Wild life In The Garden

We decided that the small pond that we had let go 'wild' had got a little too wild and the 4 fish that we had put in earlier in the year hadnt been seen since! So Bill started to pull some of the reeds that had taken over when the little frog appeared out of the water.!He seemed very quiet concidering what was happening and hung around til Bill had finished! You wouldnt belive how much stuff was in the pond-the fish will be much happier now they have room to swim more freely!

I was tempted to move the fish and put them into our big pond, but the fish in there are getting so big I think they had better stay where they are!

Getting Ready

Bill has been busy today, getting the canvas prepared for tomorrows class.As you can see they are drying on my worktops .

The brushes are in the garage being sorted out their box's, so we are all set for the Winter Wonderland class in the morning.

Our Little Muchkin

Little Callum is 5 months old tomorrow,where has the time gone to?

He is such a happy little chap, always smiling and laughing! He is moving home tomorrow with his mum and dad-lets hope it doesnt upset him too much.

Our 2nd grandchild is due in less than 2 weeks, but will be a bit further away for us to see as Bills middle lad Darren lives in Sunderland with his partner Lyndsey.

Latest Painting

This is my latest painting-well not quite-I decided that I wasnt completely happy with my latest Summer Day painting so decided to make a few alterations to it!

It was just crying out for some palm tree's on the tranquil beach.

So when we had a quiet few minutes on the craft fair today I added these palms.

I am a lot happier with it now and it will be the subject for a class later on in the year.

Bills Painting

I thought Bill was winding me up today at the craft fair-he picked up the brushes and started to paint one of my small canvas that I use for my 4 minute paintings!

Within 10 mins he had produced this lovely painting! Not bad for his 3rd attempt at painting ever!

He has cleaned hundreds of brushes but he surprised me big time by using them to paint with today!
Several people watching thought he was the artist with all the work on display!

I am going to be able to let him do the craft fairs and classes on his own if he carries on at this rate!

He is a real help in my classes as he knows what is suposed to happen with each brush stroke at each stage and if he see's anyone who does not look sure about what they are doing he can advise them what to do, while I over see the others and get round everyone.

I have a full class this Saturday and I am looking forward to see if Carol from Leominster has done any painting at home since the last class, she bought a knife from me at Shobdon and said she was going to have a go on her own.I am going to take Bills painting to show them all, what a clever hubby Ive got!

Craft Fair

We are going to take a chance on the weather and do the craft market tomorrow.We have loaded the car and trailer so we can have an early start in the morning.

We are taking some different paintings to the ones shown--the poppies have sold and I have painted some more but using silver wax for the centres instead of gold!

My sister-in -law Jan is on the next stall to us , she will be selling her quilling work,she makes fantastic cards and pictures with very thin strips of paper-she has more patience than me!!!

Unfinished

This is my latest in my monochrome collection.It is called ''unfinished ''because that is what it is!

I usualy add detail of bluebells or foxgloves in melted wax to make them 'almost monchrome' but after painting one at the Three Counties Show and adding bluebells, deciding I prefered foxgloves and painting over the bluebells-then of course someone wanted one with the bluebells in it!

So I had to paint one all over again!

This gives you your own input to the finished painting-let me know which you prefer and I will add them for you-you can even have the choice of what kind of varnish you have on the finished piece! I have both satin and gloss-the choice is yours!

The price is £120 including P+P to the UK if you are outside UK please get in touch.

Flooding In Ludlow

This bridge was once the main route into Ludlow, the river Corve burst its banks last night and this bridge collapsed just seconds after people got off there.It will take months to rebuild the bridge.A lot of homes and cars have been destroyed.

A lot of sheep were also washed away.

The bridge at the top of the page is Ludford bridge and the amount of water going under it is scary, the noise is so loud.

Lets hope we dont get too much more rain.

Snowy Day

I ahve spent an enjoyable afternoon painting the latest new painting that we will be doing in a class on Saturday 7th July.

It is quite an easy one for beginners and more experienced students alike.

Cats--Who'd Have Em?

