Hawthorn And Other Worlds

One of my favourite trees has to be the Hawthorn. From its frothy may day abundant scented blossoms, to Autumns jewelled clusters of red berries. I love its familiarity in the landscape and all the superstition and myth that surround it.
The hawthorn was a holy tree in pagan and christian legend alike and many conflicting traditions have gathered around it. The crown of thorns is said to have been made from it. It is believed to hold healing powers and to protect any house nearby from lightening. It has a strong association with faerie lore, so never sit under one on special days such as May day, Midsummers eve or Halloween! One of my favourite connections to hawthorn, since a child, is the holy thorn of Glastonbury.
It is believed St Joseph of Arimathea came to Glastonbury and thrust his staff into the ground on Wearyall hill. It took root and grew and every year from then on blossomed at midnight on Christmas eve. It is said that the tree was destroyed in the seventeenth century by a puritan soldier, but not before many cuttings had been taken and planted elsewhere. One such daughter tree is in the grounds of Glastonbury abbey. It continues to bloom to this day although flowering now is more usually upon old Christmas eve (5th January)
A few years ago, on an icy January morning. I was lucky enough to see it in flower and feel the magic and mystery that surrounds it.
The hawthorn in my garden may not be a relative of the Glastonbury thorn, but it does have plentiful supply of berries to feed the birds through winter.


I have taken a while to settle back into my routine after my little break away. Autumn always makes me want to line my nest, prepare the house for winter nights, forage and squirrel. I have filled the freezer with bags of blackberries, surplus runner beans and sweetcorn. It was while on a blackberry picking expedition that I came home with treasure!
I rescued it from the long grass, a lovely piece of twisted ivy wood. The branch it used to wind itself around, had competely rotted away. I don't know where I shall put it yet. Its just propped up by my front door for the photo.

Finally I sat at my desk, sitting still, being transported to other worlds through a story.


I have been listening to an audio book. The magical 'I , Coriander' by Sally Gardener and whilst doing so, through the hawthorn branches a little white bird appeared.........

Doors And Memories

I have always held a fascination with doors and doorways.
An entrance, a beginning, an ending, a close.
Locked doors with giant sized rusty keys, tiny doors with silver fairy keys, doors ajar, glimpses of light beneath. The secrets and expectations of whats behind them. Other worlds, a frosted moonlit garden, the milky way, a beaded veiled bedroom fit for a princess, a staircase, or maybe something more sinister. Doors feed my imagination.
I sometimes picture my own mind as an endless labyrinth of passages filled with doors of all shapes and sizes. The rooms or worlds behind them are filled with treasures of my memories.
Back home again and as the rain continues to endlessly fall, the island of Jersey has found a room of its own.
The floor is a carpet of fine white sand from Portelet bay, scattered with fairy sized shells from St Ouen's sand dunes.

There are Jersey cows, a speckled seagull that we seemed sure was following us from place to place.

Mont Orgueil Castle's wonderful wooden soldiers dwell here too, along with Kings and Queens.

A fairy bluebird, Lemurs and lots of other amazing sadly endangered creatures we were lucky to be able to get so close to at Durrell Wildlife. The 50p mugs of Bovril on sale at Rozel bay, along with my daughters squeals of delight as she won £75 at the camp site bingo.
And most definitely echoes and images of war time German occupied Jersey, at the War Tunnels.

With memories safely stored, its time to move on and look forward to the new one's that Autumn will bring? Crackling bonfires, baked potatoes, toasted marshmallows?
I love Autumn!

Odds And Ends

Time has ticked and tocked away so fast. The apples are nearly ripe, and School holidays almost at a close. Between endless raindrops, hammerings of hail and forks of lightening, we've splashed about getting up to this and that.
We found treasures.

Followed paths.

And discovered wonderful art created by Maggie Taylor!

Had to take a couple of trinkets home of course! ( see below)
I am not going to be around next week. Instead will be sailing off to the island of Jersey. Hopefully the sun will come out from its long hibernation and much sea, sand and ice cream will be enjoyed!
Hmmm?!Fingers crossed! x

Awards

A couple of weeks ago I was kindly given the Arte y Pico award! Thankyou so much Ciara at Milkmoon!

So, now I believe I pass it on to other lovely creative blogs...

The rules :

1. Choose 5 blogs that you believe deserve it for creativity, design, interesting material, contributing to the blogger community no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the the author and a link to his or her blog.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given the award to them.

