Notes from The Rookery

Warning : a VERY long pony post!

2012-01-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

Well, the ponies are all feeling grateful that it's been such a mild winter so far, and after the nightmare of last winter, so am I. My hay stocks are holding up well, and all the ponies are looking well covered (the mares are looking rather TOO well covered). Will is slimming down nicely - I can actually get the weigh tape round him now, and I might even be able to start looking for a saddle to fit him in the spring!

The children have been able to get out lots, and the fey-daughter is working Captain hard (please ignore her appalling turned down toes!) He is a star :)

Even the small boy has become remarkably keen since the autumn. I was just on the point of looking for a loan home for Foggy, as he wasn't being used, when the small boy decided that he had watched the girls lessons for long enough, and as he now knew exactly what to do, it was no longer 'uncool' to ride ponies. Foggy is the most wonderful small pony in the world for beginners (although he can be a bit of a stinker with experienced, bossy riders). He is kind and safe at walk and trot, on and off the lead rein, on the open moors and in the heaviest traffic. He and small boy are going from strength to strength at the moment.

However, I start this year with a dilemma over Marlene. I promised an update about her at the end of last year, and it's time I did it. Apologies to those of you who have followed me since the very beginning - you'll know the early stuff, but please bear with me because it's relevant to now!

I originally purchased Marlene on a whim. She is a Dartmoor Hill pony, (a Mitchelcombe pony, so probably ran on the commons at Holne) and had come in through the drift sales. I saw her in field of mixed ponies when I was considering getting a registered pony as a brood mare. Instead, in a field of 2 and 3 year olds, it was the nervous, unhandled Marlene that caught my eye (not least because she is the absolute spitting image of my beloved Phoenix, whom I had lost the year before, pictured below with the Fey-daughter as a toddler). So it was Marlene I came home with instead. She was just turning 3.

Phoenix - summer 2003

That summer we backed her, and played with her a bit, doing a lot of groundwork games and getting to know her character. She was anxious at first, but quickly trusting, and I developed a very strong bond with her. She would follow me anywhere, climbing up walls, jumping down 4 foot banks, in and out of the narrowest spaces. She was kind and gentle to handle, standing for hours to have fuss and attention, although interestingly, not an affectionate pony at all. Reserved and submissive probably describes her best. She is always the bottom of the pecking order in the field, whoever her companions, and she is always first at the gate, keen to come in. She would be quite happy tied up all day (though I don't do that!), and in the stable, she backs herself into the corner, and happily dozes away. She is never rushing to the stable door, keen to see what is going on, but seems relaxed in her corner. We always joke that she would rather live indoors, given the chance, watching TV in the corner of the sitting room! Sometimes I almost forget that she is a pony, with pony instincts and reactions, because she behaves more like a pet dog in many ways.

Marlene - Summer 2008

So I turned her away for the winter, and picked her back up in the spring that she turned 4, and we did lots of work with her on the lead rein. She went to a couple of shows, and she hacked out and about a lot, with one or other of the children on, until we decided that middle daughter was ready to come off the lead rein, but needed a more experienced pony, as Marlene was still very much a novice herself. That was when I decided to put her in foal, hoping to breed a matching pair to Piper, and we sent her to stud. We had had a 'blip' during that spring, which I had dismissed, other than being an amusing story, but which I now think was quite significant for Marlene. She had a run-in with the wild ponies, which live on the hill behind us. I recounted the full story at the time, here. (As an aside, the stallion shown in this link is the father of my yearling, Peregrine). Anyway, in due course, she had her foal , Kestrel.

Bringing Marlene and Kestrel home at the end of summer 2010

By Christmas, Kestrel was weaned, and we began to bring Marlene back into work again. By that time we had had Bethan for a year, and middle daughter had gained some confidence, and was ready to start with Marlene again.

Marlene and Bethan - December 2010

So we slowly brought Marlene into work. By this time the fey-daughter had become a reasonably competent rider and agreed to share the riding of Marlene so we could bring her on. Things went swimmingly. By Easter the owl-daughter was ready to take her to her first Pony Club rally - a session at a local jump- cross course. Marlene was a star, trotting around an open field, and popping over 12 inch cross poles. I was thrilled. We carried on,over the next few weeks, introducing Marlene to canter, which she wasn't entirely happy with (she had always been a lead rein pony up until now). In typical baby fashion she fell forwards into canter, unbalancing herself, and often putting in a tiny buck when she got unbalanced. I took advice at this point, and although I am not a fan of lungeing, I had some lessons myself, and we got her lungeing nicely in canter.

Marlene at first rally - Easter 2011

Spurred on by our success here, we took her to her first tetrathlon competition, at a course about 8 miles away across the moor. The fey-daughter hacked her over there with the rest of the team, and the owl-daughter did her first ever full cross-country course (on the lead rein!). It was a resounding success, we had a clear round, although the owl-daughter nearly fell off several times due to Marlene's enormous jump!

Marlene at first cross-country course - May 2011

Marlene was very chilled out all day - happily tied up to a friend's lorry. (I think at one point there were 7 ponies tied to one small lorry, in true 'Jill and her ponies' style! Here, hardly any of the kids have trailers and they quite happily ride miles to events)

Afterwards, the fey -daughter took over for the ride home in the glorious summer sun, complete with mandatory stop at the ice-cream van below Hound Tor!

We were now approaching summer, and had the prospect of Pony club camp ahead. At this point we had newly exchanged Bethan for Captain, but the fey-daughter was still primarily on Matthew, and I was unsure she was ready to take on such a baby as Captain. The owl-daughter was begging to go to camp, having been told she couldn't for the two years previously, and again, I didn't think she was ready to move up to Matthew, who is very strong and 'whizzy', so at this point my plan was to try and get Marlene ready for camp. In hindsight, this was where I went wrong, but hindsight is such a great thing!

With a series of Pony Club training rallies in the school summer term, I sent the fey -daughter on Marlene, to work her hard and prepare her for Camp. The first rally was ok, but at the second Marlene exploded. She became nappy, although not running to the other ponies, but running to the hedges and boundaries at the side of the field.She kept running to an old tractor trailer parked at the side of the field, and piled high with stuff. She wanted to go down the gap beside the trailer and the hedge. When brought back, and pushed into canter, she bucked. So we brought her home, had her saddle checked, worked her all week, and went out again to the following week's session. We got there early, planning to settle her before anyone else arrived. Once she was mounted there, she was felt like a coiled spring, agitated and anxious, and the fey-daughter was obviously tense and nervous herself. A 'helpful' teenager offered to get on her and 'hammer her round the field to knock the naughtiness out of her', but I politely declined, as I felt she was frightened rather than naughty. We dropped her down into a beginners ride that day, and she did some of it on the lead rein, and then I brought her home to scratch my head and ponder what had gone wrong.

I had her back checked, and long discussions with trainer and vet. We came to the conclusion that she was genuinely scared of open spaces, and of being independent, and I had pushed her too far, too fast. In hindsight, it all makes sense. Everything else in her life had been taken so slowly, and she is a very introverted character, that I just asked her to move forwards too many steps at once. She had, of course, had a terrible fright in an open space with a large number of ponies milling around, whilst we have had her, and who knows what trauma she may have suffered as a foal, out on the open moor, and being rounded up and roughly handled, and abruptly separated from her mother for sales. There is no way of knowing.

There were several outcomes to this. Firstly, the girls each had to move up a pony very suddenly if they were both to be able to go to Pony Club Camp. This meant that the fey -daughter took baby Captain to training, and has never looked back. The owl-daughter nervously took on Matthew, and has also never looked back (although in fairness to her, she still says Marlene is her favourite pony, but admits that she is nervous riding her). I, in the meantime, after discussion with the vet about the strength of Marlene's back, got on her myself, and began doing 10 minutes a day with her, trying to build up her confidence working independantly. I also rode her through the bucking at canter (not much fun on a tiny pony!) but felt she just needed to know she could find her balance and move forwards without everything falling apart. She needed quiet confidence, and I suspect even shouting at her when she tried to buck would have frightened her more, and smacking her, as was advocated by some, would have caused an absolute breakdown.

Anyway, as always when something goes wrong, you have to go back a step, and in this case we went back several steps. However, I think we made a few tiny steps forward again over the summer, and after much debate, I decided to take her down to Chagford show, as we had entered her months previously. Despite the torrential rain, she came 4th in the lead rein show pony, and then won the Heritage Dartmoor Class against strong competition. I couldn't have been more pleased with her.

Waiting in the rain at Chagford Show - August 2011

Winning the Heritage Dartmoor Pony Class

At the end of the autumn I turned her away again, as the farm has limited grazing for the winter, so Marlene returned to the Further Fields to run with the babies, and her best friend Piper. She will be 7 this year, and I need to make some decisions about her. When I bought her, I promised my husband she wouldn't be a forever pony, but a project, to sell on once she was grown out of. I have always promised the older ponies a lifetime home. Foggy and Matt are 19, and have served us well for many years, and though I might loan them out locally in the future if they had no work to do with us, I am committed to giving them a comfortable, well- cared for home until the end of their days. They deserve nothing less. Will I have promised a lifetime home to also, unless his old owner should find himself in a position to have him back. Captain, I suspect, has also earned himself a home for life. However, with the younger ponies, I have always tried to be honest about the fact that once the children have grown out of them, or we have no job for them to do, then they must move on. So now, with the girls grown out of Marlene, and the small boy very happy on Foggy, I am desperately trying to find a job for Marlene to do, because I am not ready to move her on yet. She is very dear to my heart.

So I have a plan!

It's not a whimsical plan, snatched at out of the blue, but one that has been germinating for many years. In fact, as a child, I read a haunting book, called 'The Driftway', by Penelope Lively, and I think it was this that first snagged my interest in the old drovers ways, green lanes, and pack pony pathways. We have many of them round here and as you walk the ancient tracks, its hard not to imagine the many feet which may have trodden the same way. As a child, I dreamed of riding a horse along these ancient ways, but as I have got older, I find myself more drawn to tramp them on my own two feet, with a pack pony walking beside me. And if ever there was a pony suited for the job it is Marlene. She is happiest walking beside me, she likes to have a leader, and follows faithfully. The anxieties that she feels under saddle, and which we will continue to work through, stem, I think, from her lack of confidence in herself, and lowest place in the herd pecking order. I am hoping she will take to packing. She has certainly never been bothered by carrying loads, having things flapping around her. I remember one time we were preparing to go blackberry picking with the dogs on a windy autumn day. I had decided to take Marlene too, and had stopped to chat to a visiting horsey person at the farm. I had sent the owl -daughter in to get containers for blackberries, and was surprised to hear the visiting friend shrieking 'No, don't do that!'. There behind me was a small daughter attempting to tie half a dozen empty plastic bags to Marlene's saddle, as they flapped around Marlene's face, and battered against her side like noisy balloons. Needless to say Marlene didn't bat an eyelid. Early on in her groundwork we did lots of walking over plastic bags, and wearing plastic sacks, and she is not in the least bit bothered by that.

So I foresee a new career as a pack pony. In fact the Dartmoor pony was famous as a pack pony in the past. There are also a couple of local community projects where she could be used as a pack pony, and we've had some really exciting talks about how she could be used. Sadly, it's almost forgotten in the UK these days, and that is why I need to ask for your help. I have been researching pack saddles, and various designs. It's virtually impossible to get one in the UK, unless you have it specially custom made, which I can't afford, and neither can I afford to have a brand new one shipped from the US. A friend can make willow panniers. I can certainly make a pad myself, and I think I can adjust the breastplate from a harness to fit. What I need are the wooden A frame (preferably decker style, rather than sawbuck) and cinches, and ideally the back breeching WITHOUT a crupper (harness breeching is always crupper style here). She is only 12.1hh, so it would need to be small pony or donkey size. Does anyone out there know where I can source these bits inexpensively, or have a used set to sell? I'm open to all sorts of suggestions and ideas, I'm willing to exchange for paintings or in kind in other ways if you have ideas, or alternative pack systems if you know of any good ones. A deer stalking saddle would be fine too, but they are rarer than hen's teeth! Please if any of you are experienced in packing with horses or ponies, and have suggestions or advice, I'd love to hear it :)

So, Thankyou, for reading this incredibly long post right to the very end, and I hope it hasn't bored you ;-)

Marlene and Piper in their winter woolies -winter 2011/12

Landscapes week 3

2012-01-18T05:55:00.000-08:00

Frosty Morning at Higher Weddicott 17/1/12

Watercolour and ink

Phew, finally caught myself up to the right week!

Landscapes Week 2

2012-01-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

Kestor from Nattadon 15/1/12

Ink and watercolour

Local Landscapes Week 1

2012-01-10T13:00:00.000-08:00

'Kestor 10/1/12 '

graphite, gouache and ink on Ingres paper

I mentioned new year resolutions in my previous post, when I showed you the ernormous reading list. Now I'm going to introduce the other major resolution I've made!

I need to brush up my landscape sketching skills, so I have decide to do a local landscape drawing or painting each week this year. They are not intended to be major works of art, simply an exercise for me, where I can be freer and more experimental with materials if I want.

Todays effort was this, a granite outcrop with a lot of strata lines.

For now, I will have to work from photos, as the weather is not conducive to 'plein air' painting, though I hope I might be able to get out and about with my sketchbook a bit more often this year.

New Year, New Energies

2012-01-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

'The Red Deer Guardian'
Watercolour and ink
16 inches by 12 inches

£175 + postage

After a prolonged absence, my muse finally returned this morning! The ideas have been jostling about on the peripheral edges of my mind for a while, but I've not been able to see them clearly. I put it down to the general Christmas and New Year 'brain fug', but I just couldn't quite shake it off. However, this morning I woke up feeling energised and vital. Coincidentally, the stormy weather and deafening wind had also gone, leaving a bright dawn and a strange stillness that feels pregnant with life and energy. I keep half-expecting to find that the garden has burst into song, Disney style, next time I look out of the window!
A dog walk and brisk workout digging and clearing debris from the stream in the Further Fields, which had become blocked by the raging torrent earlier this week, and consequently was flooding down the road, shook the remaining cobwebs from the dusty recesses of my brain this morning, followed by a meditation , and the muse burst back in.(No, I don't meditate often, I rarely pause for long enough, and I had almost forgotten how good it is for sharpening the mind)
Those half glimpsed ideas are pouring out, fully formed and brightly coloured! I just need to get them down on paper now :)

So while I'm working on that, I'll show you what I've been up to while the muse was away! The owl-daughter and I made our first attempt at a plush monster. This was a Christmas gift for my nephew (he named the monster 'Mark') and we had great fun making it.

