with a mug of hot spiced berry juice and delighting in the snowdrops return. This has been my 2018 so far.

 My sleepy hibernating self is reflected in this recent work.

'The Quiet Sleep Of Stars'

Although quiet I've been quite busy spending some time designing new cards. I re-designed the bee card that I previously used to sell as a hand made card edged with glitter. Now it comes all printed, including the glitter effect.    

The next card, was using the small image Moth Spell that I created last summer.

'Stay wild and enchanted'

And lastly my heart images have also been added to cards in the shop ready for Valentines day.

I finished a little donation piece for the 2018 Twitter art exhibition which this year takes place in Australia. This year all money raised will go to a riding for the disabled charity. in Canberra.

'Origin' 

With the beginnings of a brand new year, my little white hare decided it was time for him to dust off his magical wooden staff and prepare himself for an adventure. The mountains are calling and he longs to see the silver lakes again and to head for the wild wood once more.

"Then something Tookish woke up inside of him and he wished to go and see the great mountains and hear the pine trees and the waterfalls and explore the caves and wear a sword instead of a walking stick."~ JRR Tolkien

Well this hare doesn't need sword, as his walking stick is rather special ;-)
The picture evolved from playing with ink. Once dry I could see a landscape. Forests and distant mountains, silvery lakes in the soft swirls and watery marks. And so the map was born and the continued travels in a Tolkien inspired landscape.

Where he is heading? Well that my dear readers we shall have to wait to find to out?

 'No half heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly'~JRRTolkien

Karen 
x

The Spider Month Of September And A Shop Update

I like to think of September as spider month because of the sheer amount that seem to be visible at this time of year. Not only are they in the house, (it's okay I'm not scared of them ;-)) outside the windows  are covered in spiders too. They love to make their webs on the panes of glass. A dark trick for the poor unsuspecting fly that thinks he will just head on into the house, but then realises there is glass between itself and the room and a deadly trap made of spun silk.  Meanwhile the sweet blue tit knows that the spiders and flies are  up to things on the window, so it's the month when I hear a tap tapping and look up to see them peeping in at me during their autumn feast.

I was happy to have captured the above picture, even if it is a little blurry as they move so fast, too speedy for my camera.
September is the month when in the morning the hedgerows, fields and  gardens are decorated with dew dropped webs. And the early morning Autumn light just makes them look as if one had stepped into another realm. Such beauty.

The garden is still filled with flowers.

 And butterflies. Every time the sun comes out, our big patch of ivy is a nectar magnet for them.

It's been a busy month behind the scenes. New Autumn cards have been designed and added to the shop. You may remember these images from my wooden hangers last year? I thought they would make cute cards in the style of a nature journal type page again. I'm selling them in a pack of 3 in the shop.

I've also been busy organising a 2018 calendar which is now available. 

The hangers have all been finally finished. Below are most of them. There are 16 in all but some are similar, so I won't share every single one here.

                                                                             ~ *~
The shop update will be next Monday 2nd October at 7.30pm (uk time) First come first served.

There will also be some new sets of cards in the shop. I know Christmas is still ages away (thank goodness) but because a lot of my work sells abroad I have to get the cards and things in the shop early.  Sooo... if you are not keen on looking at Winter things yet, please avert your eyes. ;) 

With October just around the corner now, it's time to get back to the sketchbook and some new paintings. My little studio has been tidied and changed about in preparation. 

Happy Autumn
X

A Hare and a Fox and the Sweet Blossoms in May

Back again, is it really a whole month later!?  I'm sure each time I say I'm going to blog more I actually end up blogging less which is a little weird?

We've had beautiful dry weather here in Wiltshire since April and many of the flowers are ahead blooming this year. In between working, the days have been spent soaking up May's heady perfume, and imprinting the song of blackbird robin, thrush and lark like a precious seal on my heart and soul. I'm sure the sounds are healing. I'm just waiting for a scientist to prove it sooner or later? 

Beautiful May.  Hawthorn decorates the hedgerows with sweet  frothy creamy (and sometimes pink) boughs. Oh but they go too soon when that impish west wind plays games for fairy weddings and summer snow showers, scattering the petals beneath to create scented carpets for wood mice.

"Tis like the birthday of the world,
When earth was born in bloom;
The light is made of many dyes,

The air is all perfume:

There's crimson buds, and white and blue, 
The very rainbow showers
have turned to blossoms where they fell,
And sown the earth with flowers"
~ Thomas Hood

The greening is all dressed up with lacy gowns along hedgerow and field. Here in the garden, the cow parsley is spreading nicely too. 

When the days have had a chill in the wind, I take my tea break in the greenhouse. Enjoying the warmth with the plants whilst they're busy growing. There is lots to plant out still and plenty of digging to be done. The ground has been very hard because of the lack of rain but the last two days have provided a few showers and refilled the water butts. 

I have a good view of goings on from my studio window. I can clearly see why all the peanuts have been disappearing so fast! ;)  Mrs squirrel doesn't mind me, but makes a swift run for it back up the plum tree when the cats spot her. 

The birds in the garden have been busy raising their young. I see them daily stocking up on food at the bird table and then they are off again. This precious soul found time to stop and serenade me with a spring song.

Here's some other wildlife captured on camera recently. The friendly chaffinch below I encountered on a walk yesterday near Avebury. The moth and may bug I found in the greenhouse and the heron and swans are a regular sight on the river. 

A couple of weeks back on the 1st of May there was definitely some 'Spring magic' in the air.  During a walk I encountered  5 hares, 2 foxes, and 2 deer.  But the best bit of all was seeing a fox and hare together. The fox walked through the hedge to the side of us then proceeded to walk down across a field past the hare. They looked at each other and the hare just stayed put and the fox just walked by glancing at the hare as he did so. Just seeing each animal on their own is a wonderful encounter at any time, but seeing 'both' well it felt as if it was my birthday or that Spring had gifted me a special moment. Here is the moment below, which I managed to capture very quickly. My camera is not the best at pictures from a distance but you can make out the hare and fox. :-)

And here are more hares.

Work wise this past month, I've been busy designing and turning work I've already done, into cards. these sets are both available in the shop. 

'Love the land and treasure the wild' and 'Love the Earth and all her creatures'

'May your dreams be filled with magic' and 'Believe in your dreams' 

I've also just finished these little 'Spring inspired' hangers.  

These will be going into the shop this Wednesday evening (17th May) at 7pm  (UK time)

Until next time, I shall leave you with a song from Lisa Knapp's brand new album, which has been my playlist daily for the merrie month of May and is just perfect I think. (link in my side bar to the whole album)

 Have a great week. x