I knew Sparky had caught something this morning as I could hear him yowling as he came accross the roof with his catch.
Although he has a perfectly good cat flap, he prefers to come in the hard way--up onto the wishing well--onto the fence--onto the sloping roof--in through the en-suite window-down onto the loo and down the stairs!!!
This morning he had another baby black rabbit--it was already dead by the time I caught up with him.
We have more black rabbits wild in the fields behind us than normal ones, and Sparky seems to catch more of them than the others.
He ate every bit of it when I put it outside on the lawn, and is now sleeping it off on my bed!

Sparrows

Its a little hard to see but these 3 little baby sparrows were looking so sorry for themselves today! It was pouring with rain all day. They just sat there in the bird table huddled up together waiting for mum and dad to bring then food!

I didnt wake up til 1pm and then if Bill hadnt bought me a cup of coffee into the bedroom I think I would have been there all day!

The past couple of weeks have been so hectic it has caught up with me I suppose.

I have nothing to do now until next Saturday when I have a full class--- so I can have a nice rest!

The festival craft markets have been cancelled due to the bad weather.

The painting knives will be here tomorrow , and I have got the new landscape and large oval brushes ready for the students who ordered them at the last class-they are a a bargain at just £1 each

It was great to be home and take a look at the fish in the pond-they have only had a quick feed lately, havent had time to enjoy them!

The picture at the top shows the 'Fairies Fishing Rods' that I have growing in pots around the pond-we will have a good show of them this year-the flowers are covered in buds-they look so pretty bobbing around in the breeze.

The 2nd pic shows some of the fish in our pond-the big white one is my favorite one-he actualy comes right out of the water when its feeding time-as you can see!

Great Encaustic Pic!

I failed to get this talented boys name today as it was so hectic! He painted the most beatiful encastic painting of a butterfly in no time at all!
He went away with the full kit of the encastic set and extra wax's and card-I just know I will be seeing more of his work in the future-he was a natural at it!
Within seconds he had reconised that he had the vague shape of one butterflys wing and quickly added another, then the body and some more colour to the wings!

Beautiful Scenery

You can see what beautiful scenery we have had while doing the Shobdon Food and Drink Festival.The avenue of trees is just beautiful on the approach to the venue.Some of the trees are so big they have great big supports under the branches to hold them up--I bet they can tell some stories!!!

Busy Weekend

I have sold out of the painting knives today.

After seeing what they could produce-everyone wanted one and at this price who could blame them. I gave several demos of what could be achieved with them during yesterday and today-the garage is full with 20 4 minute paintings hanging there drying! Bill has to watch his step when unloading the trailer and car, he could end up with multi coloured hair if he's not careful!

Zak doing encaustic art

Here is 5 year old Zac being shown how to make his own encaustic art painting, he loved every minute of it.

Shobdon

We had a very busy day today-the weather was very kind to us and there was loads of people at Shobdon.
This is 5 year old Zak who had a go at encaustic art ! He loved it !
It goes to prove that you are never too young to have a go at art!

Shobdon Festival

We never seem to set out the paintings the same way twice at these craft fairs!

Here you can see the latest version of Poppy Quartet . Bill has given them a couple of coats of varnish to protect them and they are ready to go on sale.

We have had such a laugh today at the craft fair--no-one is safe from us-we have such fun telling each other about what has happened since the last time we met up--its a real community -the craft fairers.

We all have stories to tell!!!

I could write a book to be honest-one day I might share it with ALL my regular readers-although one or two are already in on it already and waiting for the next episode!!!

Landgrove WI

This is Maggie-the president of Landgrove WI.

We first met at last weekends Three Counties Show when she was helping with the refreshments.

When we arrived last night to do the demo/talk the rest of the WI'ers sang 'happy birthday' to her -and guess what --she won the draw too---she was over the moon to choose 'summer day ' as her prize.

The WI will be holding a special draw for the other painting 'the waterfall' next month to raise money for the 'Acorn' childrens hospice, that is local to them.