Then of course there was the traditional Christmas lurgy, which thankfully only I got this year. It entailed lots of sleeping and sitting by the fire, accompanied by the cats. (I don't know why Beetle chooses to sleep in this 'face-plant' position, but it is always his sleep style of choice)

And then there were the Christmas books! I got lots of wonderful books this year, and I'm only just starting to make inroads on them. One of my new Year's resolutions is to attempt to read more academically this year. There is so much I want to know, and I have a list as long as my arm of 'wanted books'. One that has been on my wish list for a while is 'Thursbitch' by Alan Garner, and I was thrilled to be given it this year. Alan Garner was one of my earliest loved writers - I'm sure many of you are fans of 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' and (my personal favourite) 'Elidor'. Aside from the fantasy element, the thing I loved most about his writing was how he evoked such a clear, strong sense of place. However, I only recently discovered his adult works, and this, 'Thursbitch' lived up to all expectations. I can see that it might not be every one's cup of tea, and I'll admit it is challenging, but I loved it, and it's the first book in a long time that has made me want to go and research it's references thoroughly, understand more of the history and folklore behind it, and then go back for a second read. There is a great site here, which points you in the right direction for further reading. So that is more books added to my 'wanted' list!

And finally, a wander around the second hand bookstore at proper job yielded yet more paper treasure. The pile is growing far faster than I can read!

Reindeer or Red Deer?

2011-12-14T13:23:00.000-08:00

'The Holly And The Ivy'

I have spent the last two days slaving over a christmas card design. (Actually, that's not true - I have spent the whole of the past week working on it, but the first picture went in the bin because it annoyed me so much). In true Barlow style, I have finished it too late to actually print it up and send to anyone, so I guess it may have to wait until next year.....
My smallest son, at home yesterday, decided to make his own version of it. It only took him half an hour, and to be honest I think it totally outclasses mine as a card design!

In the meantime, the Fundraiser for Terri Windling, over on Livejournal, has been growing beyond all belief! It's drawing to a close now, with only a day to go, but do pop over and see what new treasures have been offered.
This Stag Beetle embroidery is offered by my sister, Angharad Barlow. The listing is HERE.

And I added another piece to the pot, or at least a potential piece. As well as a choice of 3 prints from my Transformations series, I am offering to paint a custom portrait of YOU (or someone else if you want) with your animal totem, as an addition to this series. I really enjoy painting these and look forward to doing another! If you want to bid, go HERE.

And thinking of these little portraits, brought me on a meandering road to this, which I discovered earlier. Charles De Lint is one of my favourite authors - not so well known here in the UK, I found his work a few years ago when I first started exploring animal totems and transformation in my paintings. A customer suggested I read 'Someplace To Be Flying', which I did, and was smitten! Things came full circle, because a couple of years later, Terri Windling bought the original of the little Crow Girl painting as a gift for Charles himself.

You can find more music by him, and MaryAnn Harris HERE (and CDs are on special offer until the end of the week!)

Work In Progress

2011-12-12T00:02:00.000-08:00

Just a very quick peek at the next painting on the studio table! Hopefully I'll have more to show you next time xxx

some pen and ink works.....

2011-12-05T13:15:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy in the run up to Christmas! I've been finishing commissions, which, sadly, I can't show you pictures of yet, as they are to be gifts. You'll have to wait till New Year! I've been trying to list a few new prints over in the Etsy shop, and preparing for an open Studio this weekend.

I also did this little piece - a design sketch for a larger piece, depicting the spirits of the land. This one is entitled 'Red Deer Guardian'. Can you see the guardian? It took my children a while! There are prints of this in the shop, but the original is HERE, offered for sale at the 'Magick for Terri' fundraising auction. If you click through, it will explain in more detail the reason for this, but suffice it to say, its a very worthy cause. Terri Windling has offered so much support and encouragement to many of us striving to make a mark in the world of mythical arts, and its an honour to be able to offer something back.
The greats of the fantasy world have come together to help Terri, and there are the most amazing things on offer! I could write my complete Christmas list from the auction :) Fancy an original Brian Froud or Alan Lee work? They are there. Lunch with your favourite author? Or even cooler, the chance to BE a character in your favourite fantasy author's next novel! How amazing is that! Personally, I'd like a poem from Charles De Lint or the 'A Fall of Stardust ' portfolio, with work by Neil Gaiman and Susannah Clarke ;-)

However, if you're longing for an original Alan Lee work, and can't afford the price his fundraiser sketch is making, this beautiful pencil drawing is this week's treasure at Proper Job! It's very beautiful, a local river scene, and is about 15 inches by 9 inches. They are asking for offers over £200, so get yourself down there if you want a bargain! On second thoughts, best to give them a ring first, in case it has already gone.

Introducing Will

2011-11-15T07:58:00.001-08:00

Ok, finally, as promised - here is Will.
He is a fraction under 15hh, and about 11/12 years old. I've known him for a long time, as he was born and bred half a mile down the road, by friends of mine. He has been a pet most of his life, quiet to sit on, but not really done more than walk around the block a few times, several years ago. Sadly, his owner's circumstances have changed, and Will needed a new home before the winter got under way. After thinking long and hard about it, I offered Will a long term home, and here he is.

Although a 'coloured cob' like Captain, they couldn't be more different, both in type and temperament. Is he a Vanner? No, although to be honest, it's not a term I like very much. I had never even heard it used until the last 5 years or so - it seems to be an new thing, as they have become fashionable, and begun to command huge prices. When I worked at Coolmore Stud, in Ireland, many years ago, they were called 'Battys'. The stud kept a small herd of Batty mares, bred to their National Hunt Thoroughbreds, to use as foster mares whenever needed. I reckon those foals became the Irish Sport Horses so sought after today, but at the time they were not worth much, and virtually given away. I always wished I had brought one home with me! Here, we always called them Gypsy cobs, and that is really what Will is. He doesn't have the leg feather to be classed as a Vanner, but he has been bred specifically for driving. You can see the width across his chest, and he has massive amounts of bone. I keep forgetting to get the tape measure out to see.

I knew his sire, and his grand-sire when I was a teenager.
Captain is not a Vanner either - in fact, although he has the requisite feather, he is far further away from the Vanner requirements than Will. Captain is, to all intents and purposes, a mini Clydesdale. He is long of leg, and narrow in front and behind. He has the calm and gentle temperament too. However, he is remarkably athletic for his sort, and loves to work.

When Will first arrived, he was very unsettled by the move. I gave him a month to settle in, and get used to a new life. He was anxious about being in a stable, and anxious about being alone, and anxious about everything new. Given half a chance, I think he would have broken loose, and galloped back to his old home. He is built like a battleship, and towers over me, and was inclined to be bargy and drag me across the yard. His nervous reaction is to toss his head, and one sweep of his enormous head could send me across the stable. I had a couple of days where I wondered if I had been very foolish to take him on, and feeling rather gloomy about it all.
However, I decided that the first thing to do was establish a regular routine. They all come in every morning for a half an hour, for a small feed, and a bite of hay. Will is rather fat, but he still gets a handful of chaff, and I've added seaweed and magnesium to his. (I intend him to stay barefoot, and magnesium should have a triple action, - as calmer, to lessen sensitivity in his laminae, should there be any, and to help shift some of the fat deposits on his neck and rump)

The next step was to work on his ground manners. An extra large control headcollar came into Proper Job on the very day that I was planning to go and buy one after work. Coincidence huh?! It fits Will a treat, and so I've been working on getting his respect on the ground, and now he is being very polite, especially about things like not walking out of the stable door until I ask him to, even if his friends are already on the move.

So finally, after managing to find some tack to go round his enormous bulk, and a couple of quiet practices in the yard, we went for a ride around the block yesterday. He's not much used to a bit at the moment, so I currently have his control halter on too, with rope reins, and ride as if in a double bridle, so he needs only the lightest touch on both. He marched out beautifully, poor Captain, supposed to be escort, struggled to keep up with Will's walk, even at a joggy trot! An excellent first time out - he even passed his old home, with no more than pricked ears, and a whinny to his friends the goats, but he never stopped or baulked at riding on past. Traffic is fairly new to him, but again, once stopped, he led the way through. So, I'm hoping that things will continue on well, and he'll be a great little horse for me! I've been sorely missing Red, and his bouncy attitude and powerful stride. Captain is a dear, and perfect for the fey-daughter , who adores and trusts him, but if I'm completely honest, I like a bit more attitude :)

Flames and Feasts

2011-11-08T14:06:00.000-08:00

I promised to introduce you to Will in this post, but it's been too dark and murky and filled with magic over the last few days, and these pictures wanted to come first!

First is this wonderful poem by my friend William Todd-Jones, read by Cerys Matthews on BBC 6 music. The music is by Hilary Tann, and the images by Carol Amos. It perfectly captures the mood of the last few days......

We went to a spooky, candlelit apple party .

Where magical creatures lurked in dusty corners

And small ghosts played with flames

And we all threw a lot of apples. Extra cider for the people who managed to get an apple through the smallest hole in the board(I did!)

And yet more cider.......

And a fabulous toadstool cake!

And finally, after a couple of days recovering from the cider, I finished the last Welsh painting.

Welsh Week

2011-10-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling well and truly recharged creatively after a week's holiday on the North Wales coast. It's the first time we've had a holiday in two years, and I'd forgotten how much we need a break sometimes. We came to stay at a cottage belonging to a family friend - I used to come here as a child, but it's been 25 years since I last visited. It hasn't changed much.

We revisited old favourites - slate mines and castles , and sites from myth and legend. This is Caernarfon castle, even more impressive than I remembered it to be. It took all day to explore.

And this was perhaps the most impressive site of all. Tre'r Ceiri, an iron age hillfort, perched high on top of a mountain, a hard climb. Inside this huge site,hanging on the edge of the peak, and bounded by impenetrable stone ramparts, 5 o r 6 foot high, and wider still, are the remains of nearly 150 iron age roundhouses. These are in far better condition than the ones I am used to seeing here on Dartmoor, many have almost complete walls. You can see from the picture below how they are built almost in a flower pattern - a circle of little one roomed huts around an open space, looking just like petals on a flower. Some of the later ones are divided into two or even three rooms. It's hard to imagine living here, in such a bleak, and frankly fairly hostile environment. However, before the cloud descended and made seeing beyond the end of our noses difficult, the views were spectacular. I could see holyhead in one direction, the end of the Llyn peninsular in another, looking for all the world like a toy map, and, in a brief moment of golden light and clarity, the hills of South Wales and Fishguard.

But most of the time was spent mooching on the beach. Small toothy son spent every daylight hour on the beach, building sandcastles, running with the dogs, and asking endless questions of the fishermen.

We were all inspired to get creative on the beach. The owl-daughter made a mermaid.

While the boys helped me to shape a giant dragon. The owl daughter made it's legs and claws, while the fey daughter collected fiery stones to make it's belly glow.

We watched dolphins playing in the bay from our bedroom window, and I spent hours being amazed by the changing light show outside.

Frustration at being unable to capture the quality of light properly on camera led me to drag out my paintbox, but the first attempts, on poor paper, were terrible! My father came to my rescue, bringing me good watercolour paper and Indian ink from Porthmadog, and I stepped outside of my comfort zone and painted like a woman possessed. The early paintings are poor, but these later ones are just beginning to capture the colours I was looking for. I don't pretend to be a landscape painter in any way, and these are simplistic paintings, attempting to capture accurate colours rather than details, but I really enjoyed myself!

It was very liberating, and as I got more and more confident, the colours became more and more lurid!

And now it's back to reality, and the grim search for a new car, within our tiny budget, as ours finally gave up the ghost two days before we left for Wales. I'm hoping though, that I can retain a little bit of this freedom in my work, if not in my life!

October news

2011-10-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

I've just finished this commission, a painting for my sister, that can be a sign for a studio and a stand alone painting. I had so much fun doing this one -I've been composing a post in my head about it all week, about the importance of roots, and the land, but suddenly it is Saturday morning of half term, and we go away in half an hour, and the clever prose has completely gone from my head, pushed aside by lists of warm underwear and wondering wether everyone has a pair of wellies that are watertight. Suffice it to say that this is a painting that is just as personal to me as it is to her :)

At Proper Job we have been busy sorting out blankets for the cold weather. So many lovely treasures this week! A pair of Welsh blankets - one vintage and one of more recent manufacture, but both lovely pieces.

Piles and piles of old woollen blankets that have been sitting in the top of the round house for a while. These are a fascinating piece of history. While unfolding them and checking for marks and moth holes, we saw that many were embroidered with the name DREWE in red wool.

And then in the corners, each had little stitched labels, indicating where they were from. This one says 'housemaid', others all had different members of the household named. Where are they from? I don't know for certain, but I imagine they are most likely to have originally been from Castle Drogo, sitting atop the Teign Gorge and looking down over the village, home of the Drewe family. A little piece of history :)

And here is a lovely hand embellished blanket, a bit holey in places, but a real vintage treasure.

And a sneak peak at our newest arrival - although I am often being asked to take horses and ponies I usually turn them down, as I am stretched to the limit, but this boy I couldn't refuse!

Knitting S.O.S

2011-09-19T23:59:00.001-07:00

I've been working at Proper Job occasionally this summer, and this old trunk has been sitting forlornly in the corner of the textiles cabin. I'm always drawn to knitting, covetous of yarn in all it's many shades . Here, in the trunk, there are many shades of green. I wonder who the owner was? Someone else who loved green, and who had several nearly finished projects. How sad to think that they were put away, uncompleted, forgotten in a trunk for years.
In the end, I couldn't see them sit there unwanted any longer, and brought them home. Now I'm hoping that there are people out there who would like to have them and finish them!
Please, can anyone give these a new life ? For the cost of posting, I'll send one to you, if you will send a photo / or post a link back to Proper Job Recycling Centre when you are done.

