The Keeper Of Time

Wandering down to where the willow herb grows, in the early evening, would I catch a glimpse of my moth?
This is the direction it flew on that morning not so long ago. I've also read that they can be found wherever the plant flourishes.

I found a stripy tired snail.


There are more chrysalis in the green house. Small and black and protected by white woven web.I've no idea what type of moth they will be. They have a long sleep over winter until they transform.



I finished the little owl painting and have named it .........The Keeper Of Time




Some special moments captured this week .....


Now I'm off to the greenhouse to give it a much needed tidy up.
An excuse to get in the warm as its chilly inside today.
xxx

Like a squirrel in Autumn

Swept along on a tide of busyness its easy to bury who we really are. Our hopes and dreams treasures are hidden away and sometimes forgotton in the box of 'times past' or 'for another day'. Through others eyes we are perceived and presumed to be...

Its a different view though when you are on the inside of the mirror and looking out...


I've been busy with jobs that sometimes get in the way but have to be done. The varnishing of floors can be tedious and painting of window frames a little mind numbing but I have fitted in some drawings for new hangers and paintings and have been storing ideas like ripe hazelnuts, as a squirrel does in Autumn.

Through a lens and a looking glass

I've been trying to use my camera more often and get into the habit of keeping it with me. There have been times when I so wished I'd had it with me and a special moment has slipped through my fingers.
So,through the lens this week.....








I think I've captured a little magic .....?

Unicorns of the sea

For no particular reason I decided to sketch a narwhal....

And then I painted a small canvas depicting these mysterious magical creatures...

You can read a little or a lot about these unicorns of the sea 'here'
I'm planning a Wooden Narwhal hanger now. Not sure how I will do such a fine delicate horn yet though?

A little while ago I kindly received an award from Joanne. If you have a moment, go and take a peep at her blog, she creates the most delightful fairyworld illustrations.
I was also tagged by Andrea. to play this question and answer game......


What is your current obsession?
I'm not really an obsessive type of person, but at the moment I'm really fascinated by moths.

What is your weirdest obsession
Hmm.. I wouldn't call it weird :) but I have to have my coffee un stirred. I hate drinking it if its been stirred. Actually that does sound a bit weird now!
What are you wearing today?
Old comfy Jeans and Next khaki embroidered T shirt
What’s for dinner ?
Tikka masala
What would you eat for your last meal ?
That would depend on what I fancied at the time. I don't think I have a favourite food? There would probably be strawberries and raspberries for dessert though.
What’s the last thing you bought ?
Strawberry hubba bubba bubble gum for my daughter about an hour ago.
What are you listening to right now ?
Joanna Newsom 'The sprout and the bean'
What is your favorite ice-cream flavour ?
I used to be icecream crazy as a child, and could eat bowlful after bowlful. I think I must have overdosed on it, as I no longer like it! I am partial to a magnum continental though very occasionally.
What do you think of the person who tagged you ?
Andrea is a very talented lady in tune with whats important in life and the beauty of nature around her.
If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be ?
Probably somewhere in Scandanavia. A wooden log cabin
If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go ?

Whale watching
Which language do you want to learn ?
Elvish ;) or latin
What’s your favorite quote (for now) ?
'We hope that their will still be fireflies and glowworms at night to guide you and butterflies in the hedges and forests to greet you' ...... Gerald Durrell
What is your favorite colour ?
Turquoise blue
What is one of your favorite daily/weekly rituals ?

Visiting charity shops or car boot sales.

If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on ?
A bag from Fairysteps
Favourite designer ?
I'm not at all a designer type dresser. If I see something which catches my eye and I like it I will get it regardless of who it is made by. (If I have the pennies of course)


Do you admire any one’s style ?
I admire people that are individual and wear what they want and feel comfortable with. And people that don't follow fashion obsessively.
Describe your personal style ?
Casual and comfortable.

What are you going to do after this ?
Go and cook tea.
What are your favourite films ?
Into the West, with Gabriel Byrne. Amelie, Chocolat, Its a wonderful Life, Harry Potter series and Lord of the Rings. There are so many I could go on and on......
What’s your favourite fruit ?
Strawberries and raspberries.
What inspires you ?
The magic of Nature all around us. Hares, the moon, stars , music and stories.

What is on the walls in your bedroom ?
Not alot at the moment as we are in the process of finishing decorating it. Should have been done ages ago, but there are much more interesting things to do! ;)
We have a few photos.