We had an earlier night than expected because I did my talk and demo before they had their normal meeting as they knew we had to be up early to be at Shobdon Flower, Food and Drink Festival.! So we were back home at 10pm in time for me to clean my brushes and pack the bits and bobs that hadnt been taken to Shobdon earlier in the day!

work in progress

You can see the 3 basic stages that went into my latest work-yet to be named-any ideas for a name please email as usual! The flowers are irises.

It will not be dry in time to take to shobdon, we will be setting up there tomorrow, but it should be dry enough to take to the craft fairs next week!The forcast is not great but we will be in the dry in the marquee.There are lots of busloads of people booked to come to it the organisers have told us , so whatever the weather it should prove to be busy!

Little Cow

This is the little cow that Bill bought for me from the 3 Counties Show--isnt he beautiful-he has yet to be named.

The cat and the parrot are both scared of it at the moment but Im sure they will get used to it!

More Craft Markets During Festival

I have just booked an additional 3 craft fairs on Ludlow market.

Tues 26th June, Thurs 28th June and Tues 3rd July.

The famous Ludlow Festival starts this weekend.The play this year is ''The Comedy Of Errors''.

The opening night is on Saturday and it runs for 2 weeks.The town is heaving with people for the duration as there are loads of other things going on day and night.

This year the grand finale in the castle this year features Dodgie Williams and Kelly Monogue both tribute singers. As usual there will be a massive firework display at the end.

I expect we will do the usual--sit outside on the patio with a glass or 2 of wine listening to the music and watching the fireworks for free as we have a great vantage point from where we live!

for more info about the festival check out the website www.ludlowfestival.co.uk

Caravan Site

We stayed at a great site while doing the Three Counties Show.It was quiet and clean and the food served at the pub was fantastic.

The Marlbank Inn is highly reccommened by us--just £10 a night with electric hookup and awning- great locals and cosy too!

We met a great couple from Neath who were also on their 2nd outing with their caravan, Wayne and Diane were a great laugh on both nights we were there!

Friday at Malvern!

As you can see from the picture it rained very heavy on Friday-it came underneath the marquee like a river-thankfully there was plenty of straw to put down over it and it didnt deter the visitors to the show!

At Last --Back To Normal!!!

We are back to normal at last today! What a mad time we have had of it!

We dashed off to Cressage WI on Thursday night after spending the day sorting out everything for the 3 Counties show, loading up Bessie and the car.

We had a great night at Cressage, the ladies had a great time and want to do a class.

Jenny won the raffle and chose Summer Day as her prize.

We got back late and were up early to get to Malvern for 7am. It takes over 2 hours to set up our display-the bacon butties and cups of tea supplied by the WI ladies were great!

Because of all the rain the previous week the ground was a bit soggy to say the least but they had given us loads of room for us to display my pictures.There was a sprinkling of straw on the floor to soak up the rain water but as you can see it didnt detract from the final result!

Bill is relaxing with his book in this photo!!!

Only 4 places left!

I have had 2 bookings already for the childrens class. Jordan who is shown on the previous photo is coming along with his younger brother Kieran. Jordan has already done 2 paintings with me but this will be a first for his brother who is just 8years old.

Childrens Class Thursday July 26th

At last I have sorted out a class date for the children as promised.

Thursday 26th July at the Guy Thornycroft rooms in Ludlow.

I have chosen the Winter Wonderland painting as the subject for the class.

It is quite a simple painting to do and it gives a lot of scope to make the painting very individual to each child.

Children from the age of 6 years are welcome to join the class.

We will be working on the same size canvas as usual 16in x 20in.

These classes promise to be very exciting for the children--they take to the painting technique like ducks to water and accept that its normal to bash the canvas with a big brush and then tickle it afterwards!

As you can see from the above pic they produce some brilliant results in the classes.