Sap Green Cardi
This green cardigan is almost complete - it just needs the button band completed. It measures 68 cm in length, and 44cm across the chest (but it's ribbed, so that's it's slack measurement - it will stretch much wider). I would guess it would probably fit an English size 12? There is enough wool to complete the project, and 1 size 11 knitting needle.

Moss Green Cardi
This is another wool cardigan in a much finer knit. It has a back, two side fronts, I completed raglan sleeve, and one partially completed sleeve. There are two spare balls of wool (enough to complete the project). It measures 60 cm long, and approx 52 cm across the chest. The colour is a slightly richer moss green than it shows on my monitor. However, this one does have a couple of moth holes in it which need repairing (see the pic below).

Emerald cardi
The final cardigan is an incredibly soft acrylic yarn, in a rather bright emerald green.Again, it has back,and two sides completed, and 1 sleeve begun. There are 2 1/2 balls of wool left, which should be enough to finish. It measures 65 cm long, and 48 cm across the back.
Daisy dog not included!

Baby Dress
Tiny blue knitted dress/ cardi, with one side missing. I can't find any wool to complete this with.

I reckon the cardigans will cost a couple of pounds each to post within the UK, maybe a bit more to send abroad, but please get in touch if you would like to have one of these!

Finally coming up for air......

2011-09-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Wow, somehow Summer went by in a flash, and it has been 3 months since I posted here! Thank you so much to all the wonderful people who contacted me to check things were OK - it's so nice to know people are interested and care! I think I got back to you all personally, but "Thank you" again.

All is well here, it's just that life takes over in the long days of summer. From dawn to dusk I am juggling children and dogs and ponies and vegetable garden and work. It's a good life though :)

Now the weather is changing and the nights are drawing in there is finally time to get back to the computer and play catch-up. But where to start? The more time passes, the more daunting the task of updating the blog! So instead, for today, I'll answer the most often asked question : How is Captain getting on?

He is just the most wonderful addition to the family, and this summer has seen him take so much in his stride. My eldest, the Fey-daughter, after initial reluctance to hand over the reins on her beloved Matthew, has become smitten with Captain, and they have developed an amazing bond. She has worked so hard, and taken him from those first beginnings when he was barely able to walk up a hill, and was completely bemused by small jumps (though always kind and willing to try things) to a pony who she can take out all day across the moor, knowing he will cross rivers, jump small walls, race her friends across the wind blown ridges of the High Moor, and turn away to come home alone without worrying.

He has been to Pony Club Camp, jumped a clear round showjumping at 1' 6", taken the Fey-daughter through her Riding and Road Safety test, and 'C' test, and learnt to ignore sheep and llamas (although he is still wary of large fur ball cats - quite wisely - Kitty is a force to be reckoned with!). Yesterday, watching him jump, I saw him prick his ears, pick up canter, and take himself in to the jump. Such progress from the baby pony we had at the start of the summer! They are happy with each other, and ready to take on the world!

I, however, don't get a look in with Captain any more! Instead, I am sitting here with a sore knee from falling off Marlene last week. She has had a roller coaster of a summer, swinging from highs to lows, and back again. But that's a long story, and will have to wait for another post....

All Change .... again!

2011-06-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Phew! This is about how I feel at the moment - I could just turn turtle and let everything go.
It's been an exhausting few weeks. Every time I think I've just got a hold on all the different threads, one of them slips, and I have to race to grab it, and try not to let them all get tangled again.
There has been the major issue of a car bill for £1600 - but Thank Goodness I AM mobile again. And vet's fees. And a pony with a sore back that needed a new saddle. The owl daughter rode bareback for a couple of weeks, but Marlene needed a good saddle that was comfy. Studio rent combined with Steve going into hospital for an op (not major, but means a couple of weeks off work). Etc.....

So this meant I needed a rethink, and the upshot of that was the decision to pull out of the nice rented studio, and move back to my shed in the garden. Actually, this doesn't feel like a step backwards - I was struggling to find time to get to the studio, and felt like my whole family was suffering by me being stretched too thinly.Even the dogs were miserable and Daisy was stressy at being left alone all day - she does like company. Instead I have spent the last few weeks madly trying to reline and waterproof the old shed, as well as building a small new extension on the front of it. It's great, and it means I can work in the evenings without abandoning the children.

I even did most of the building myself! I'm pretty handy with a drill and saw :)
Being done on a shoestring meant some head scratching over a few issues - for instance the insulation. But I had a sudden brainwave, and raced down to Proper Job recycling centre where I gathered an armful of old single duvets. These fit nicely, one to each shed panel, stapled into place! It does however make the shed look rather like a padded cell.

So I'm finally ready to work again, and, even better, BT came out and fixed my phone line at last, so the Internet works properly again. To celebrate, I have spent the last 2 days uploading originals and new prints to my Etsy shop. There are still a few more to go, but they should be finished by the weekend. BUT I'm afraid prices of prints are going to go up, as ink and paper prices seem to have increased disproportionately since I last bought them. I wont adjust them until next Monday, and, as a special 'Thank you' to all my blog readers who have faithfully stuck with me despite my appalling lack of updates recently, I am offering a discount code giving 10% off everything in the shop (including originals) BEFORE the price rise next Monday. It's only valid until Monday morning, so now is the chance to grab anything that you really want :)
You need to quote PAYTHECARBILL2011 at the checkout and your 10% discount will automatically be taken off.

Meanwhile, between working in the garden and mending the shed, we have spent lots of time with the ponies. Captain has been pretty much taken over by eldest daughter, and is universally adored. He is beginning to learn to jump, and is enthusiastic about logs and ditches, but quite bemused by coloured poles!

Marlene is working hard, and reaching that adolescent stage where she is beginning to test her boundaries. She is a bright little pony, and easily bored, so we have to keep doing new things with her.

I've even found time to start my baby Piper, who is very keen to start work and go out with her friends. I haven't been in too much of a hurry with her as she is still growing, and higher behind than at the wither.

The exciting news that has happened while I have been busy, is that a fabric printing and transfer company, Kats Magical Patches, has been using some of my images under licence to make a range of printed fabric patches and iron-on transfers. Do have a look at them - they are really coo, and you'll find several familiar artists there :)

A May Day Weekend

2011-05-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

These past three weeks have been idyllic for the children. The school holidays have passed in a hazy blur of sun-stretched days and lingering, smoke scented evenings.

We have spent hours traipsing through the gorse and heather with the ponies, or perched on sun baked rocks, dipping our toes in the icy river.

Evenings spent laughing beside an open fire, eating half charred sausages, washed down with red wine and the last of the elderflower champagne, or simply lying silently on the hill to watch the sun sink behind the ancient granite backbone of Dartmoor.
I envy the children their simplicity. I wish that I could remain with them inside this perfect bubble, shielded from the tangled emotions of grief and anger which I am struggling to lay to rest at the moment.
Instead I hover between these two worlds in the final days of spring, feeling as if I am in transition. It is hard to remember that the year is still young, the wheel is only just turning to summer.

Today dawns hot and still, and the sky feels heavy, as if it is pressing down on us.The wind - dried, sun bleached moors beneath our feet, are finally springing to life, as tightly curled bracken fronds erupt from the dry earth. The close cropped turf is soft, and muffles the ponies unshod hooves, and we leave no trace on this thirsty land. Thick clouds of black mayflies fill the air, slow and ponderous, legs dangling clumsily beneath them, drifting lazily in the shimmering air.
Even the children are silent, disinclined to find themselves with a mouthful of mayfly, and save for the rhythmic creak of old leather saddles and the chinking of bridles as ponies toss their heads, there is not a sound.
And yet, in this oppressive silence, senses feel heightened. Bees drone, and the air quivers around us. The owl daughter comments that the distant tors look as if they are hovering over a pan of boiling water, and she is right. I can see, and feel, and hear the air vibrating around us. It is as if we are caught in a bubble, disconnected from the world beyond, a little pocket of space and time, waiting for something to happen.

As we reach the crest of the hill, a pair of Ravens circle lazily overhead, and from the hollow beneath the rocks a fox breaks cover. It pauses to stare at us, and then trots urgently on across the hill. Not scared, but as if it has business to attend to. And there we stand, four riders on the beacon, as the first clap of thunder comes.

Instead of releasing the tension, it increases it - ponies and children are nervous and jittery , and we break from the hilltop and fly for home, down the steep and overgrown hillside, prancing and skittering on the stony sheep paths. The sky is dark and heavy, and the thunder rumbles around us, never quite overhead, promising rain, but not delivering it.
Home safe, we all still feel the pull of the storm, the excitement and fear, the portentousness of the day. It is a public holiday, a day of celebration, a prince's wedding day. In our small village we have a choice of two ways to spend the evening. In the village hall, an anarchic punk band and a joyful gypsy/Klezmer band are playing, an antidote to the solemnity of the day. This sounds tempting, but realistically, we have a handful of extra children, and at the tail end of the month my purse is empty, so we choose the other option. Astoundingly, the parish council has decided to light the beacon tonight, in honour of the Royal Wedding. Of course, in these modern times, village officials wouldn't dream of celebrating the pagan Beltaine, but in a strange echo of years past, a huge bonfire has been built on the ancient beacon above our village, that same beacon that we had ridden over earlier in the day. In the dusk people made their way up the steep hill in ones and twos, a small gathering of people from the village below and the surrounding farms, who had walked across the hills in the gloom. And the fire was lit, there on the beacon, as it must have been lit hundreds of times before. To celebrate in times of peace, and as a warning in times of trouble. There is something so very primal about fire, and this one, this great beacon glowing across the moors, was wild, and celebratory, and a fitting climax to an expectant day.

Easter Egg Rolling

2011-04-24T13:21:00.001-07:00

"Eostre"

For our family, Easter means a large family gathering for a brunch of drop scones, followed by egg rolling from the top of Meldon Hill.

Everyone decorates a hard boiled egg - some put in a lot more effort than others!

Mine was a very lame attempt in between cooking hundreds of drop scones.

My cousin made a fabulous Mr Bump

and my sister contributed Big Buddha and Big Buddha's Little Brother.

Once we have voted for a winner, everyone takes it in turns to roll their eggs down the face of the hill, inevitably helped by an overexcited pack of dogs.
The winner is the person whose egg gets furthest down the hill, intact.

Afterwards small boys practised rolling down the hill like eggs,

and we all reclaimed our hard boiled eggs (those that hadn't been snaffled up by dogs!) to eat in the glorious sunshine.

Happy Easter to you all - I hope you had as much fun as we did :)

Tricksters and Totems : A Virtual View of the Exhibition

2011-04-13T23:15:00.000-07:00

So, here we are! My exhibition is up in the Courtyard Cafe, Chagford, for the month of April.
I'm sorry for the colour in most of these photos - they were taken indoors without a flash, and have a very yellow cast!

'The Goat Guardian'

These are the lovely oak frames that I salvaged from the Proper Job recycling centre, which fit the Guardian paintings perfectly.

'Hare Guardian'

'She Waits'

'She Wishes'

And these are a pair of small mixed media paintings which I finished in time for the show. There will be prints of these on Etsy any day now.

Thankyou so much to everyone who leaves comments - I really love to read them, and appreciate them all. I'm sorry I have been extremely slow moderating them recently, but I'm having some major issues with my internet connection at the moment.

New work emerging from the studio......

2011-03-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

"We Are Kin"
A3 watercolour

Busy days in the studio at the moment. I have an exhibition coming up, and have been working like mad on some larger pieces for it. I have grand plans for a much more extravagant version of this fox woman, but for now I need to tidy up loose ends and finish some smaller pieces.

These two paintings are huge (for me) and are off being framed in some lovely second hand oak frames that I found at Proper Job. Having the new studio has meant I have had the space to work larger, and these are very personal paintings that I have been wanting to create for a long time. These characters are my muses and guides :)

Spring has well and truly sprung. While I am working I have been fidgety and eager to get outside into the glorious March sunshine.
Captain has been wonderful, taking everything in his stride. River crossings, log lorries, ice creams in the village! I am reduced to walking everywhere, as the girls have stolen him entirely. I'm guessing there will be a lot more walking in the future, as my car is on its last legs. The lovely local garage have stuck it back together with sticky tape, but it's only going to keep it going a bit longer.

Introductions

2011-03-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been nearly two weeks, and I guess you are all waiting for me to introduce you to the new arrival! Here he is, Captain Kao, a truly gentle soul. He's about 14.1hh, rising 6, and rather wide eyed about the different landscape, but very keen to please. We are taking things very slowly, walking mainly at the moment as hills are a new concept to him, and I'm having to save up for a new saddle, as I'm not entirely happy with the one he has on right now.
I will get out with the camera in the sunshine soon and get some new photos.

I finally finished my commissions - here is another 'Story Portrait' of Chloe and Benjamin. I really enjoyed doing this one! It's pretty big for me - nearly A3 size. And a little gilded fox, rather snooty looking!
I've lots of new work to show you, but I'm just getting it properly photographed for prints first.

A new chapter for Bethan

2011-03-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

There are changes afoot here, amongst the quiet little world of our pony herd. The prospect of change has been worrying me for a while. Although I am always happy to take ponies on, I have great difficulty in letting them go again. I think the children must have been standing on the compost heap, as they have all grown hugely over this past year. My eldest is suddenly as tall as me, and this has precipitated the pony troubles. She has pretty much outgrown her beloved Matthew, and we came to the decision that this year we would need to look for a bigger pony. Unfortunately, my boy Red, is not suitable, as he is quite a handful and needs a very confident rider. After months of thinking about this, and discussing it, we decided that Red would return to his owner. He came to me on loan as a difficult horse, altogether too much for his novice owner, who never-the-less adored him, and has kept in close contact over the last four years. Now, she is more than capable of managing him herself, so he is returning home in a couple of weeks time.

The plan was then to sell Bethan in order to raise funds for a bigger pony which eldest daughter and I can share. I discussed it with middle daughter, who will move on to Matthew eventually, and she, like me, was very concerned about where Bethan would go next. So I stalled. Because, you know, I was having sleepless nights over this myself. When I bought Bethan, it was with the intention that we needed a good pony for a year to get my daughter's confidence back while Marlene was off having a foal. And you all know the roller coaster ride that turned into! So it's been a year now, and a very steep learning curve for all of us, and a complete turnaround for this wonderful little pony. I've been worrying that selling her into the unknown would be letting her down after everything we've done.