4. Awarded blogs and the person who gives the award should show the link to Art y Pico blog, so everyone will know the Award origin.

5. To show the rules.

My 5 chosen blogs are: Acorn moon, monsterologist, Rima, darklingwoods , Jess,


Many Many Thanks also to Kathy hare for this other award. I apologise for not passing this one on, but I'm truly not the speediest of typers. I think I would be sat here another hour or more!! :)

Sail

My submission for Illustration Friday this week is a card I did for the design company Roger la Borde a few years back now. I felt the image was appropriate, and as its the school holidays, my time is scarce for creating new things.

On A Dragonfly Hunt

Across green fields we walked, down to the river in search of dragonflies.

An amazing one had been spotted the day before near the garden, but the camera wasn't close at hand.

Peace, quiet, a swan, ducks and minnows, but alas no dragonfly!

So we wandered back home and found that nothing had changed since we left!

The bumble bees were busy

So we got busy too!

Hobbits And Lions

Now the school holidays are in full swing, I have been enjoying spending time with my two little Hobbits of the Shire! Mind you the eldest now 13 is not going to be a Hobbit for much longer as he is almost as tall as me . Yesterday we had an enjoyable day out at Bowood House near Calne.
Hobbits love it here as there is a great adventure playground, high rope walks and death slide. We did all that, then took a walk around the house and garden and found these wonderful stone statues.



















Oh how I'd love these lions in my garden, especially the sleeping one. We had some fun making stories up about what these statues did at midnight, how they probably came to life and wandered down to the lake to drink in the moonlight??





























My smallest hobbit couldn't resist getting in this last photo.

Canned

For 'Illustration Friday' Canned.

It's based on a story that I have running around my head. These characters are busy making starlight soup.

In Memory Of Mum And Her Little Fly

This post is in response to Rima at the hermitage ( flies and time post) A couple of weeks back, she had a morning encounter with a fly that she kindly rescued from the dregs of her previous nights cocoa remains. Her tale reminded me of the time that my own dear Mum did the same, heroically saving a fly from the yorkshire pudding mixture, one Sunday many years ago.
She wrote this rhyming verse about it and I thought I'd share it.

Now here's the sad tale of a poor little fly,
Grab hold of your hankie....it might make you cry.
Now my story begins on a Sunday in May,
I remember it clearly.....t'was roast beef that day.
Now the meat was near cooked, I had all things in hand,
So I mixed up me yorkshire and put it to stand.
I whistled a tune as I peeled all the spuds...
And topped all the carrots, and scraped off the mud.
When all of a sudden.. I chanced to e- spy
On the bowl of me yorkshire, this tiny young fly.
He was so full of life... oh so happy and gay,
And doing no wrong in his own little way.
No more than a baby he skipped round the brim,
Did two double handstands...then tripped and fell in!
Oh you poor little thing, I sobbed and I cried
Being drowned in a yorkshire is no way to die!
I spoke softly to him... to allay any fears,
But I doubt if he heard me...with two battered ears
I struggled to save him , going fast to his doom
When he bravely grabbed hold of the end of me spoon.
Then with tissues and water, and various things,
I wiped his small face and unclogged his poor wings.
He looked wet and forlorn and he started to shiver,
So I carried him in, with the aid of a ladle,
To dry in the sun, on the dining room table.
I felt quite a hero having saved this poor mite
And guessed he 'd fly off...once over his fright.
Well you can't feel the hero for long with my bunch,
They'd soon be in shouting " I'm starving! when's lunch?"
So back to the kitchen, the pans and the pots,
With so much to do, it was all soon 'forgot'.
It wasn't till later when we sat down to eat,
I related the tale of my heroic feat.
" And did he fly off Mum?" asked my youngest, wide eyed
"Oh yes" I said proudly...my chest puffed with pride,
"I expect he's gone home to his Mum then" she said
"And tonight he'll be back in his own little bed"

What a nice little story......that poor little fly,
What a nice happy ending ...I hear you all cry.
Well thats what my kids thought, cos I never was able
To tell them how later...when I cleared the table,
That this hero...quite sadly, I have to relate,
Had squashed the poor fly, neath her own dinner plate.

