Ludlow Food and Drink Festival/ Marches Transport

We are on the market tomorrow on Castle Square for the food and drink festival which has combined with the Marches Transport festival for the first time.
There will be lots going on for all the family--lovely things to eat and drink and loads of cars , lorrys and tractors etc to see in and around the castle and castle square.

Market

After an early start the weather wasnt as bad as forcast and we managed to get set up in the dry!
It wasnt very busy most of the time, but we met some lovely people there-earlly on a couple called by the stall-Ding Li Hua just loved my work-she came into the stall and looked at every painting-she paints herself using chines brush technique but have used nothing like I do.
We had a long chat and off they went to look around Ludlow--a short time later she was back--I had to come and see you again she said! Her partner came and found her and she insisted on having her photograph taken with me on her camera , so got one on mine as well! She enjoyed seeing the encaustic art being done, and wants a kit when I get some more irons, she left me with her name address and phone number to stay in touch with her-she lives in Llandudno in Wales and they have a camper van, so will be looking at the sites I have got on my website with the view of coming to classes!
Paula who has the stall opposite selling beautiful shawls and wraps has a 50th birthday today, so she had a suprise when she turned up to find a balloon and a beautiful flower arrangment off some of the girls on market.

The Marches Transport/Food and Drink

We were up at the crack of dawn yesterday to go down to the Castle Square for the Marches Transport Show which was combined with the new Food and Drink festival.We were down on the square for 6.45am and we were set up by 9am. Its amazing how long it takes to get sorted. I had to send Bill home for some more paintings as we were able to move from our allocated spot to a more suitable one where we could take the stall further back.!
The weather was beautiful all day-no breeze at all, so no need for the paperweights to come out for a change.
As usual lots of interest in the classes-there were visitors from all over the country there.
My ''managers''Pauline and Chris called by to see us-and were praising the classes up to everyone!
Lovely to hear all about Chris's new painting project-will look forward to seeing that Chris!
Had a little chuckle when Pauline said that their kitchen was covered in painting stuff--they had started out using a downstairs garden room as a studio, but it sounds like the addiction has really started-its creeping out of the room and taking over the house!!
It was lovely to see Jan and John as well,had a few minutes away from the stall to have a breather and chat with Jan.
Bill went off to have a look round the various things on display-the trike was the main thing that caught his eye-and I can see why-what a beauty!
We were trying all sorts of different foods and drinks that were on offer n the surrounding stalls,quite a mixture-beautiful chocolate cookies to lamb kebabs!
We didnt get packed up and finished until turned 6pm-so a long busy day.
We went off to the Squirrel for a meal after-too tired to cook!

Sad Day

We have had a such a sad day today.

My two old ladies have been put to sleep at the vets this morning.

Smokey and Gizmo were 20 years old and have been the most faithful and loving of pets anyone could wish for.

We knew we couldn't keep them going for long last year.We took them to the vets to ask his opinion 12 months ago as they had both started to lose weight, he said they would have all sorts going wrong at their age (97 in human years) but if they were his cats he would leave them a bit longer-his words were "you will know when the time is right"

Well the time was right today. Gizmo's back end went a couple of days ago, looked like she had injured herself somehow-she had no muscle tone in her thighs so she could have just tryed to jump onto something -we just don't know.

Smokeys eyes were not good and they were both as deaf as posts, Smokey had been chased by a dog the day before, and only just escaped so a decision had to be made.I couldnt face going through it twice so we decided they would go together.

Its the hardest thing Ive ever done.

They had a tin of tuna before we took them down the vets, and snuggled up together in the basket. The vet was brilliant-so compassionate. She sedated them first and they didnt know a thing about the final injection.

We are having them cremated together and placed in the same box.

We are going to miss them so much-they were such gentle little cats-they had never scratched or bitten anyone.

Blimey!!!!!!

As I was making the last post about the pigeon, Bill yelled up the stairs to me ''come down quick''when I rushed down I saw that a sparrow hawk had flown under the net that covers the fish pond.