Then suddenly, as if fate had quite deliberately stepped in and given me a helping hand, a solution came up. Last summer I was contacted by a previous owner of Bethan's, who had traced her through this blog. We have kept in touch, as she adored Bethan just as we do. To cut a long story short, she would like Bethan back, and has a larger pony that we will take on. I am SO pleased for Bethan to be going to a home where she is understood and loved, and where she will be treated just like the princess she is! And I am excited and rather nervous about taking on a new pony, unseen - but I know it's meant to be :)

So, in preparation for the next step, Bethan had another acupuncture session today. She has only just been brought back into work after being turned away over the winter, and because of the rest her shoulder has stiffened up again. She really enjoys the acupuncture - becoming sleepier, with lots of yawning as the session progresses. A program of exercises should help to loosen it up now.

By the end of the session she is half asleep, and needs to be tucked up warmly to prevent her getting chilled.

And then ,what better way to get rid of those tingly spots than with a good roll?

And back to mud monster again - her favourite way to be!

Illustration Friday :"Swarm"

2011-02-28T06:57:00.000-08:00

"Melissa"

Another resolution for this year - take part in Illustration Friday more regularly. A quick sketch in response to their creative prompt is great to stop me becoming over absorbed in current projects!

More work....

2011-02-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

Well, the weather has been so atrocious this last week that I have battened down the hatches and got stuck in to work. I finally finished the Hare Wheel Quilt. I just need to find a suitable bony stick from which to hang it. I'll show you close ups next time. That is a Hare's head in the middle, by the way, not a tadpole, as my small son thought. He also commented that all the words go round and round in circles 'just like your words do when you talk, Mummy'. Hmmm, I'm not quite sure what to make of that!

Here are the fox and magpie, tricksters and lovers, spirits circling and dancing.

And some of the composition sketches, large ones by my standards, listed on Etsy, as I REALLY need to start paying the rent on the studio :)

Time to choose

2011-02-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

Time for a long overdue 'Illustration Friday' submission, as my current piece fits this weeks theme.

Last week I finished a painting, of the Fox and Magpie, the bones of whose story has been rattling around in my head for a while. The story is not quite there yet - each time I throw the bones, the pattern comes out a little clearer, but in the meantime the images are shrieking to be given life on paper.
So, I painted them. But I wasn't happy with the result, so I decided to 'reverse' the composition and try again. I like todays painting much better. Curiously,in the studio, everyone else disagreed and preferred the first.
I'm not telling you which is which, but I'd be interested to know which you like best!

*** Thankyou to everyone who gave their opinion :) The bottom picture was the first one painted, and it was the top one which I preferred. Interestingly the majority of you agreed with that, but of the people who have compared them 'in the flesh' so to speak, it has been the lower one which was liked better. I'm wondering if this is simply due to the way I scanned them and uploaded the images. *****

Wings in the night

2011-01-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

The fairies came to visit us last night. The owl daughter has had many wobbly teeth recently, and she writes great long letters to the tooth fairy. Her fairy delivers back, along with the 50 pence piece, a teeny tiny letter, just as the tooth fairies did for me, many years ago.

'The Owl Fire'
As well as drawing owls herself, the owl daughter asked me to paint a picture for her, specifically of her with an owl on each shoulder. This is what I have come up with :

This first one is in ink and watercolour, and is more 'sketchy' - part of my attempts to free up my working style a little. It's a good start, but I'm not satisfied yet. I love the colours, but feel it needs trying again, from a much higher viewpoint, with more of a sense of space. i can see it clearly in my head, so maybe I'll have time for another try next week.

This second one is a return to my usual style (and the one I think she will choose). I'm still feeling full of joy when I paint, revelling in the luxury of being able to paint 2 or even 3 versions of a picture!

Returning to my roots

2011-01-22T05:15:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is. The New Studio. This is my room, relatively ordered and organised for now. I'm sharing the workshop with my sister, who has a clothes design business (see her blog, Sustainable Styling). We have a large front room, which will serve as cutting room / gallery space, and then two smaller rooms at the back, of which we have one each as workspace. It's right in the centre of the village, Chagford square, which is great. It means it's easy to reach, easy for people to come in, and (for me at least) will force me to be more sociable. I became particularly hermit like last year, working from home, and I don't think it's good for me! Most importantly though, it should make me more disciplined about working. I fell into the classic trap of working from home - I ended up simply doing all the chores that needed doing around the house, and rarely getting around to painting. Of course, it will put added pressure on me too - there is the small matter of rent to be paid, and therefore earned!

But for now, I have decide to treat myself to a 'no pressure' first month. Instead of hurling myself into uninspired paintings in a desperate attempt to earn some cash, I have taken the time to pause, and ponder just what it is about illustration that I love. In moving my possessions to the studio, I boxed up, and then unpacked all my precious books, and in doing this, took many hours, ginger tea in hand, to look through them. To remember again those beautiful illustrations from my childhood, that formed my earliest memories of books, and influenced my first drawings. The books I saved from my own children's youngest days, favourite illustrators working now. So many.....
I grew up on a diet of Arthur Rackham, Aubrey Beardsley and Edmund Dulac, Alan Lee and Lisbeth Zwerger. Shirley Hughes.(Alfie and Annie Rose irritated me, but I adored the story of Dogger).Maurice Sendak's illustrations for 'Charlotte and The White Horse' As I moved on to older fiction I loved the spidery line drawings of Charles Keeping (especially the unicorn in 'Elidor') and Victor Ambrus ( the wild Spanish mustang in 'The Wild Heart'). Honore Daumier's paintings of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. I bought for my own children 'The Highwayman' illustrated by Charles Keeping - possibly my most favourite of all!
Having children of my own introduced me to a whole new generation of illustrators, and more treasures for my bookshelves. Jane Ray, Jackie Morris, Helen Ward, Shaun Tan, Russell Ayto to name just a few.

My work feels as if it has become more and more stilted of late. I have been feeling constricted, and uninspired, painting from necessity and not from joy. This week I have felt like a child in a sweet shop. Gone is the restrictive pressure of 'painting to order' and instead I am scribbling and sketching. Drawing from life and not from photos. Doing 'rough' paintings as working sketches, and reworking the same theme over and over in a myriad different ways, just to see what happens. Picking up my dipping pen, which is oh-so liberating! I may be broke, but I'm SO happy! It's becoming hard to drag myself away in order to collect the children from school, and I feel deeply resentful of other jobs which take me away from my studio.

A part of me feels panicky - I'm really not sure I can afford to rent this space - so I must get as much work done as possible. A creative frenzy is upon me.
Another part of me feels guilty. Is this not incredibly selfish? Not only am I using something from our meagre household coffers to do something JUST FOR ME, I am very happy and do not want to share my space and creativity with anyone.
Mainly I push these worrisome parts of me away, into the dusty corners, and just feel a slight swagger in my step as I say to friends and family "I'll be in the studio all day". It's so much more satisfying than saying "I'm going to the shed until I can bear the cold and the creeping fungus no more"!

I've even taken a 'commission' from my daughter. She of the 11 owls.
I fear she is going to be a very demanding client!

Blowing away the Cobwebs

2011-01-15T12:22:00.000-08:00

This morning when I went to feed the ponies, they came skittering down the field like leaves in a gust of wind. They are nervous and edgy in this weather, imagining monsters behind gate posts and gorse bushes, alert and fidgety as they eat their hay, poised on the brink of flight.
Red prances around the big field, plucking up the courage to dash through the narrow gateway at top speed, just in case something darts out to grab him.
I watch and wonder. Is it purely their primal instincts kicking in - or are their heightened senses aware of things we cannot see?

Even the lugubrious Matthew is momentarily spooked, though hunger overcomes his nerves.

Bethan is a princess, whatever else is happening. Pretty as a picture, she steps delicately and always presents her best side to the camera, even when dodging trolls. It's difficult to believe this is the same pony that arrived here a year ago. From being such a quiet introverted little pony, she has really found her feet, and finally found her natural place in the herd. She is cheeky and full of herself, and bursting with confidence, which is a joy to see. Even better, since beginning her on Spirulina in the autumn, her wheezing has cleared up completely. She is living out full time, and eating dry hay with the others, with not a trace of a cough or a snotty nose, even after galloping round and round the field in wild exuberance!

Marlene too is twitchy. Always the bottom of the pecking order, she has to wait until the others have decided which piles of hay they want. She dodges from mound to mound, avoiding Red's ferocious scowls, and Bethan's bossiness, always submissive and wary. Poor Marlene, I think this is what makes her such a fabulous 'people' pony. She much prefers the company of people to ponies - I think she would rather live indoors with us given the chance! Calm and patient, she loves to learn and play. She is uncannily like Magpie, my dog, in her character. Bright and lively, affectionate and desperately eager to please, and yet her position at the bottom of the pecking order means that she is always polite and aware of personal space. This little pony will follow me anywhere I ask her to go, up steps, through dark and narrow spaces, anywhere. I adore her!

Four miles away, Piper is on 'big sister' duty with the babies. Here she reigns supreme, and doesn't she know it! She is wintering well ( actually, she is as fat as butter!). She will be four this April, and really needs to start work as soon as I have time. I have actually sat on her a few times, but what with the chaos of this winter there hasn't been time to put in any consistent work.

Kestrel is doing ok, considering it has been a very hard winter so far. The poor little fellow is teething at the moment. When I went to check them a couple of days ago, I noticed a swelling the size of a golf ball on the side of his face, and he was looking rather glum and sorry for himself. At first I thought it was an injury, but on closer inspection I found he had a wadge of forage jammed in his cheek, and a tooth erupting. I removed all the hay, and so far the problem hasn't recurred. He is unfazed by the bitter winds and torrential rain, as he has the Highland coat, a legacy from his father. A thick fleecy under layer, with a top coat of long silky guard hairs. These are nearly six inches long, and ripple in the wind like long grass in a meadow. I am hoping he does some serious growing in the spring, as he is terribly small at the moment. On looking at him you would think he is part Shetland - I think he is going to be lucky to make 11.2hh. I don't hold out a great deal of hope on the growth front though, as his legs are very short!

Perry, on the other hand, is tall and leggy. He is coming through the winter well, and is a very calm and polite young pony. He currently stands at around 12.1hh - 12.2hh. He reminds me of Matthew ( not surprisingly really, as his dam was the spitting image of Matthew, and Matt too came from the local herd) He even has the same slightly choppy action that Matt has. It's quite feasible that they could be related. Matt is 17 now, and was found on Meldon as an orphan/abandoned foal. Perry was the last foal from his dam, who was well into her twenties, and was put to sleep this autumn due to a leg injury. Stallions change fairly regularly on these hills, to avoid inbreeding, but many of the mares stay in the same herd all their lives.
Soon the foals will start to arrive again, the wheel turns, and cycle begins once more.

The Year of the Rabbit begins...

2011-01-11T13:20:00.000-08:00

I need to start this post by saying an enormous 'Thank you' to everyone, blog readers, customers, friends and family, for their help and support over the last three weeks. I have been humbled by your kind words and offers of help, and in grim moments it is incredibly heartwarming to find a lovely email or have a friend call to offer help. Please know just how much I appreciate this. It was a pretty awful Christmas, as I went down with 'flu and a subsequent severe chest infection within 4 days of Steve's accident but everyone rallied around us, and my wonderful mother stepped into the breach ( what would we do without them?) and looked after everyone. My children have been fantastic, especially my eldest, who is eleven. She cooked, and kept the fire lit, and walked the dogs, and was altogether amazing!

As you can see, Steve is home, and well on the mend now.
Beetle is pleased to have a cosy lap to sleep on all day!
Christmas came and went in a bit of a blur - I sent no cards, and we didn't decorate or have a tree, as we were entirely snowed in and barely able to get out of bed. I did however receive one very special gift - it was actually commissioned for my birthday, but was just finished in time for Christmas.
This beautiful pendant was made for me by Jason of England.

I am SO pleased with it, I have barely taken it off since. Jason made our wedding rings for us several years ago, and I have been coveting another piece of his work for years. I requested that the pendant incorporated a silver hare, a piece of gorse wood, and 'vertebrae' bead. This finished design is better than anything I could have imagined!

And now, there are changes afoot for 2011. I am taking the plunge and moving to a larger rented studio, in a central location in the village. This is really exciting, although rather scary. It means I have to be more disciplined about work, though I hope this will be easier by not working from home. It also means that I will have to raise my prices this year. Not for prints, which can remain the same until ink prices rise, but originals are going to have to rise a fair bit. Charging £50 for a piece which takes me 2 days just doesn't make business sense! (But don't worry if you already have work commissioned with me for this year - it wont apply to anyone with whom I have already taken commissions)
Anyway, I'll tell you all the exciting details once we are safely in, hopefully next week!

So, my painting things are packed up, but in the meantime I have started a new quilt for these winter nights. It features hares (again!) and bees and some gorgeous recycled indigo scraps.
Happy New Year!

The best laid plans.....

2010-12-19T00:31:00.000-08:00

It's been a 'challenging' few days here, to put it mildly! In amongst the general end of term mayhem, and Christmas chaos, we faced the prospect of our cold icy weather turning to heavy snow. Bethan, who has been turned away with the youngsters for the last few weeks, due to tweaking her tendon slightly, needed to be brought home for Christmas. So on Thursday, in freezing sleet, I loaded her up like a pack pony with all her gear, and braved the weather and the busy main roads to walk her home. It was a grim and unpleasant walk, with a pit stop at Proper Job recycling centre halfway home for a quick cuppa. Luckily, Bethan was quite happy to be heading home, and is unfazed by most traffic - the exception being large tractors with silage bales carried high on a front loader (and I can quite understand that - they look just like a huge predator preparing to pounce). We got home just in time. By the evening the snow had begun, and by the following morning, schools were closed, and roads impassable without a four wheel drive vehicle.

It is so cold that even the Ginger Ninja has moved indoors. Of all the cosy places in the house, this is his favourite - on top of my pile of 'junk'!

