A Jam Packed Week

Jam, Jam and more Jam this week! Blackcurrants, Tayberries, Gooseberries and other assorted berries. There has been no time for anything else, so here are some pics instead!

Perfect peas

A birthday cake for my aunt( created by my aunt and my daughter)

Parsley and Shallots coming on nicely

Jack

Two Rooks

I finished another pair of transformation paintings this week - two rooks.
These are actually portraits of myself and my sister ( I'm the one on the right, for those of you who don't know me - and those who do, but still don't recognise me with a bird's head stuck on top of mine!)

And a busy day in the allotment! I picked elderflowers for elderflower champagne, and thinned the beetroot. We had the beetroot for supper, both roots and leaves - they were so sweet and delicious! The fruit will go in the freezer for a few days until I have got enough to start making batches of jam. The blackcurrant bushes are laden, branches almost snapping under the weight of fruit, but something is scrumping our strawberries, despite them being carefully netted.

Foal Update

Foals change so fast! These are the ones from my earlier post, and already they are growing away and changing colour. This colt below is the one we named 'Paddington' because of his spectacles. He has already whited out.

This is the black filly I have been admiring so much. She too is losing her foal coat, and is looking grey beneath it. She is still very nice, but now, 6 weeks on, and into the hotter weather, it is obvious her dam has bad sweetitch, so there is a 50/50 chance she will have passed it on to the foal.

This is another favourite of mine - a mare I have liked for years. (you can see her pictured in my drawing for the WHOA sketchbook, at the top left of this blog). She has a nicely made filly foal this year.

Sweet Peas and Roses

What better way to relax for 10 minutes than a pot of tea in the fruit garden, and the scent of sweet peas? I hurt my back at the beginning of the week, and have spent more time at my desk than I would have planned to in this glorious midsummer weather. Thankfully my desk is against the window, and I can see almost all of my little garden from this spot!

This shady rose bower is a favourite spot in the midday heat, although my smallest child keeps collecting snails and relocating them to the old mossy table in there.

And here are Magpie and Beetle. Beetle got accidentally shut in my studio for 24 hours , and I only found him this morning. I expected him to be very hungry and thirsty, but it seems he was only starved of company. He has been very vocal all day, and is following the dog everywhere, talking to her and trying to lick her face. She tolerates this, but sadly, although Beetle obviously adores her , I don't think the feeling is mutual!

And now, off to watch Glastonbury on television - the closest I want to get to the festival these days! Gone are the days of climbing the fence and sleeping in cardboard boxes beside a campfire for three nights. Now I can't bear the thought of so many crowds - I have become very hermit-like in my old age!

Midsummer nights

I love these long hot summer evenings. Walking on the hills this evening I stopped to watch the hay being baled and brought in all around me. The grass is nearly waist high, pinky seedheads puffing pollen at me as I wade through. As the sun sets in an orange glow, the hills looked as though they were burning, an echo of the real flames that licked across them as they were swailed earlier in the year.

The forecast is good for the next couple of days, and everyone will be baling through the night. Even I suddenly have a glut of grass on my poor, dry hill pasture. The small ponies are grumbling at being shut away from most of it.

I've almost finished the painting too. It is still continuing on with the transformation theme. Can you see that this is my crow girl again?