Next Weekend--Three Counties Show

We are at the Three Counties Show next weekend--Fri 15th ---Sunday 17th June. We are really busy sorting out everything to take there.
Just read in the local paper that Prince Charles and Camilla will be attending the event and will be shown around by the president of the Three Counties Agricultural Show during its opening day.
There is so much to see here -its the 50th year for the 3 counties show and they are celebrating big time!
On Saturday night there will be the ''Legends'' concert which is a rock concert featuring top ''sound-a-like stars such as Elvis Presley,Freddie Mercury, and Tom Jones to name but a few--something we will be looking forward to very much-

Todays Class

This is the happy class of today! Pete, Hayley and Carole painted 'The Beach'

The paintings turned out great as you can see.They were all quite different to each other-Petes was quite subtle and subdued while Hayley had a much brighter sky-Caroles wave turned out to be the boldest of the three!

We spent a lot of time giggling with each other about various things throughout the whole class--everyone gets on so well together, it so easy on!

Carole and Hayley bought back their Summer Day paintings to be photographed again, after the photos didnt turn out good last week!

Next Class

This is the subject for this Saturdays class. Everyone has been before so it should be pretty straight forward.

I will make some small changes to this painting before Saturday,just to ring the changes!

Scenery

This is the scenery that we look out over every day.Its so beautiful and peaceful.
I dont think we realise how lucky we are sometimes-just to be able to sit out on the patio and relax with a bottle of wine and listen to the birds and take in this beautiful view!
Since the farmer cut the grass a couple of days ago we can see the rabbits and birds in the field much better--trouble is so can Sparky cat.

Paddy

Im not the only one in the house who likes Weight Watchers yogurt! Just look how he turns his head right round!He licks it out clean with his huge black tongue--I have tryed to get photo of his tongue but hes too quick!

Paddy

This is Paddy waiting for his shower--he only has to see the silver spray bottle come into view and he gets into position like this ready for his shower!
You can see all his beautiful wing feathers have grown back beautifuly--they were clipped off very badly when we bought him 2 years ago.It has taken 2 years for them to get back to normal-he is a little beauty-although he terrorises poor Sparky to death!

Rescued!

This little baby sparrow was bought in on Saturday night by Sparky Cat.We heard him coming across the roof mewing so we knew he had caught something! When told to 'DROP IT' he always does so and the sparrow was taken downstairs given a drink of water and put in a pryex bowl with some kitchen towel until morning.I took him outside and put him on top of the summer house roof and he flew off down the woods!

Birds

Bill spent an hour in the garden yesterday filling up the various bird feeders and tying some fat balls to the washing line.We were rewarded this morning by this woodpecker who loves the fat ball!

We alos have a family of bull finches who come down to feed at the one bird table-its beautiful to see the more unusual birds here.

I Wish I Was There

I have decided to call this painting"I wish I Was There" because so many people have said that when they have looked at this painting!
I painted it during the class yesterday and finished off some of the poppy detail later at home.

We have had a lovely relaxing day today-went to the boot sale at nearby Leominster and bought another 3 furbies-all in good condition! I paid just 20p for one of them-bargain!

Back home for a lovely lunch of ribeye steak with salad and jersey royals, and a glass or two of white wine!
We are both stuffed now, so am catching up with some updating websites and copyrighting the latest paintings.

Todays Class

Kevin is deciding how many more poppies to add to his painting!

Todays class went really well.

We did the revised version of Summer Day.Everyone settled down to painting without the usual nerves and very soon it was clear that they would all turn out a little dfferent from each other!

Hayleys sky started out looking quite bright as we used some pinky purple as well as the usual blue to do the sky.But as we tickled the canvas gently with a special tickling brush it soon started to fade down and become softer.She was amazed at the end result" I cant belive Ive really painted that" she remarked after she had finished.

Carole and Kevin were also very happy with their finished paintings. I will ask them to bring them with them to the next class so I can take a another photo of them all-the photos have turned out far too light!

Summer Day painting for Saturdays class

This is the new version of the Summer Day painting that I painted while on the craft fair yesterday.It is showing up a bit bright-it is much more subtle in real life!

As you can see we have some pinky purple clouds in the sky and a different beach with rocks on instead of the usual folliage.

I am sure we will have some fun in the class tomorrow painting it!