And all the family sit in a pile beside the fire. This was taken on Friday night, a sorry reminder of how things should be. Unfortunately, battling up the hill through the snow yesterday to feed the ponies, my husband slipped on the ice, and broke his leg as he fell. We had what felt like an endless wait in the snow and the cold for a helicopter to come and airlift him out, and now he waits in Exeter hospital for an operation to pin his leg. Thank goodness for wonderful friends and neighbours, who rescued my children and dogs from the scene, who looked after ponies, who came out in land rovers to get us to places as my car is not a four wheel drive, and who set out across country in the darkening snow with torches to escort children to the main road where they could be picked up and brought safely home to me.

And so, I sit here, looking out at snow, with a pot of tea, glad that everything is OK. Yesterday, life seemed awful, but this morning, I am grateful for everything, and everyone.

So, here is something that I have been watching to take my mind off things. Puppets have been in my thoughts a great deal recently. When I was at college I was very interested in puppetry, and the mechanics of movement, and spent a lot of time making puppets and automata. Those are stashed away in a hay loft somewhere, so I can't show you those, but these are a couple of puppets gathered on my travels. My children are a little spooked by the old lady above, with her breasts on strings so they flap!

And this film below is of 'The Sultans Elephant', which my father introduced me to recently. Many of you may have seen this before, as it was a huge outdoor performance by the French company 'Royal de Luxe' in London in 2006. Somehow, I seem to have been completely unaware of it, and so it's magic was new to me.

A quick sale update ;-)

2010-12-06T11:49:00.000-08:00

Thankyou to everyone who came to the sale this weekend, it was a resounding success! My little lavender owls sold like hotcakes, and I spent my time stitching more, and helping a growing crowd of children to make their own!

I have listed the remaining few on Etsy, as well as a couple of original miniature paintings, and have extended the discount code till midnight tonight , if you want to grab one :)
Just enter CHRISTMAS2010 at the checkout.

Lovely things for christmas!

2010-12-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

LOOK! These are the wonderful arm warmers and hat that Freyalyn made me for my birthday trade! She dyed the wool herself, as well as designing and knitting them, and they just exceeded my expectations. Not only are they beautiful to look at, but the wool is wonderfully soft too. I am SO pleased with them, they are just exactly what I wanted. Freyalyn sells her wool in her Etsy shop here.

And it's Christmas sale time! I have a stand at Christmart, in Chagford Jubilee hall this weekend, along with many other wonderful artists (you will find Terri Windling, Rima Staines, Virginia Lee, David Wyatt here, as well as many others). It's a chance to buy some work direct from the artist, and do some Christmas shopping! For those of you who live too far away, I having a special Christmas sale in my Etsy shop to coincide with it. 20% off everything there until the end of the weekend. To get this, just enter the code CHRISTMAS2010 at the checkout, and your discount will automatically be taken off.

I've been busy framing tiny studies , and I loved my daughter's owls so much that I have sewn a batch more, with lavender in their tummies. If these don't sell I shall hang them on my Christmas tree this year. In fact, it's tempting not to sell them for that very reason - an owl tree would be a lovely thing!

A Tale Of Two Hounds and The Sea ( or A Soggy Dog Story)

2010-11-24T03:19:00.000-08:00

How apt that I should finish this painting of Lunil and Bil for Freyalynn the day before I left to take my own two dogs to the ocean. But that wasn't quite the original plan......

Poor Magpie cut her leg open a couple of weeks ago, and had to have several stitches, which meant she was made to wear 'the cone of shame' for a whole fortnight while they healed. She was very sorry for herself, wondering what terrible offence she might have committed, to have been punished in this way. As the removal of her collar coincided with our plans to visit a (non-doggy) friends holiday cottage on the beach for a few days, we had a wonderful idea. Magpie (short - haired, impeccably well-behaved, and very much in need of feeling like an 'only' dog for a little bit) could come too, and Daisy (good-natured, but whichever way you look at it, a bouncy, exuberant, water-loving mud monster) could go visiting by herself for a few days!
We congratulated ourselves on our great plan, and gleefully prepared for our holiday. On the morning we were due to leave, I took Daisy for a walk and play with her great friend Teddy, a German Shepherd of the same age, to wear her out. They raced, and tumbled, and rolled, through the peat bog, and through the muddy wallows, and over the muck heap, and this was the resultant state of her!

Thinking I couldn't possibly leave her with someone else in this state, I dragged her into the bathroom and showered her. This is where I shot myself in the foot.
Daisy emerged, clean, sweet-smelling and wonderfully fluffed up ( but distinctly unimpressed!)
and we set off for Cornwall without her. Unfortunately, her bath meant that over the course of the day her coat began to moult in enormous handfuls, until the house was awash with fluff, and she was not a welcome visitor anywhere.
So Daisy was fetched, and to her great delight, joined us at the beach.

She drank seawater and made herself sick,

played in mermaid's pools,

and galloped up and down empty windswept beaches

chasing seagulls. In short she did everything the children did, and had an absolute whale of a time, as did they.

Pie glumly put up with being bounced on by a large wet and sandy Tigger.
Steve and I and my sister spent our waking hours hoovering floors and washing mud spatters from the walls to try and erase all traces of Daisy's exuberant presence. Lovely as it was to have a break, it's nice to be home where a bit of dog hair doesn't matter!

A Gilded Hare and an enchanted Forest

2010-11-14T12:10:00.000-08:00

The Gold Leaf has arrived! I haven't yet dared to gild the great expanse on Freyalyn's painting, but I have begun to play and experiment with it. Here is a teeny tiny golden hare.

And in her room one night a forest grew ..... A dark and mysterious forest, hung about with owls, of mossy green and lichen grey, just right for a dark and mysterious daughter of the earth. Dogwood stars decorated with wooden beads surround a collection of unicorn paintings. A perfect space for dreaming, and writing, and contemplating the world which opens up before you.

I feel slightly covetous - MY bedroom contains nothing but an exploding mass of laundry - wet stuff draped around on airers in the vain hope it might dry, clean clothes in huge piles ready to be sorted, (NOT ironed - life is too short to iron things) and wobbly stacks of books, ready to catch me out when I creep out to answer Beetle's midnight mew.

You would think butter wouldn't melt, wouldn't you? Hmmmm, don't you believe it.

She wanted owls, not flowers

2010-11-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

My house is filling up with little owls, lining up on curtain rods and mantelpieces. Their soft tweedy hooting whispers round my bookshelves and up the stairs.

I have been making these to string around my daughters bedroom. At her request it has been painted dark green, and is becoming a forest before my eyes. Originally I had planned to paint twining honeysuckle over the walls, but instead these owls appeared.
They just keep breeding and breeding - I can't seem to stop myself making them ( and I feel weirdly as if I have fallen into an Alan Garner story!)

Mostly my time has been taken up with ponies and children in the last couple of weeks. We have been lurching from one vet's visit to another, and I dread the arrival of the bill.
Perry and Kestrel have become firm friends, which is heartwarming to see.

Finally I have had a couple of days to myself and have thrown myself into the latest commission piece. These are not my dogs, though Lunil and Bil look remarkably similar to Daisy and Pie! This is one of my birthday trades, and it has been swirling around in my head for weeks. I have been itching to get started properly, but I suffer from the frustrating problem of not being able to be a painter and a mother at the same time. I just can't switch mindsets quickly, and end up spending large amounts of time doing both, badly. I get slightly panicky when real life commitments pile up, and I can't see clear days ahead for painting. Everybody suffers as I get snappier and snappier. I feel horribly guilty for saying it, but it was a welcome relief to have the children go back to school on Monday. I have had TWO whole days to paint uninterrupted, and it is wonderful!

This piece brings together several influences. Illuminated manuscripts and fairisle knitting patterns. And Gold. I have been wanting to work with gold for a long time now. I have never yet found a satisfactory gold paint, so I think the answer lies in Gold leaf. This is a new medium for me (and makes me rather nervous) but I think it is the only way to achieve the right effect. I have been studying pictures and puppets brought back from Thailand in my younger days, and I love the stylised images with beautiful detailed gold leaf work. The British Library has a fantastic digital collection of illuminated manuscripts online HERE

I am planning to have a gold background to the dragonboat, making this look like a page from a modern illuminated manuscript. The gold leaf is ordered, and I have been reading tutorials on technique, so I can't wait to start playing with it. Of course, the master of this technique is the fabulous Jackie Morris, whose watercolour and gold leaf paintings are absolutely exquisite!

The winner is.....

2010-10-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

And the winner is.........Number 5, Laume ! Congratulations!! (and you need to contact me with your address, so I can post your painting to you)

And this is the reason I have been busy the last couple of days.
Last Thursday was Chagford Pony Sales, (which I have written about in previous years HERE).
As always, I went down for a look. It was pretty depressing - lovely foals, hardly any buyers. This little fellow above is from our local herd - born on Meldon, the hill which runs down into the village. I had noticed him over the summer, and liked him, and he caught my eye again in the sales pens. I had deliberately left my wallet at home, and resolutely not registered a buyers number, so I couldn't be tempted. He came through the ring early, and I watched without bidding. Not a hand went up, not one, and he was run out of the ring unsold. Colt after colt went through, nobody wanted them. Those colts can't run back out on the moor, and the plain truth is that they are worth more at the slaughterhouse than in the sales ring. I couldn't bear to think of him ending up there this week, so I went round and asked the farmer what he wanted for him. So here I am, £15 poorer, with a large, plain, big boned colt in my stable.
I know it was the right thing to do ;-)

Giveaway Time!

2010-10-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

"Chalk Hare - Summer"
6 x 4 inches watercolour painting

So, it's Giveaway time! I'd like to say a HUGE thankyou to everyone who follows this blog. As promised I have a little original painting to offer up in a draw. In fact, you have the choice of either of these chalk hares - summer or winter. All you have to do is leave a comment saying which one you would prefer to win. I will draw all names out of a hat ( or maybe the Random Number Generator) once comments have closed on Sunday night (17th October) at 9pm UK time. Good luck ;-)

"Chalk Hare - Winter"
6 x 4 inches original painting

And as we strolled through the meadow last night in the evening sun, the ponies shone in the golden light. Sandpiper is the colour of a polished conker!

Beetlejuice, guardian of the Pumpkin hoard.

2010-10-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

I have still been so busy harvesting that I have little time for much else. The cats have been doing their best to help too! We have had a fantastic crop of pumpkins and squashes this year, our best ever, and they taste heavenly. Our favourites have proved to be the Crown Prince - I like to cook squash in savoury dishes rather than sweet, and this has the perfect flavour and texture for roasting ( or currying, or making into soup .......).

The quince tree, too, is weighed down with more fruit than we have ever known it to bear. I LOVE quince, despite the fiddly preparation and am madly trying to make it into marmalade, or stew it for the freezer, as it doesn't keep too well.

Which brings me to the exciting bit! My followers have reached the 500 mark, and I think this deserves a celebration! So I am going to have a little giveaway on the next post, just as soon as I have finished a little original I am working on. I think you will like it, so keep watching for the chance to win it :)

These are a few of my favourite things...........

2010-09-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

Before I begin this post, I need to say a huge 'Thankyou' to everyone for the wonderful response to the Birthday Barter idea. I have been overwhelmed by amazing offers from lovely people, and am so excited about working on some special 'trade' pieces.
Thankyou xx

And then I need to apologise and grovel a little for my terrible lack of posting recently. It has been partly because my computer is having another 'funny turn', and running painfully slowly - loading any page with images takes hours and hours. Mainly, though, it is just that 'September' thing. I have stained and wrinkled fingers from hours and hours of picking and preserving, of blanching and bottling, jamming and jellying. The garden needs care and attention, the abundance of fruit and vegetables needs harvesting and storing, logs need splitting and stacking, and I have barely had time to switch on the computer, let alone pick up a paint brush!

But despite all this, I think it is still my favourite time of year. A time of cool evenings and apples roasted in campfires.

Of early morning awakenings to find the village wreathed in mist.

Of new pastures for the ponies, and the thrill of a fresh crop of mushrooms found during the early morning walk.

Of a little foal, growing bolder daily.

And the Ginger Ninja, hiding in the grape vine, jealously guarding Autumn's bounty, biting hands that come too close.

We managed to gather masses of grapes, despite the curmudgeonly cat, and a morning of stirring and boiling and straining resulted in eight jars of the most heavenly purple jelly ever tasted!

Birthdays, Bees and a spot of Bartering

2010-09-01T05:42:00.000-07:00

I celebrated my birthday last weekend. It coincided with Chagford Carnival, and I so I spent the evening wearing a giant bee, and trying to negotiate it's 5 metre wingspan through the narrow village streets. Luckily I had lots of small helpers to lift wings over obstacles! It was a fun, if tiring way to spend the day, and I sorely needed a glass of wine or two by the end.

But the birthday gave me an idea. I'm not sure if it is a brainwave, or actually a rather daft idea - maybe you can tell me? I spent ages dreaming of what to spend my little bit of birthday money on, what lovely treat I would like for myself. In the end, I had to pay the garage bill with it, but it left me yearning for lovely things for myself. So, I thought about trading. I'm all for a bit of bartering, and I know that often people don't like to ask, in case others are offended. Often I have to say 'no', because I need the money so badly, but I thought that just in celebration of my birthday, I would offer to trade with anyone that wants to. I'm happy to trade anything in my shop, prints or originals, or even to do commissioned work, if there is something specific you would like. In return, show me what treasures you have to offer! I may not be able to say yes to everything - sadly, my wall space is very full, so there isn't room for many more pictures, though I can always make exceptions. I could of course be very specific about my birthday wish list (jewellery, particularly a hare pendant, some knitted arm warmers, good books, more music................) but actually, I'm interested to see what wonderful things other people create.
So what do you think? Would anyone be up for a bit of bartering? Drop me an email through my profile page HERE if you want to trade :)

The last days of summer

2010-08-31T00:21:00.000-07:00

Summer feels as if it's over. This morning the air was cold and smoky, that familiar tang of autumn. The children all return to school next week. I have plans to spend this last week blackberry picking, and jam-making and chutney making, and immersing myself in that wonderfully satisfying feeling of stocking the pantry for the winter.

Even the ponies love foraging in the hedgerows for fruit!
I have held back from posting about Bethan all summer, for fear of'jinxing' things, but I think now is the time to tell the next installment of her story. This summer has been the making of her - since the acupuncture, she has not bucked at all. We have increased her work slowly, and she has been as good as gold. Middle daughter has finally bonded well with her, and they are building a great relationship. Bethan has been to Pony Club rallies,and riding out over the moor, and I have finally trusted her enough in the last couple of weeks to let the girls take her out on their own, riding with friends. She seems happy, and relaxed, distinctly ploddy ( which is good!). The sweetitch takes a little bit of effort to manage, but not too much, and she lives out 24 hours a day. I'm so pleased!

