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.....

A Thursday post

It seems to be coming a bit of a habit that Thursday is the day when I write on here. This is not intended, but just seems to happen?
The week has scurried, swept and flown by yet again....
So, its Thursday and as yet I haven't finished the picture I've been working on to show you.
Until I have, (which will hopefully be tommorow or the next day) I thought I'd show some things that I bought at our local car boot sale last sunday.

I spied with my little eye these ....


How beautiful! And a bargain just 50p for the whole lot! I love the the way they all fit inside one another so perfectly and the colours remind me of being fascinated by the beauty of oil speckled puddles as a child.


I also bought this mug. It says 'Cheshire cats always grin'
And here is one of my own cheshire cats posing appropriately for the picture.
I think he could have got a role in Twilight with those teeth!



I 'll be back soon with pictures of pictures :)

Impossibility

For Illustration Friday 'Impossibility'
Just a pencil sketch as I'm a little late again!
I'll probably make this into a painting as well in full colour, on a small canvas.

In shady leafy places

Down at the bottom of the garden where sunlight is dappled through prickly holly branches. There is a quiet place. Our tiny piece of woodland. Several years ago whilst on holiday in north Wales, we visited Tyl Hyll the Ugly House, and here I fell in love with its enchanted leafy wooded garden, with its mossy covered stones and uncurling ferns. I have slowly since, bit by bit, been trying to recapture the feeling of the place here.


At this time of year our little patch of earth becomes magical. Transformed by pink ,white and blue bells, spotted leaves of lungwort and one of my favourite wild roadside flowers cow parsley.
We think it is definitely home to tiny people. Lets go and take a look.....


Two little houses fit for faeries.....



With faerie furniture....


Walls papered with petals and floors carpeted with skeleton leaves......



We (littlest hobbit and I) had a lovely relaxing time, making these during the two weeks off school. And are now rather hoping that something or someone might come and take up residence?....

The holidays are finished and it was back to school today. If this weather stays, I think I shall be working outside tommorow.

Miriam Stockley - Perfect Day ((HighQuality - rare version))

I hope everyone had a lovely Eastertime. We have had the most glorious weather here! Time has been spent outdoors, enjoying birdsong, flowers, grass snakes, slow worms, bats and shooting stars.
The days have been perfect!

Blue and Paws for Charity

I have been immersed in blue this week.
Blue paint for walls in the bedroom...

Blue forgetmenots in flower, in the garden......

Blue cornflowers that I have given a head start in the green house......


Blue beads bought with the intention of making myself a new necklace to wear....



A blue book I've been reading in the bath....


And the beautiful moon in a blue tinged twilight sky, last night's view from our garden.....


I do so love blue.

The children finished school for their Easter break, so not alot of drawing or painting of pictures has taken place. So, let me tell you a tale of something that begun a little while ago....

A couple of months ago a lady named Sara Harley contacted me and asked me if I would like to submit a picture of a cat or dog for a charity book called 'PAWS FOR CHARITY' It was to be produced in aid of breast cancer. I submitted my Magic Cat picture......


and a few weeks later was lucky enough to be chosen to be included in the book. Please stop by at Sara's blog to hear about the artists that are involved and of course to see the book which is available to buy at Blurb. It is filled with beautiful pictures of cats and dogs, and money raised from the book will go to a Breast Cancer Charity that does not use animals in their testing.

If I don't manage to get on here again before Sunday, then I wish everyone that stops by and reads here a very Happy Easter! x

Bits,pieces and snuffles and sneezes

As I sit here at my desk writing this post, this is what I can see out of the window in front of me......


Its a cloudy, misty kind of day today. I can hear the jackdaws upon the chimmney pot, rooks over in the big trees and other birds chirping their merry spring songs. I can hear the engine drone of a lawn mower as a neighbour tidys their lawn ready for the weekend and I can smell the sweet scent of cut grass drifting on the breeze.
Its been a week of bits and pieces and snuffles and sneezes. I've not been able to settle on things, since picking up a cold at the beginning of the week.
I began with sketching an idea for Illustration Friday, but didn't develop it into the finished piece, so never submitted it.

'Poise'


Then I decided to sketch some of the bones from the owl pellets.....



I didn't attempt to get stuck into the painting I have on the go at the moment,as I just knew when your not feeling your best, its not a good idea ( for me anyway :) )
I have lots more work to do on this painting which is on a 30x30 cms canvas.





I've been in the greenhouse enjoying the warmth through the glass and sowing more seeds. And,weeding in the garden where I keep coming across little treasures like this...



Another skeleton! This time skeleton of a holly leaf.
I did find another very special treasure, but that one will have to wait a while for a future post!?!?
The sun is beginning to break through the clouds now, and my cold feels much better today :) I think its time to go and put the kettle on.