catch up!

Goodness! a whole month has flown by since my last post, so I think a little catch up is in order.

The beginning of June saw me nipping off to Suffolk to celebrate the wedding of two lovely friends

I stayed at the same place as the bride, so I was honoured to have a sneak preview of The Dress, so beautiful and simple with a gorgeous lace jacket, fab!

We stayed at The Kings Head (also know as The Low House) in Laxfield, which is well worth a visit if you are ever in those parts. A wonderfully unspoilt old country pub with real ale and great food, it was voted 'Pub of the Year 2010' by Adnams brewery. The pub has no bar or counter, instead you are served your drinks from the tap room. This pub has a fantastic atmosphere and I hope I shall visit it again some time.
The pony, called Noah, and trap ready and waiting for the bride.

The church was decorated with hearts and wild flowers, a neighbour of the couple had a field full of dog daisies which they used throughout the wedding as decoration, posies and headdresses.

Sweet little rosebud hearts were at the end of the pews.

One of the flower girls.

And finally we sat down and raised our glasses, it was a perfect country wedding and I wish them every happiness.

On our way back we spied this amazing field full of poppies at Bewdley. It has even made the local news

At last I returned home, where my youngest son was getting ready to go to his first big music festival, Download at Donnington Park, He had a great time and unfortunately lost his I Pod Touch on the way home which was full of pictures and memories, to say his was gutted was an understatement.

On to painting, it is that time of the year when I take part in the Holmfirth Artweek, a wonderful week long exhibition which raises lots of money for Macmillan Cancer Support. It is a great social occasion with the exhibition being open until 9 pm each evening and there are lots of fringe exhibitions in and around Holmfirth too.

Here are my entries:

"Stiff Westerly"

"Bliss"

"Dancing with Angel"All framed, labelled and ready to go!

While I was completing the paintings I received the very exciting news that The Lion House Gallery in Lavenham, Suffolk wanted to show my work. I was so thrilled, I admit to doing a happy dance round the kitchen!

Last but not least, an update on the not so little chicks. They are four weeks old now and are turning from cute fluffy chicks into scrawny adolescents on their way to being the chicken equivalent of beautiful swans!

The four dark chicks are looking like they will be two hens and two cockerels. The colour of these chicks is a bit of a surprise as I ordered gold partridge and millifleur pekin eggs, and while I have two lovely millifleur hens, these dark chicks are most definitely not gold partridge

These are the boys, the one below being much bigger than the other chicks.

Another girl.

And the two millifleur chicks which are both very pretty. Trying, but failing not to have any favourites!!

This one has even got a name - biscuit! I think we will be keeping her.

Right, time to make some tea for hungry sons, not to mention the dog and the cats and chickens..........!!!!

Spring

Spring has certainly arrived, and for the time being has kindly brought the sunshine with it. Buds are busting all over the garden, including those of the weed kind, but we shall overlook those for now. here are a few of my favorite flowers in my garden at the moment.

Don't you just love the sweet face of the viola, always turning towards the sun and looking so cheery. I love the way it self seeds and pops up in the most unexpected places.

The gold laced primula is a firm fav of mine, I have it dotted about and the edges seem to glow in the shade.

This snakes head fritillary was put in a few years ago and gets better each year. The checkered petals are such an unusal pattern for a flower.

a little corner that I am still working on, but seems to be coming along nicely, there is always something to do in a garden isn't there.

This one came out of a mixed bag of bulbs bought in a supermarket last autumn.

Today, I headed off to my first plant fair of the year. This one was held at bramall Hall near Stockport. It was such a beautiful setting. the house is very impressive, I didn't have time to go inside, will save that for another time. The plant fair was situated on a lawn to the side of the hall.

Here is a view from the front, amazing timberwork!

One of the plants I bought was this little primula, I just couldn't resist the pretty markings on the petals. It almost looks vintage! It's full name is Primula Polyanthus barnhaven Striped Victorian. Quite a mouthful for a little flower.

From my garden, I picked a few flowers to make a posy and decided to paint them, it is quite a small painting just 5" x 5".

Many thanks for all the lovely comments that were left after my last post, I really do appreciate each and every one. Hope the sun is shining where you are.

A bit of a rambling post

A few weeks ago, over at Ann Wood's lovely blog, she was celebrating her fifth anniversary of her blog and posted a tutorial on making these little papier mache cups. There is a template to download and instructions on how to make your own cups. Being someone who loves papier mache I had to have ago, and spent a few happy hours getting messy with paper and glue.

They are such fun to make, I can feel a whole tea service coming on!

Something else that has been keeping me busy is that I have been building my own little web site, very basic, nothing frilly. Somewhere to show my work in some semblance of order. The idea behind it is I really really want to get back into illustration. Many years ago I studied illustration at college and was freelance for a while working for some lovely clients, but then family and life got in the way and my path changed. Now the path has changed again due local goverment cutbacks, my job has gone. I am now looking at the possibility of returning to commercial illustration.

But I worry, have I left it too late, so much has changed. It used to be briefs arriving by post and artwork delivered by red star, now it is email and web sites. So I felt a good place to start was to build my own web site, it isn't perfect but it's mine and hopefully gives a flavour of what I can do.

I would be interested in some feedback if anyone feels so inclined.

A glimpse of a painting I am working on at the moment. It is inspired by the plates of eggs that you see at village shows that proud hen owners have brought along in hopes of winning a prize.

Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone who has left a comment here, I really appreciate it and love reading them, what a splendid community this is.