The Whoa Sketchbook charity auction

2010-08-18T00:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, no posts for three weeks, and then 2 in 2 days! This one is to tell everyone about the WHOA sketchbook auction. Some of you may well have seen the link to the sketchbook blog before, but for those who haven't, I'll explain. I belong to an international group of horse artists, WHOA. A while ago, Jennifer Macneill Traylor had the bright idea to pass a sketchbook around us all, and have us all complete four or five pages, and to auction the final product in order to raise funds for the Shiloh Horse Rescue and Sanctuary. This project has been a couple of years in the making, as the sketchbook has winged it's way around the world, and it had grown along the way as several artists have added 'stand alone ' creations to the package, but finally it is completed and now up for auction on ebay HERE. It is a beautiful book, and would be a treasure for any horse lover to own, and on top of that, 100% of the proceeds are going to help horses.

These are a couple of pages that I have contributed to the sketchbook.

While this beautiful original painting below , "Hunter's Moon", by Linda Woolford, is also included with the sketchbook.

Gail Ragsdale has 5 of her beautifully detailed drawings in the book

While this is possibly my all time favourite - a print of this painting by Kerry Nelson ( I am lucky enough to own the original of this! You can just see it on the wall of my daughter's bedroom in one of the photos)
ALL the contributions can be seen in more detail on the WHOA blog, which has documented the sketchbook from start to finish. Please go and check out the auction, and pass on the info to anyone you think may be interested in bidding :)

Thankyou xx

Whitewash and Whortleberries

2010-08-17T01:15:00.000-07:00

The latest painting is finally finished! It's watercolour and ink, and is A4 sized. (soon to be for sale in my Etsy shop) I am really excited about beginning a quilted version of this, much larger than the last ones. Sadly, it will have to be put on hold for a while, as there are SO many things to be done first. Still, it is almost as much fun gathering the fabrics for a project, and rummaging through boxes, and jumble sales for just the right piece. I shall spend the rest of my summer doing that!

The main thing that has kept me occupied over the school holidays is 'The bedroom project'. I promised my eldest daughter that I would redecorate her bedroom for her birthday. It is little more than a cupboard in the uppermost eaves of the attic, and looked just like a store cupboard too. Foolishly, I thought I could tackle it while she went off to Pony Club camp for 4 days. It (as ALWAYS) turned out to be a little more work than I had anticipated! Still, I worked through the nights, and finally turned the scruffy little cupboard into a clean fresh room, suitable for a girl who is growing up fast!

This was definitely done on a budget! With the exception of the two cushions in the top photo, which I bought new, everything else was sourced from the recycling centre, Proper Job. Of the blankets on the top bed, the cream under blanket is an old one, knitted by my grandmother, and the top one is one that I made many years ago from a patchwork of old felted jumpers.

I found a lovely old oak sideboard at Proper Job. The top two drawers are partitioned and lined with green baize, originally intended for cutlery, but just as well used for sorting socks and tights! A rummage through the paint shed found emulsion for the walls, and some lovely Farrow and Ball paint to update the sideboard. The bric-a-brac cabinet offered up lovely treasures - a vintage blue painted candle holder, a white jug, and a lovely lacy cloth, perfect for the room.

My favourite finds of all are these - a gorgeous vintage coat rack, and a second peg rack, and a scrabble around through vast boxes of used coat hangers yielded a selection of beautiful old wooden hangers in various shades of soft blue and green and grey. Some have knitted covers, and some are just plain painted wood. I love them! They fit the room so perfectly!

So, finally, I finished it. I still have paint in my hair and on the backs of my hands, but the room is a great success, and my daughter is thrilled.

So,the school holidays are passing in a happy blur. Meanwhile Kestrel is growing and doing well. He is awfully small at the moment, which is a little disappointing ( I was hoping he would make 13.2hh) but striking to look at. He is beautifully put together, and makes up for his short stature by being incredibly compact and chunky. His foal coat is turning, and underneath he is coming through the most gorgeous dark burnt gold colour.

And we have spent our days out on the moors, on foot, or on ponies. Yesterday was spent whortleberrying, helped by Magpie and Daisy, and the day ended with a rare treat - enough whortleberries for a crumble. I have never managed to gather enough before, and my, was it worth it!

Being inventive with vegetables

2010-07-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

We have courgettes coming out of our ears at the moments, and I'd love to hear any of your creative ideas for using them. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share one of my favourite courgette recipes with you

Courgette souffle quiche

shortcrust pastry to line a deep 10 inch pie case

I use 400g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
300g butter

Mix these ingredients together to make crumbs, and then add 1 egg to bring it into a dough

Roll out thinly and line the pie dish base and sides. Bake it blind at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes, and then take it out and let it cool down a little. Meanwhile prepare the filling.

3 medium sized courgettes (zucchini)
1 small onion
3 fat cloves of garlic
handful of grated cheddar cheese
6 sprigs of thyme ( I like lemon thyme)
8 mint leaves
2 eggs

Slice the courgette and onion and saute until softened and just beginning to colour. Add the finely chopped garlic, and saute for another couple of minutes.
Remove from the heat, and puree all these cooked ingredients.
Finely chop the herbs, and add these with the cheese to the courgette mixture. Stir, and season to taste. Once mixture has cooled slightly, beat in the two eggs, and fill the pastry case. Put back in the oven for another 25 minutes until the filling is risen and just set.

It's delicious, and 2 out of 3 of my courgette - hating children loved it!

I have been busy making a padded saddlecloth for Rosie, as she has a very prominent spine, and the saddle she came with sits so low the gullet touches her spine. Before we did any work with her I wanted to make sure she was absolutely comfortable. My brilliant saddler showed me how to do this once when I balked at spending £100 on a specially made numnah with extra 'shims' to pad it out. I stitched fleece pockets onto a lightweight numnah ( fleece is great because it has a bit of stretch in it, which you need when trying to stuff the shims in), and then cut the shim/pads out of pure wool felt (these are offcuts from a local felt maker, but otherwise they could be cut from sheets of foam gamgee). It is important to build them up in layers, and actually fit them to the contours of the pony's back.

Once they are in place, it is crucial to make sure they lie flat and unwrinkled - you don't want to create any pressure points.

It's not the prettiest thing to look at, but it works a treat, and Rosie's saddle fits much better now. Of course, in an ideal world she would have a new saddle fitted, but realistically, we have only borrowed her for the summer, and so I am not going to buy her a new saddle.

And here she is, quite happy to be going for a ride!

I am putting these three originals on Etsy soon, but thought I would offer them here at a slightly better price first in case anyone wants to grab one!

"Dancing Hare"
original acrylic painting
painting measures 13cm x 16cm and comes with a beautiful old re-used wooden frame, which measures 24cm x 29cm.

£55 + shipping /insurance

"Of Moon and Magic"
original pencil and watercolour
measures approx 20cm x 29cm, mounted with a thin gold border, and in a wooden frame
Frame measures 34cm x 44cm

for sale framed £80
or mounted, but NOT framed £60

+ shipping and insurance

"Between Times"

original pencil and watercolour
measures 29cm x 20cm
mounted with a thin gold border and in a wooden frame
Frame measures 34cm x 44cm

Framed £80
mounted but NOT framed £60
+ shipping and insurance

please email me if you are interested in any of these

Life rushes by

2010-07-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

Term finally ended with Pirate day for the younger ones. Our two pirates look more like pickpockets from Fagin's gang . The treasure they are searching for is red-tailed bumble bees. My son, like most small boys, is fascinated by small winged or creeping things. ( He is also mighty proud of his sister's boots, which he has borrowed - he is convinced they make him look as cool as Johnny Depp)

And a birthday for my eldest daughter, who said goodbye to her primary school, and prepares to take the next step onwards in life. Granny baked her a beautiful cake, with crystallised Pinks on it, as requested. It feels like such a momentous step forwards, and part of me mourns the loss of childhood - she is growing up into this beautiful young woman before my very eyes, and so fast.

And I have to show you the fruits of Steve's hard work. We have a deal in our house. Steve works the allotment (but I have start the seedlings in the greenhouse, and do all the pricking out and potting on ) and I am supposed to be responsible for the back garden. Well, the allotment is looking stunning - finally coming into it's own after 3 years of reclaiming it from the wilderness. It is organic, but Steve is a traditionalist. He double digs, and follows his rotation plan, and I occasionally sneak extra catch crops in little gaps. At last, we are eating almost entirely from here. I am SO proud of him. He works extremely long hours at work, six days a week, then arrives home, picks up his tools and at least one of the children, and does another couple of hours working on the allotment.

I, on the other hand, am ashamed to admit that I have let the back garden turn into a jungle. I feel like I have been run off my feet, just trying to juggle work, childrens taxi services, cooking, (cleaning has completely gone out of the window) dragging water to 6 horses, and trying to keep the kids ponies vaguely fit, and two dogs who haven't had the sort of walk they would like ( a decent 3 or 4 miles) for at least a month. My temporary job finishes on Monday, thank goodness, though the money from it is also much needed, as it will pay for my winter hay delivery.

I haven't even got round to staking the tomato plants in the greenhouse, or tying up my sweet peas, which are sprawling across the flower beds. My grape vine is threatening to swamp the apple tree, and the runner beans fell over and I didn't get around to picking them up. The grass is knee high, and the bindweed and ground elder is creeping back. So, I am in disgrace, and need to devote some time to sorting the mess out. I am hoping I can persuade some small hands to help me.
I will keep you posted!

The Bones Of These Hills

2010-07-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

I have been painting chalk hares on hillsides. I can already feel this painting becoming a quilt - perhaps my big winter project!

This week's torrential rain has been a welcome relief. These hills are parched, withered brown grass exposes their granite bones. But now the earth is greedily soaking up the monsoon-like downpours.

Rosie pony has come to stay with us for the summer holidays. She's VERY old, and quite creaky, but we've put her on a several supplements, and she is very perky and positive. The idea is for middle daughter to regain her confidence cantering, while I work with Bethan.
About 3 weeks ago, I had pretty much reached the decision that, much as I adore Bethan, perhaps she wasn't the right pony for us. I was on the brink of advertising her for sale. I decided to have one last push with her, a 'make or break' couple of weeks. We've worked her hard every day for 10 days - My eldest daughter and her friends, taking it in turns to exercise her every day, culminating in a session in the school working in circles and over small jumps. Two things have come out of this - firstly she has behaved impeccably, no bucks, naughtiness, nothing. She has done everything she was asked. Secondly, what seemed like a little stiffness behind, and reluctance to engage her quarters, became more pronounced over the days, with her ears back, and neck and head held at an angle when asked to move in a circle. So we stopped, and tonight she had an acupuncture session with the vet. Flexion tests were fine, and her back is ok, but she seems to be very sore across her shoulder. The vet thinks this may have been a problem for quite some time, causing stiffness throughout her body, and quite possibly the cause of her bucking. Following her session she was very sleepy, and quite chilly, so she has gone out tucked up in her rug tonight, and after a day's rest we start on a programme of exercises with her. I am crossing my fingers that this is the turning point with her!

Stitched Hares and Guilty Dogs

2010-07-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

At Last, I have finally listed the Hare quilts for sale. They are NOT in the Etsy shop, but currently HERE on the gallery pages of this blog. If you are interested, do email me :)

The latest Quilt, 'The Hare Wheel' is very nearly finished, although this is progressing painfully slowly. Time is so short on these long summer days, I rarely come indoors until the light is fading. Quilting is definitely better suited to winter evenings.

Here is Daisy dog, in terrible disgrace.
Friday was a bad day in her eyes, right from the start. I was out all day, and she hates to be left behind. To add to that, when I returned home, I had to take Magpie to the vets to have the dressing removed from her tail, revealing a nicely healing cut with 8 neat staples in it ( that's a story for another time!). Daisy was left behind BY HERSELF, which she was most put out about. Later we all went out to a barbecue, and the dogs were left behind AGAIN. ( I hasten to point out that in between being left at home, they had been for two good walks). Several glasses of wine later, we wobbled home, and were horrified by the scene that met our eyes when we opened the front door. Magpie had chewed all the staples out of tail, and re-opened her cut, and due to the extreme wagginess of her tail, had flicked blood all over the kitchen. Daisy, meanwhile, had decided to remove half the stuffing from the sofa, and there was fluffy wadding everywhere. Luckily Steve and I both saw the funny side of it, particularly as Daisy was so racked with guilt that she was unable to look at us. Magpie, on the other hard, spent the rest of the evening staring mournfully at us, mortified at being made to wear the 'cone of shame'.

Kestrel is three weeks old now, and growing stronger and bolder.

He likes to play with Sandpiper, who is much more tolerant than his mother, even though he keeps chewing her legs.

A week of corvids

2010-06-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a topsy - turvy sort of a week. Joyful highs, and crashing lows, the sort of week that leaves you feeling exhausted by the end of it. Sometimes, when days are bumbling along, one after another in repetitive monotony, I moan that we live too insulated an existence. Too many degrees of separation between us and 'life', the hard graft of living according to the seasons, being aware of nature's cycles and having to work with them in order to survive. We do try to maintain that connection as best we can, but I'm well aware that we are only really playing at it. The joy of baking our own bread, of eating our own fruit and vegetables, of making do and mending clothes is great, but at the back of my mind, I know that if it all went wrong, we could just go out and buy the bread, the fruit, the clothes. Not in great quantities, and not the best quality - we really do live like this for economy's sake , but we could get by. The small, puritan bit in the back of my mind is glad that the weather is so hot it is causing difficulties. Secretly I enjoy having to lug containers of water across the fields twice a day, to fill the ponies water troughs. There is only time to live in the moment, no time for stress and worries about the future. At least, until the car breaks down AGAIN.