Your favorite book ?
Probably Lord of the rings?
Do you collect something ?
Shells, unusual pieces of twisted wood, hares, things I feel have a magical quality about them.
What is one of your pet peeves ?

I hate Litter, and get really annoyed by people that think they can just leave it lying around.
If you could be an animal , what would you be?
A bird.

...........................................
Phew, that took a while! being probably one of the worlds slowest typers. If you’d like to play along (no pressure) I tag :
Jessie
Ren
Lizzie
Danielle
JuliaGretel
Kathleen

The rules :
1. Respond and rework ; answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention or add one more question of your own.
2. Tag eight other people.

(Sorry for all the changes in size on the font! My computer or blogger seems to be acting up)

Transported to another place and time

This week has flown by in a surreal whirl. The hobbits and I have been 'extras' in a BBC drama Christmas special and were transported back to the 1860's to a rather popular Cheshire town......

We were the poorer townsfolk, so didn't get to buy any of the latest fabrics in this shop...

Luckily we behaved, so didn't get locked up in here for the night.....
Above is my youngest relaxing on set, and below is my boy doing his bit alongside one of the stars ;)


Whilst I've been busy doing such extravagant things, the chicks have been growing bigger everyday. We have had more hatch and now infact have six.

And the poppies have bloomed without me having a moment to notice them....

Now its back down to earth. There is a mountain of blog reading to climb and lots of paintings and hangers to plan , and wheelbarrows full of weeds to tackle.
Oh yes.... and sleep to catch up on.

Playing with blue ink

I've been in the garden alot recently, (blame the good weather! ;-) so not much art work to show. I found this set of beautiful ink pens in a charity shop with a bottle of the most bluest of blue ink. Just right for a play in my sketchbook. The silver attachments keep reminding me of the hand that Voldermort gave to Wormtail in The Goblet of Fire....


The Lion I doodled has nothing to do with Harry Potter though....


All the names for the blog giveaway were put into a pot and the winner drawn out for the goody bag prize is.......... Andrea
And the lucky person who gets to dissect the two owl pellets is................Annette

Congratulations to you both! I will get items sent off to you both as soon as I can, sometime this week.

A dream I had...

Last night I dreamed I was in the garden and there were huge pod type cocoons. They were slightly transparent and I could see movement inside, of giant beautiful moths with decorative wings. When I woke up the dream was still clear in my mind and I went to take a look at the small cocoon in the jar that I found in the garden weeks ago. You may remember I posted about it and said that it had probably died, because it wasn't moving anymore. Even though I thought this I still decided to keep it and leave it in the jar, just in case. Well, it seems Mother nature had fooled me. This is what I found this morning....


The most beautiful Elephant Hawk moth had emerged!


It was truly a magical moment! And I am still amazed! Not only by the beauty of this moth, but the fact that the dream was so significant...!?!
Once released from the jar luckily it stayed still long enough to capture it on photo. Then I carried it outside and let it fly away.

Amazing! I can't stop smiling!

Three little things

Its time for a little celebration!...............
First to welcome Summer. She has been just waiting behind the door and the door is almost fully open now. Look, I can see her embroidered flowery gown and smell her scent of honeysuckle and roses..

Summers flowers are everywhere you turn at the moment. We have lots of beautiful borage that bees love...



Blue Aquilega's or as I call them.... Granny bonnets!.......


This rich red scabious in tight bud will soon be visited by a variety of insects, I hope.



The second thing to celebrate is the hatching of our hens eggs. Three so far, but there are more to come! The biggest was born 9 days ago now and the smallest 2 days ago. The other one in between. They are such sweeties and already have their own personalities!

The third thing I want to celebrate is the recent reaching of a 100 followers! Its wonderful to know that people are interested and following. Well, I see that now its reached 105 so that definitely calls for a giveaway to show my appreciation ;)


So, leave me a comment, just a hello if you like and I'll put your name in the hat for a goody bag prize. I'm not sure what it will be yet, some things with my art work on though. Also, I have two owl pellets left. If anyone is interested in dissecting these (UK only for owl pellets) let me know and I'll put your name in a hat for these too. I'll draw the name/names next Friday.
Have a lovely sunny weekend! x

Illustration Friday Cracked

I know this is probably cheating using this image, as I did it a while ago now!? But, it is half term after all this week and time has been spent with the children and the rather neglected garden instead of art work. ;)
The word 'Cracked' and this picture is very appropriate in our house this week. One of our hens has been sat so patiently on eggs these last twenty something days. We new the time was getting near that they would hatch and the children kept peeping in often. Well a week ago today the first baby chick emerged! Number 2 came on Monday and this morning saw the arrival of number 3 that came out so so tired after being stuck in the shell with just its beak poking out since yesterday evening!
I'll post some pictures soon!