By Margaret Davis
1937 -2006

Travelling Circus

I've had a sketch of this rollerskating rabbit in my drawer for years, and I've finally done something with him. I thought he looked at home with a travelling circus.
The Etsy shop is now up and running after much ummings and ahhings and procrastination. This week has flown by. Between painting I've been picking flowers to sell, tidying sheds, and dare I say it, dealing with an outbreak of dreaded head lice. :/ It seems to be an annual tradition here that just before they break up for the summer one of them is guaranteed to catch the little bleeders!
Its been a perfect summers day outside today. Blue sky, the drowsy hum of bees on lavender and twitterings of hedge sparrow. I have been cold though, every ten minutes I keep popping outside to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. The house is like a cave, a constant temperature. If this weather keeps up I will go armed with my paints to the garden. I normally find working outside hard when the sun is bright, but I'll see if I can find a comfy shady spot.

Meadowsweet And Marigolds

At last the sun came out! and everything seemed so bright! I had to take a picture of these marigolds. I don't normally go for orange, apart from the eating variety! This year though I planted these from seed and even in all the rain they cheer the garden up. They also go well with the old blue bedstead don't you think?
Yesterday we went for a walk along the canal, well I walked and G,T and J kayacked. The boat could only fit 3, but I didn't mind! :) I strolled along happily content to watch and breathe in the heavenly scent of meadowsweet that smothered the banks. Silly me forgot to take my camera though, so the pictures are of the garden.

Meadowsweet  'Queene of the meadows'
Tradition said that this was a sacred plant to the Druids. It was used as a strewing herb.
"Queene Elizabeth of famous memory did more desire it than any other herb to strew her chambers with all"
And this one's growing in my garden. I must rescue it from the grips of the bind weed!

Sour

This is for Illustration Friday. Its based on superstition belief that mischievious fairyfolk and witches could turn the milk sour.

Rain, Rain And More Rain!

This is what it looks like out today. It has been raining all day and is I believe forecast to do so for the rest of the week. What has happened to the joyful sunny butterfly filled days of summer?? I am sat at my desk and if it wasn't for the green leaves on the trees outside my window, it could easily be mistaken for Autumn. I'm wearing a winter jumper and have even lit a scented candle to give the place some warmth. Maybe I'll light a fire later ;)

Working on wooden things and something for Illustration Friday, which I 'll post later.

Fierce

This is my first participation for Illustration Friday. It's based on our cat Louie who sadly is no longer with us. He was quite famous in these parts for being the fierce ginger feline that lived up the hill. The dog walkers who knew him well kept their pets on tight lead when they saw him. Those who didn't were in for a nasty surprise when out of the hedge would leap a lion in domestic cat disguise! He gave many a small dog a bleeding nose and had a habit of clinging on to the backs of the bigger breeds! In the comfort of home, of course, the lion became a kitten!

Simplicity

This painting began with the plan of using it for the decorative banner for my Etsy shop (which I am still in the middle of setting up) I soon realised it probably wouldn't work, due to dimensions being wrong but I carried on with it anyhow as I liked its simplicity and shape. Not so good to photograph though.
Another lovely shop has shown interest in buying some of my animal hangers which is good news.
I'm still dodging bags of half sorted out items since the children's room swap! The shed is full of bags for the charity shop. I need a simple uncluttered house and mind.
Because I haven't got that at the moment, I scrubbed the pine table and picked myself these to put on it. Sweet peas, ahh bliss!

Back At The Desk

I am pleased to be back at my desk this week. Last week was slightly frustrating as my daughter managed to persuade my son that she needed the big bedroom more than he did! Being a girl, she got her own way (with the help of a few of her 'Dr Who' items thrown in for his collection) A major swap began which resulted in redecoration of bedrooms and all possessions carried via two staircases! I was more tired than when I walked the 'Stonehenge stomp' a 25 mile challenge walk back in January! I suppose it has been a positive thing, as it has been an excuse to also have a big sort out, which they both needed. Clambering over piles of clutter and boxes of toys I was determined to get something on this blog today. So here is another wooden hanger and the owl on canvas.
I was a bit disappointed with the way the colours photographed as they are much richer.
Looking at the owl now I can also see some little areas that need more work.



A peep at my garden. I love this indigo blue delphinium.

Jurassic Coast

We had a lovely day at Lyme Regis last Friday and found this amazing fossil shelf full of ammonites.


I felt about as old as a dinosaur myself after not sleeping well the previous night! The children got in the sea but I didn't brave it. I know ice cold water swimming is apparently supposed to have many health benefits, however I decided to stay wrapped up snug and warm on the beach. I'll go for the benefits another day!

These are some of the birds and hares I've been busy with. This basketful are destined for a local shop.