There are days when all the bills come at once, and however much you rob Peter to pay Paul, you just can't make it work. And yet, however despairing I feel, sitting in the garden at dusk and listening to chattering bird chorus, overwhelmed by the heady scent of roses and orange blossom, I am reminded to always enjoy the moment. I am generally of a 'Pollyanna - ish' temperament, and gloom doesn't last long. The postman doesn't always bear bad news - twice this week he has brought me rare treats, exciting, longed for packages. The first was the wooden magpie in the first picture - a beautiful treasure from Moonlight and Hares. It is so much more beautiful in real life!

And the second treat was this Raven's head, from Pyewacketts. I had been admiring him for such a long time, and am thrilled to finally get my hands on him! Again, the pictures really don't do him justice.

I dismantled the exhibition tonight. 'The Naming of the Hare' will be carefully packed away, and I will set about listing the pieces online, ready for sale.

And finally ( it should have been firstly, really) a huge, heartfelt 'Thankyou' to everyone who commented on my last post, offering tips and advice, or simply sympathising with me :) My computer is running painfully slowly at the moment, and it makes it almost impossible to browse online, and get around everyone's blogs to thank them individually, but I am most grateful.
XXXX

Gratuitous foal pics!

2010-06-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

I promise not to keep boring you with lots of foal pictures, but I just couldn't help myself today!
He's strong and inquisitive, although quite small. Marlene has finally taken him into the next paddock to show him to Sandpiper and Bethan. (She hid him away for the first week, despite Sandpiper's desperate calling, demanding to know what had happened, and wanting to see.)

We seem to have finally got on top of the sweetitch with Bethan, and she is looking great. No rubbing, shiny coat, relaxed face with no pinched worry lines, - I think she is healthy and well, and happy at last. It is not all good news though - there are some major riding problems :(
She bucks when asked to canter - a big buck, not just a little excited ping. She has done it twice with my daughter, who is a novice, and dumped her, which has understandably frightened her. Since then, I have let a competent child ride her a couple of times, who didn't mind sitting the initial bucks, rode her on through, and then she was fine. In every other way she is beautifully behaved, but the buck is a major issue. It makes her unsafe for a small child. I managed to track down her previous owners, and as far as I can see she has only ever been ridden by a competent rider since she was broken in at 11. So, though she has apparently been a fantastic competition pony - 13th at the NPS dressage championships last year, and jumping 80 cm tracks ( which I didn't know when I bought her) I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that she is not a first pony. My feeling is that without a confident rider, giving her clear instructions, and effectively taking responsibility, that she loses all confidence and has a panic.
We have of course eliminated all possible physical reasons for the bucking. So I'm having rather a gloomy five minutes about it all:(

She quite happily stood tied up in the yard for three hours to be bathed, trimmed, plaited and generally primped and preened. This is why I love her so much - she is SO kind and good. It's just that d****d bucking. I just can't expect a nervous child to want to ride her.

Look who's arrived!

2010-06-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

This is the reason I have been absent from my computer for a few days - isn't he gorgeous? Marlene gave birth to this little colt in the early hours of Sunday morning. He is dun at the moment, but likely to go cream I'm told. His sire is the Highland stallion Glenmuir Buzzard( the same sire as my beautiful Sandpiper). Marlene is so proud of him, and is busy keeping him hidden away behind rocks and bushes at the moment so none of the other mares can get a glimpse of him, although she is quite happy for us to coo over him. We have decided to call him Kestrel.

And I managed to get some rather rubbish shots of the quilts hanging in their exhibition. I'm sorry they are so wonky! They look pretty good in reality ;)

'The Naming of The Hare'

2010-06-08T01:15:00.000-07:00

The children returned to school this morning after a wonderful half term week, one of those times that remain in your memory for always. The sun has shone gloriously, and we have picnicked amongst bluebells, while dangling our toes in the river, we have walked over hills with friends and sunbathed while children spent hours climbing tors and scrabbling under rocks looking for treasure. Eldest daughter has set out on her own, with her beloved pony Matthew, pack lunch on her back, to meet friends and play, while I have pottered around the lanes and the open moor with smaller children and a motley collection of bikes and dogs and ponies. This is truly bliss! In amongst this I clutched sewing needles and sticks and endeavoured to finish mounting quilts in time for the exhibition. It's done! The exhibition is up, in the Courtyard Cafe , Chagford, until the end of June, so do pop by if you are in the area, or pass the word on to anyone who may be interested. They serve delicious cakes ( gluten free) and hot chocolate!

'Sleeping Hare'
I managed one last tiny painting to join the others. It is approximately 6 by 4 inches. I will try and get in with my camera over the next couple of days, as the quilts look quite different now they have been mounted and hung.

And now for a brief 'proud mother' moment! This is my young son, who at 6 years old completed the Chagford Two Hills race in blistering sun shine on Bank Holiday Monday. This is a gruelling race up the face of Meldon hill, (shown in picture below) down, and back up Nattadon hill (where the shot was taken from). It is a total climb of 1076 feet and is fractionally under three and a half miles. He did it in 58 minutes , which is brilliant! I have never run the Two Hills Race, even in my fit teenage years, and I am just bursting with pride!

And here is my baby, Sandpiper, maturing into a beautiful filly. She is three now, and I just adore her. I had originally thought I would back her this summer, but I now think I will leave it a year, as I think she still has some growing to do. Native pony breeds mature more slowly than horses, and though she has plenty of bone, I expect her to get much greater depth of chest, and to generally broaden, so I think I will stick with ground work this summer.

Dartmoor Drums

2010-05-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

In between racing to finish work for exhibition, I managed to squeeze in this commissioned piece of work for a friend. It is intended as a business postcard ( although the original is A4 in size) for Suzi Crockford, of Dartmoor Drums. Suzi creates extraordinarily beautiful handmade drums - I'm hankering after one myself after seeing and hearing them ;)

There is a ray of hope on the Bethan front. As you can see, she has rubbed bare patches on her face and her front legs, but the good news is that she appears to be free of lumps and bumps where the fly rug covers. I have added the Global Herbs 'Fly free' supplement to her feed to see whether this is effective, and yesterday morning my bottle of Avon 'Skin so Soft' arrived! Thankyou to those who recommended this - I am waiting to see whether this really does work as a fly repellent. I read the ingredients when it arrived, and my heart sank when I read Benzyl Benzoate is one of them, but it would appear it is only in trace amounts, and I patch tested it on myself before applying it to her 12 hours later. It didn't bring on an allergic reaction in me, so hopefully we will be ok with it. Of course, the other option is this :

The full face mask to provide a barrier from the biting midges. I gave in and purchased one yesterday, but I have real concerns about these. If a horse's main means of communication is through facial expression, how does it feel for them to have their face and ears completely masked? Does it hinder her natural communication? Or worse, put her at a disadvantage with 'the herd' because she can't interact naturally? So, I have tried it as a stop gap, because I don't want open sores on her face, but I am hoping we can find a DEET free fly repellent that really works, and remove the need to cover her face.

Though all of this sounds like bad news, actually, in a general sense, I am really pleased with her health. She is looking better over all, her coat is soft now, her skin feels loose , no longer stretched tight over her, she has lost some of the wrinkling around her eyes that always indicates stress or discomfort to me, and generally seems to be more relaxed.
So, we'll just keep plodding on!

Messing about on the river

2010-05-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

I have been reliving my childhood over these last couple of weeks, doing with my children all those things that I remember spending long, idyllic summers doing. Paddling in rivers, bare feet on green mossy rocks, scrambling and slipping over stepping stones.

Even skinny dipping when we have got far enough off the beaten track. The water is clean and clear - icy cold as it tumbles down from the moor.

Magpie and Daisy love the water, although they become worried once I get in too!

We have walked barefoot through woods and spinneys, the children's shrieks of laughter scattering the wildlife well before we arrive, although yesterday, alone and silent, I watched deer, and a fox watched me as I inspected her den, while the elusive raven pair, often heard, but rarely spotted, swooped low over my head.

We have lain on our backs, looking up into the beech canopy as the sun makes the young leaves glow.

The fern fronds are unfurling through the bluebells, and in a week or two will have smothered the flowers. But for now the blue carpet is glorious!

It makes my heart sing to see these things, and to watch my children playing as I used to. We are so privileged to live amongst this, to be able to walk in woods and on moor, to play in the rivers and streams and bogs, to have all this beauty and wilderness on our doorsteps. We can't afford holidays, but who cares? This is just the best place to be!

nature's medicines in our back gardens

2010-05-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

I apologise if you are all heartily sick of hearing about nettles, but I continue to be amazed by their many uses! These are truly an under-rated plant. Not only are the ponies having nettle tea to detox, and protect their laminae, but we are eating large amounts of it as a vegetable. There is a link to my nettle recipes from last year HERE. In addition to that, here is our current favourite soup recipe. All my kids have second helpings of this -- it's a real hit.

Nettle and Pea Soup

1 0nion
2 fat cloves of garlic
1/2 a carrier bag full of nettle tops ( I didn't have enough when we suddenly had an unexpected visitor, and bulked mine out with some hop shoots and goosegrass from the garden)
vegetable stock
1 mugfull of peas ( frozen is fine)
6 mint leaves and a couple of sprigs of marjoram
salt and black pepper
Greek yoghurt

sweat the onion in a small bit of olive oil. When it is done, add the finely chopped garlic and cook for another minute or so.
Add all your greens to the pan, and add enough vegetable stock to cover them all.
Cook gently for 5 to 10 minutes until all tender.
Remove from the heat, add the herbs, and liquidise.
Season with salt and lots of black pepper.
Serve with a large spoon of greek yoghurt on top.

Best with homemade flatbread, or cheese scones!

Another all-time favourite in our household is Nettle and Cauliflower cheese. You can't beat nettles served in a cheese sauce!

My sister and I debating our variations on nettle recipes!

It felt like we had hit rock bottom with Bethan last week. On top of everything else that was an issue for her, the weather warmed up and she started to show all the classic signs of sweetitch :( She rubbed the top of her tail raw almost overnight, and she had the typical pustules all down her crest and in her mane. I could have cried when I saw it - poor little pony. If I had been expecting it, I would have been prepared earlier in the season, but as it was a bolt from the blue, I had no treatments to hand. I had to wait for Monday before I could go out and buy her a fly rug. I don't want to treat her with DEET, as it's such toxic stuff, and I am allergic to Benzyl Benzoate so can't use that, even if I wanted to. So I did my research, and interestingly, two herbs came up in my search. Guess what.... Dandelions and nettles! Dandelions are high in B vitamins and potassium, and there is research shown in humans that Thiamine ( a B vitamin) is a strong deterrent to biting midges. Dandelions she is choosing anyway, and I also added Brewers yeast and garlic to her feed. Nettles, it turns out, have soothing properties for allergic itching when the tea is used as a wash for the affected area. Aren't they marvellous? So I washed her with nettle tea, applied some Cream to the sores, and covered her with a new fly rug. The cream I am using on her is Itch Cream, from Global herbs. I have not used it before, but I regard their products very highly. I have had some near miraculous results in the past from their Laminitis products.
So now I just have to cross my fingers, and wait and see. It's difficult to judge at the moment, as the weather has actually got a bit colder again.
Here she is, sporting her new rug. Despite Piper's brief strop about not being the centre of attention for the photo, the three girls are quite a little gang now.

Wandering between worlds

2010-05-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

"Between Times"

I have been contemplating gateways and openings since the month began. Doorways to magical places, and world's within worlds. That moment when you step from one place to another.

When in fact, I should be madly finishing off work, and framing it. I have an exhibition to hang on the first of June, and am nowhere near ready ;)

"Magic Hare"

Instead I painted a little hare miniature ( it's an ACEO - that's really tiny - only 2.5 by 3.5 inches). I've listed it HERE.

The title of the fox painting above ( Between Times) made me suddenly nostalgic for my teenage years, and my love of Robert Smith and The Cure. I had to go and search out and listen to "In Between Days"! Here it is, for anyone else who feels a pang of nostalgia for those heady days of boys with black eyeliner and guitars.

THE CURE - IN BETWEEN DAYS from Pablo Morais on Vimeo.

Bethan's story

2010-04-30T13:57:00.001-07:00

Thankyou so much for all your comments on the last post! The response was overwhelmingly in favour of keeping pony posts on here, so I thought I'd start by giving you an update on Squeak's progress. I'd been putting this off, as things haven't been running too smoothly, but at last I feel like I'm beginning to get to the root of it. She has been as good as gold to handle, and hack out but we have had a couple of incidents in the school where she has suddenly reared up , followed by an almighty buck, for no apparent reason. I've been unable to come up with any past history for her, but my overwhelming feeling is that she has been very restricted, possibly having spent a lot of time on the lunge line, working in draw reins or similar. I suspect that she has also spent large amounts of time stabled, as she is not too comfortable turned out, always keen to go back in the stable. I've also had a nagging feeling that she is not quite well either, as she has seemed quite dull and depressed. My vet came to rasp her teeth and give her the once- over, and couldn't see any problems with her, but I'm not satisfied. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we are working on a slow programme of allowing her to find some natural instincts again, many of which appeared to be missing. She is turned out 24 hours a day, in a herd environment, and is starting to find her feet. I've taken her off all hay, as she appeared to have a dust allergy. My daughter is hacking her quietly, and together they are starting to build some trust in each other by learning to do groundwork games. There will be no school work until they are confident with each other. It's going to be a slow process, but I finally feel we are making progress.

To mark this new start, we decided to change her name back to the one she was given at birth, not the name she came with. So she is now Bethan, as her passport says, and it feels so much more fitting than Squeak! In honour of this my daughter made her a sash with her name sewn on to it, which she gave her as a gift.

Bethan is looking perkier already, although there is still no sign of her loosing her winter coat, and her strange clip. She is still on the nettle and goosegrass tea, and today we picked a huge bag of dandelions to add to her detoxing mix. I had intended to chop some of these up and add to her feed, but while I was preparing the feed she took matters into her own hooves and tipped out the bag of dandelions herself, eating the whole lot, roots and all. I am a firm believer in the theory that most ponies can self- medicate, given the opportunity, and therefore assume that dandelions were definitely something she needed. Out of curiosity I picked a couple more, and offered them to Piper and Marley, but they weren't particularly interested.

And in memory of Wednesday's full moon, here is 'The Beltane Balloon' AKA 'One Hot Mama'

;-)

A spring detox for all

2010-04-26T23:56:00.000-07:00

It's nettle time again! After nearly three weeks of April sun, my fields are parched and dry, and the frosty nights mean the grass has still not come through. But the wind changed slightly on Sunday, bringing a rain shower on warmer winds, and in anticipation of the first flush of grass, I have been brewing up nettle and goosegrass tea.

