This Week I Have Been Mostly...

...knitting this waistcoat in a gorgeous yarn made from recycled jeans.  It may take a while as it is very compicated and that's before I attempt the lace back! 

I'm also still crocheting the mini dress from cut up tights and massaging Volterol into my thumbs and wrists every night before bed whichseems to keep the aches and pains at bay. 

I am also making some very interesting things for the next animation - a spider was the last item.

We went to see Seasick Steve in concert on Tuesday.  I began to feel my age during the warm-up act when I found myself thinking it was 'too loud' and wishing it was over.  However, as soon as Seasick Steve came on stage, all that was forgotten and the next couple of hours were simply brilliant.  Unfortunately we had to leave during the second encore (!) otherwise we'd miss our train.  Turns out we might as well have stayed as one of our tube links was delayed by ten minutes and we missed our train anyway, which resulted in having to take a train to the nearest town and then pay for a taxi home - ouch!  But we'd had so much fun, it really didn't matter.

With the warm weather we've been experiencing, everything has burst into bloom within a few days.  This is the cherry tree just outside out kitchen window - I'm hoping we get to eat some of the fruit this year instead of feeding all the local birds.  Time to get the plastic hawk on duty once again!

 Walking the dog has been fun too - the sloes are fully in bloom, looking like snow from a distance.

 Hoping to see some fruit here too - the trees were bare last year.

 Wild violets are in abundance, first time I have seen so many in the lanes.

 There are so many butterflies - making more butterflies half the time it seems!

Phew, It's A Scorcher!

 

We've had what the press have been referring to as a heatwave here in the UK the past few days - yes, it's been quite hot, but I am sure those of you living in sunnier climes would laugh at us calling 32C hot.  It was rather muggy, especially after a few spectacular thunderstorms and torrential rain, but that didn't stop me getting on with things.

I finally got over a bad case of artist's block and have started this little watercolour.  It's the view down through trees to the water below, using a photo sent to me by Midge from Soggibottom blog in Devon.  I'm not sure how it will turn out or if it will be worth it, but I am very happy to be using a brush again.  

On the other hand, my daughter has been painting like a maniac the past week - we've gone back to using the 'Paint Your Own Masterpiece' book and she has churned out another version of this Cezanne.  All I do for her is make a light sketch of the main objects, the rest she does by herself. (For those of you who are new here and are thinking 'so what?', my daughter has Down's Syndrome, so this is really quite an achievement!)  I think this one might deserve framing!

As well as knitting a grizzly bear (hot work!) I have been teaching myself how to make loom band bracelets.  It was getting embarrassing at work (infant school) being shown up by six year olds who have mastered this and I hadn't the first idea.  So when I got a bag of the bands free with a magazine, I took the bull by the horns and had a go - turns out it is not that hard after all, and I can see the attraction, they are strangely addictive!  I want to try one of the very intricate designs and then I can file this under 'done it'!

Despite the heat, we have managed some lovely leisurely walks with the dog in the fields behind our house.
They are sown with a crop of beans this year but in amongst them are millions of daisies.

It is so pretty - shame they want to plough it all up and build 450 houses on it.  We are praying that this doesn't come to pass as long as we are living here.

I don't know what Clovis would do without his daily canters through the countryside - he's never been a dog for road walking, it has to be running through the grass and bushes or it just isn't a walk.

Some sunflowers have snuck into the mix as well!

Six Months In The Making...

I have finally finished this poor neglected painting!  I started it months ago, but it has been put to one side time and again due to other commitments.  This is an acrylic on Dalerboard, and the subject is the grounds of Old Basing House in Basingstoke.  We visited this last summer and I was very taken with the surrounbding countryside as it felt like stepping back in time.  This is now up for sale in my Etsy shop.

It's been one of those weeks - the rain never stopped falling, I have been landscaping the garden around our new small pond with gravel and rocks, plus the washing machine broke down and with a family of four, you can imagine the work that ensued getting it sorted out before a new one was delivered.  Hopefully this week will be quieter and less strenuous!

When We Had Sun...

This painting has been sadly neglected over the past couple of months - I have been spending my time painting commissioned work and this has had to go on the back burner.  It's an acrylic of the grounds at Old Basing House, a fascinating place we visited in the summer.  Hard to believe we sat further up the hill and had a picnic in the sunshine which was strong enough to give us sunburn!

This is such a typically English scene, my aim is for it to be as chocolate-boxy as it likes.  I am having enormous fun with it, the sheep in the meadow, the limpid pool, plenty of greenery. it's got it all.  There is still a lot of work to be done, but I don't mind,  this is my true vocation!

Come, Take A Walk With Me.......

.....before it's too late.  Our walk begins here, just two minutes from the back of my house.

To our right there is a big field of barley with a bank of trees in the foreground - this is where we find the best blackberries towards the end of the summer.

In front of us is this little piece of fairyland, all delicate leaves and dappled shadows.  Hidden among the undergrowth is a pond in which ducks nest, frogs spawn and squirrels leap above from branch to branch.

At the end of the shady trees, you get a glimpse of where we are going...

There are swathes of buttercups to our left, golden in the sunshine.

Across the way we can see the far side of the barley field - the trees in the front are another good blackberrying spot.  Above this field in the past couple of years we have seen Red Kites circling and wheeling in the sky, on the lookout for prey.

We turn the corner past a line of fruit trees - I gorged myself on wild cherries here last summer, stuffing them into my pockets to take them home.  At the end of the path there is a fantastic sloe tree - we picked pounds of sloes last summer and made several pints of sloe gin.

Turning left we get a glimpse of the fields between here and Crookham Village. One year I came face to face with a deer around this corner and luckily Clovis was so gobsmacked I had time to put him on the lead before he decided to chase it.

We walk around this field and turn to come home at the top.  To the right is a small copse - this is where the deer hide.  Further along is a bank of flowers with exploding seedpods - many summer afternoons I come this way with the dog just to play with them.  Some people never grow up!

There are many different kinds of wild flowers all along this walk.  The primroses, celandines and bluebells have gone and been replaced by speedwell, vetch, buttercups and clover.

You can see the village in the distance - the exploding seedpods will be under these trees in the late summer.

We are on our way home now, heading back towards the little fruit grove.

But we turn to our left and follow this little track - in the winter it is almost impassable due to mud and flooding.  Today is it just glorious.

Come on, I'm thirsty!  Clovis knows there is a stream at the end of the walk, just before we get home, where he can have a paddle and a cool drink.

Did you enjoy a brief look at the beautiful countryside that lies a few minutes behind our house?  I love walking here and so does Clovis - we come here almost every day, rain or shine.

However, there are plans afoot to bulldoze the lot and replace it with an enormous housing estate.  In these photos, the plans mean that as far as the eye can see, it will be buildings - no more flowers, no more meadows, no more deer, no more larks singing, no more pheasants, no more foxes, no more sloes, no more blackberries, no more elderflowers, no more ducks and frogs, no more red kites, no more cherries - what a crime.

If you live in the area and feel as strongly as I do about the possibility of all this beauty being destroyed , join FACEIT-Group, a group of like-minded people who want to protest at the loss of yet more of our countryside and pretty much the only piece of Fleet that is still wild and untouched.