Illustration Friday Contagious

I did this today...
Smiles are contagious.
I was thinking along the lines of the cheshire cat here. :-)

Rainy day things

Its been a day filled with rain.


Plans to be busy in the garden had to be postponed.

Most of the day has been spent inside.


Printing new pictures and packing orders, ready for the post first thing in the morning. The day has gone quickly and now its early evening and a brisk breeze has got up to blow the grey skies away.

Remember this.....
Come and take a look through the tiny window...


Sssssshhh.......Someone has taken up residence in one of our faerie houses.

Well, how could I resist not buying her when I saw that she was thrown into the bottom of a box with a broken arm at the local car boot sale.

What will be left for our children?

Please re -post this on your own blogs!

Illustration Friday Parade

I've had a rough drawing of this picture living within the pages of one of my old sketchbooks for several years. As soon as I saw that Illustration Friday's theme was 'Parade' this week, I thought of it.
I don't know who these characters are, but the time was right to bring them to life.
The trees are inspired by paper cut outs.

Awards and moths

I was recently given this award by two people with lovely blogs of their own.... Leanne over at Somerset seasons and Kathleen at Life Earth Sky . Thank you both! :-)
The Byrum spiritual Art blog award, only recently created, which you can read about here has to be passed on to two people who have inspired me with their art and whose work reveals a special magic and spirituality to the viewer.
I pass it on to Jackie Morris for all her magical paintings and words that she creates and to a recent discovery, Andrea Gutierrez's lovely whimsical work at my little big head

I know that not everyone, including myself sometimes when tagged, acknowledges it on their blog. This tagging business can be fun, but also a very time consuming thing, especially when you are a plodder on the keyboard like myself ;) However, I do appeciate being chosen and will always thank people with a comment on their blog, if I don't join in. I apologise now if I have completely forgotten to do that with someone! ;)

Now, on to other things .....

A few weeks back I mentioned that I had found a treasure that would have to wait to be shown on a future post. It was the very same day that I had found a skeleton leaf. I had been enjoying the early spring sunshine and removing some of the moss that spreads all over the white violets.
I uncovered this ....


Not wanting to put it back, for fear of it being eaten by a bird, now I had disturbed it. I decided it would be a good idea to bring it inside, put it in a jar and wait and watch what was to emerge?
I browsed the internet finding information on moth chrysalis's and the conditions they needed and have been since watching and waiting.


I believe it is a type of hawk moth chrysalis? All was going well and it was moving if you gently touched it, which I read was a sign of it about to hatch? However, this week its sadly stopped moving and I now believe has died.
A sad tale to have to tell you and maybe a lesson learned by me, not to intefere with mother nature.
Strange how things happen, and what a coincidence. Look what I found, newly born in the basket where my pink carnations are growing....


A gorgeous fluffy puss moth fresh out of its cocoon!! Look closely at the picture, you can see the hole its crawled out of, attached to the side of the basket.

' When one door closes another one opens '

Mrs Bird

As a child I always found it easy to find birds nests.
Is this because as a child I was more observant, took longer to stop and look and watch, or were there more birds nests to find? Its probably all three of these things?
I haven't found a nest to see eggs yet this year. We have the blue tits that nest in the hole above the dining room window annually, but I don't count this as 'finding' one. We have found empty egg shells, but the secret places from where they have come from, have not been discovered.

Talking of eggs, here is the painting I've been working on........ Mrs bird!


Its on canvas, which I have struggled a little with this time. Working on canvas is quite new to me, as I have always painted on paper in the past. Its taken longer and has been hard to get a sharpness to the lines. Having said that I do like working on it as I love the texture.


These photos have been taken outside on the front step, so the colours are not showing as rich. I will scan it later and possibly have it as a print?

Over the weekend our footsteps fell in ancient Savernake forest, where we came upon a dragon.....



Quiet places filled with the greenest of greens...

And a heavenly sea of blue.....