It had obviously been chasing something (not Bills friendly pigeon I hope!) and got under the one end of the net that has been raised up by the one big plant that lives in the corner of the pond.

It was just hanging off the net, so I grabbed the camera and got these couple of shots of it.The fish all dived to the bottom, thinking it was a heron maybe.

Bill just lifted the net at one end a bit more and off he flew down the field.

he was a beautiful bird and I expect he has a young family to feed as well-nature is cruel sometimes but everything has its place and you just have to accept it.

Commissions

I have been busy over the past couple of days working on a commission of Swallow Falls in Wales.

Its a place that has inspired me from the the first time we went there 6 years ago.

Paul and his wife have each commissioned a painting that means a lot to each of them.Im working on Pauls at the moment--he has sent me the photos of the scenes but also given me the go ahead to do my own thing with them because they love my style of interpretation of subjects.

.I am really enjoying this----although I am still doing my usual and emailing each stage for confirmation too!

I am really pleased with the results-the pic shown does not do this painting justice!

Nat A Tat at the Craft Market

My sister in law Jan called by in the morning of the transport show along with my niece Natalie otherwise know as Rat a Tat or Nat a Tat!

Natalie is just 11 years old and normaly she loves to just have a go at the encaustic art, she did a couple of these melted wax paintings, then went off with her mum for a look around in the castle.

I got a call a from Jan a bit later to ask if Nat could have a go at the oil painting. she had been gagging to have a go when I was painting earlier!

They arrived shortly after , and I went through the different stages of the painting on my canavs paper and Nat did the same and we soon 2 paintings almost identical-much to the amazement of onlookers!

I went through each stage of the painting in the same way as I do in the classes-Nat was able to follow my instructions with ease-even with onlookers watching!.

It showed what can be achieved with instruction, and I will see some of the people watching later in the year!

Sundays Craft Market/ Transport Exhibition

It was an early start to the day yesterday-we were up at 6am to get ready to go down to the craft market.The sun was shining and the birds were singing as we set up.

Each time we do a craft fair it works out different as we take different paintings.Bill is very good at hanging them all-I would not be able to do it as neat as he does!

We were next to the hand made soap stall and the smell all day was great-lavender and lemongrass oil amongst other lovely smells.

The other side was the 'hat man' who sells hats and sunglasses etc -he used to play with The Mavericks and throughout the day he was playing his guitar, gave a great atmosphere to the day!

There were lots of people around all day, and at around mid-day there was a noise that got louder and louder-it echoed through the narrow streets of Ludlow and then we saw them coming up the road--an endless stream of moped's --the mods had arrived in their droves-it was estimated that around 5oo mods had come to the transport exhibition.As you can see from the pics above there were some beautiful bikes , made you wonder how they managed with all those mirrors on them!

Bill had a good walk around in the castle and was able to see some of the other things on show there

Craft market Tomorrow

We have an early start tomorrow-we are on the craft market in the town square.
Its the annual Marches Transport Festival.
Cars and lorries from all decades descend into the castle and the square.
The weather promises to be beautiful and the town will be heaving with people so fingers crossed we will have a good day!
We love doing the local fairs-we meet up with all the regular stall holders as well as the customers.
As usual I will be painting in oils, acrylics and encaustic wax.There will be paintings for sale as well as all the materials needed to paint in any of these mediums.

Mellow Moods Class

Today we had Jan and Jane to paint the Mellow Moods painting.

It was great fun to see how each painting progressed-first of all with the sponges and later with the brushes!

It was a very straightforward painting to do and both of them agreed that it was quite an easy one to do!

I will work on another colourway for this class for later in the year

In between painting we had breaks to go outside and see the fish in the pond, they have all grown massive over the past few weeks-the new ultra violet light has worked wonders and the water is now as clear as can be.

It wont be long until they are spawning now the temperature is rising.Then the fun starts -checking constantly that any havent jumped out of the pond!