Luckily nettles and goosegrass ( or cleavers, or stickyweed - whatever you choose to call it) grow together, and it takes no time to pick a bucketfull. Onto these I poured a kettle of hot water, and left them to brew all day. By evening, I strained off the juice, and used that to soak a couple of handfuls of dried grass each for the ponies. I will probably do this every day this week. At this time of year, this is a good detox and 'pick me up' for them, particularly any who are prone to laminitis, and they all enjoy it.

Everybody drained their buckets!
And at home, in the kitchen, we had lentil and nettle curry, and we too cleaned our plates. But I have had to point out (again) to my smallest son that you CANNOT eat everything that grows, as he was sent home from school yesterday for eating daffodil flowers in the playground. Thankfully he was none the worse for it :)

A foxy dog, and a doggish fox

2010-04-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

'Boris and Bracken'

Oh my! It seems two weeks have flown by, and I have barely had a chance to go near my computer! I'm sorry - things are happening so fast here, it feels a bit like my life has been turned upside down ( in a good way!). It has made me stop and think a bit about this blog. There are lots of things I am starting to work on with the horses which I would like to document as I go, but I am worried that putting it here will bore my loyal readers ( well, many of you - I know there are one or two who are as horse obsessed as I am!). So, this is my question - should I include a bit more of the horsey stuff here, or should I start a separate blog just for that? Your opinions would be gratefully received ;)

In between taking large steps forward with my life, and listening to Regina Spektor ( listen above if you don't know her work - she's fab!) I have been out with the dogs in this glorious sunshine, taking pictures of stone walls and hedge banks for my latest foxy painting. Here is a little peek - I'll show you the whole thing as soon as it is finished!

The Water of Life

2010-04-12T23:34:00.001-07:00

My world is greening as I watch. I can see, and smell, and hear it, and I can feel the earth's life force in my blood. On the farm where the ponies live, water bubbles forth from the earth in a dozen magical ways. Some springs are strong, and flow all year, and others come and go. These two are my favourites - both have sprung to life as if drawn by the sun over the last couple of weeks. The top picture shows where the water wells up through a tree root, and trickles down through a channel into a mossy pool beneath.
And then there is the fountain, sometimes so strong that it spouts up three or four inches above ground. It flows straight out of the ground and washes down across the turf, and though it has been there for as long as I can remember ( 20 years or so) it has never carved a channel for itself. The horses always choose to drink from this spring in preference to anything else.
Springs have held a special place in folklore since the beginning of time, as a source of life, and a place of magic and healing. Terri Windling has an excellent essay on Sacred Springs here, which explains it so much better than I can!

Birds, large and small, are busying themselves, crafting nests in every conceivable shape and size. The rookery behind my house expands slowly and noisily, mishapen bundles of sticks in the still bare topmost branches of the wood. The hedgerow hawthorn and hazel hums with small wings, and the swallows have been swooping between the barns for the last week. Austin's shaggy foal coat is coming out in large clumps, and the Jackdaws are quick to take advantage of this! Austin seems quite content to be followed around all day by this chattering flock.

And I took an opportunity to spend some time with Red, who has had to take rather a back seat lately, with so much else going on. He is 20 this year, but still 5 in his heart.

Eostre

2010-04-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

'Eostre'

She's finished, my interpretation of the goddess, Eostre. The colour is slightly darker here than in the original, because I can't get the colour quite right with my camera ( it is too large for my scanner). So this is another that will have to wait until I get in to Exeter to the printers studio for some professional scans.
Folklore tells us that Eostre was an Anglo - Saxon goddess, celebrated during the fourth month of the year. She represents new life and fertility, and is symbolised by eggs and hares. It is often assumed that the Christian Festival of Easter took it's name from this, hence the traditions of Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies in Western Europe, ( which, let's face it, have nothing to do with the crucifixion and subsequent Resurrection of Christ) though it would appear that there is scant written evidence to prove this. The only mention of Eostre in historical texts, is by the Venerable Bede (672 - 735 AD) in his work' De Temporum Ratione' .

Progress continues with 'The Hare Wheel', but very slowly. I am laboriously stitching words in the last hours of my evenings, slowly, slowly filling up the wheel.

A wander round my garden today found that my beautiful, silky rich, deepest crimson hellebore flowers had opened. I love these, grown from seed many years ago, the clumps quietly expand each year, untouched in the shadiest part of my garden, blooming in all their Gothic beauty each Easter.

And this is Daisy, come to stay for a while. I've known her since she was about 10 weeks old (she's only just over a year now) but her people's circumstances have unavoidably changed recently, and so she was in need of a new home. She has come to stay, to see how she likes being here, and she seems to have settled right in. We all love her lots ( we did anyway, before she came) and Magpie seems to like her too, which was my biggest worry, as I didn't want Magpie to feel pushed out. The cats are not best pleased, but they are asserting their rights, and Daisy is wary of them. Especially the ginger thug, Miu, who turned into a hissing, spitting, erratically bouncing hairball when he first met her. Miu even swiped at Magpie in his fury, which hurt her feelings deeply, although he did come over to apologise afterwards. Beetle, on the other hand, is more reticent, slinking alongside Magpie for protection. She mothers him, curling herself around him as a guardian when Daisy barks at him. Aside from that both dogs seem very relaxed and happy, so we are hoping it will work well.

A Sneaky Peek at an Easter Hare

2010-04-01T12:54:00.001-07:00

Just a quickie tonight, to show you my latest Work in Progress.
I wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts on the last post, it was great to see what everyone thought. The result is that I will invest in some better brushes for acrylics, and keep practising ;)
Have a wonderful Easter weekend, and hopefully I'll have the hare woman finished by the end of it.

Spot The Difference

2010-03-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

Watercolour painting

I've spent the last couple of days playing with paints. The torrential rain this week meant that I felt justified in doing this - how could I be doing those important outdoor jobs when the weather was so awful? I have for a long time been feeling the need to get the acrylic paints out and try and remind myself how to use them. It has been MANY years since I used acrylics, and I have to admit to being way out of my comfort zone. But you know, it was great fun, although I have mixed feelings about the results. It went through 'the Uglies' pretty badly in the middle - I thought it was going to need to be binned, but I persevered and the final result is the painting below. I was definitely hindered by having only large square brushes - I couldn't bear to sacrifice any of my precious, dearly beloved watercolour brushes. The colours are slightly muddy, not as zingingly clear as my usual watercolours, but I suspect that is simply because the acrylic paints are very cheap unbranded ones, whereas my watercolours are top of the range, professional quality. Still, wondering how they compared , I decided to repaint the image exactly using watercolours ( the top image). There are qualities I like about both mediums, and it was a fascinating little experiment. Which do you prefer?

Acrylic painting

The rain lessened for a brief moment, becoming that soft rain that I associate more with autumn than spring. I visited a friend, and took a walk to the top of her hill to gaze outwards. When I was a child we used to dare each other to climb the hill to the cross in the dark, telling ourselves ghost stories on the way. It never really scared us though - there is such a friendly feel at the rocky outcrop here. I noticed today that there is a tiny crescent shaped pool in the rock up here - a moon puddle.

In which I finally catch up with blog obligations!

2010-03-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

Over the last month or so I have been honoured with a clutch of blog awards, and have to admit to being very remiss in both picking them up, and thanking the kind people who awarded them. I'm going to try and make amends here, but as I can't possibly manage to do half a dozen different tags, I think I will have to mix and match a bit!
The awards have come from some old friends and favourites, and some new bloggers, which is always an especial honour. It is such a treat to potter off across cyberspace and browse new blogs!
These are the people who kindly bestowed honours:

Merri, from The Equestrian Vagabond. This blog has long been a favourite of mine- well written and funny - do check it out!
Angie at Ranch Dressing , her fabulous Cowgirl Chic, interior design blog.
Simon at Songs from the Wood - pagan musings on life.
Greywolf Art - wonderful portraiture
Dale Ann at The Chronicles of Whimsy, whose beautiful artworks never fail to wow me :)

Golden the Pony Girl - intelligent adventures in horsemanship

I think that is everybody, but I'm REALLY sorry if I have missed anybody out.

So here we go, 7 vaguely interesting facts about me ( or pictures about me really!)

The first real love of my life, a little mare called Brocade, who I was privileged to be allowed to ride. She is only 5 years old in this picture, and this was my first ever show. She was a really classic old fashioned English Hunter type pony.

The second love of my life - the first pony of my own, Ash. She had a wispy star on her face that always reminded me of a little ghost.

When I was at university, I spent many weekends in London. While my boyfriend at that time watched football in the student union, I spent my time in The Natural History Museum, sketching skeletons. I still have a fascination with bones - both how they work as an articulated structure , and simply for their intrinsic beauty. My house and garden contain a large collection of found bones and skulls. Those of birds particularly interest me. It is one of those things that either disturbs or intrigues visitors. You'd be surprised how many people admit to picking up dead stuff!

I only like tea made in a teapot.

My Dad is a pretty cool artist. This is a very bad photo of a really cool picture of his that I have.

In the last years of school I became obsessed with natural dyeing and knitting. I have sample books full of dye experiments. We had a garden full of bluebells and I picked them all to dye a batch of wool with. To my delight they gave a beautiful, delicate pastel blue. To my mother's horror, I eradicated them from the garden.

As part of the knitting obsession, I made small berets for everyone I knew, made up of small coloured triangles. These hats were immortalised in my most treasured possession, a copy of The Lord of The Rings for my 18th birthday, with a knitting goblin drawn in the frontispiece by friend and neighbour Alan Lee.

And now I am going to reccommend 7 brilliant blogs for you to go and check out. I do, of course, have several old favourites that I always tell people to look at, so this time I'll point you in the direction of new ones.

Railway Cottage - quilts and life

Ann Wood - beautiful textile sculptures
Green Island Studios - dreamy photography
Tinctory - delicate textile jewellery
Sustainable Styling - slow fashion and textiles recycling - my sister's new blog ;)
What are the Ravens doing today? - exactly what it says on the tin!
A Mermaid in the Attic - adventures in art and life

Still playing catchup!

2010-03-15T13:41:00.001-07:00

Oooh, it's been two weeks since I posted here! I am sorry - I have been out and about, busy as a bee in this glorious sunny weather. I did manage to take my sewing with me yesterday to my Mother's house where we had a lovely high tea, with cousins and aunts and lots of small children. We drank copious amounts of tea, ate rather too much cake, and basked in the late afternoon sunshine while all the children raced around the garden. What more could you ask for on Mother's Day?

I also took the opportunity to try and tidy Piper up. She has been running wild all winter with the other youngsters, and is beginning to get a little too big for her boots. Her raggle taggle mane was down to her shoulders, and she looked very wild ( but rather elegant too). I trimmed her up, but have to own that I don't think I have done her any favours. With her forelock in a newly banged fringe, and her long fluttering eyelashes, she has a definate look of the 'Snork Maiden' about her. ( And, you know, the Snork Maiden was always my least favourite of Tove Jansson's characters - she was altogether too manipulative and simpering!)

I've also been working my scanner and printer hard. After all the moaning I did about the way my scanner picks up pencil lines, I have to give it credit for it's reproduction of watercolours. I have making prints of the two Hare studies, and they are just gorgeous! Rich in colour, and every line sharp and clear. I am off to list them in the Etsy shop now!
Finally, I have been lucky enough to be showered with blog awards in the last few weeks. Thankyou so much to everyone who gave me one, I am truly honoured, and I really do appreciate it. I simply have been running just to catch up with myself recently. I promise to get to the awards in the next post :)

New Hare Paintings

2010-03-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

( * I thought I ought to point out that the hare's ear in this , my latest quilt, is actually a piece of voile with an embroidered pattern that I found in an old samples book. The shape just seemed to make a perfect hare's ear, and I couldn't resist using it for that square!*)

Firstly, can I apologise to anyone who has been trying to get hold of me for the last week or so - my email account has been giving me lots of grief, often just disappearing completely. So I'm sorry I haven't answered you. I think it is ok again now, and I will be playing catch -up for a couple of days!

I have been at home all this time looking after my small son, who has been poorly. ( He has returned to school today, still not 100 %, but it is World Book Day, and he got to dress like a pirate for the day) So, although the housekeeping has completeley gone out of the window this week, I did at least manage to get plenty of time to sit and paint, while small boy dozed on the sofa, listening to stories.

Hare Study 1
12cm x 16cm
Watercolour on heavy paper

Hare Study 2
12cm x 16 cm
Watercolour on heavy paper
Both these paintings are UNMOUNTED AND UNFRAMED
These are both offered for sale here on the blog, before going into my Etsy shop after the weekend, for the princely sum of £45 each, plus postage ( £4 UK, or £7 elsewhere in the world)
If you would like one, give me a shout - dbarlowart at aol.com
As usual, it will be on a 'first come, first served' basis.

Moon and Magic, Witch and Woman

2010-02-24T01:48:00.000-08:00

I finally put down my needles and thread, and picked up a pencil instead! This is what I have been working on for the last couple of days. Unfortunately my scanner can't pick up graphite lines very well - it's actually an extremely detailed drawing, but the paler lines are lost here. I had a very wobbly moment when I began painting. It is on Bristol board, and watercolour paint runs and dries very strangely on it's satiny surface. It buckled lots to start with , and I had a moment when I thought it was going to be ruined. But thankfully, it all came together eventually, and the end result is just what I had in mind. I am going to have to get it professionally scanned and printed though, as I want prints to be just as crisp and sharp as the original, and the moon should be palest gold, rather than the copper that my scanner has registered. Shiny paint always confuses the scanners :)

I'll leave you with a couple of songs which I have been listening to, while thinking about hares! The first is Maddy Prior's song cycle 'The Fabled Hare'. This has the most wonderful lyrics, most of which I shan't copy for you here, as I am not entirely sure of the copyright issues surrounding it, but I'll give you the first verse, which is taken from the confession of Isobel Gowdie, a Scottish woman tried for witchcraft in 1662. She claimed that this was the spell which she and her coven used to transform themselves into Hares.

I sall goe until a hare

Wi sorrow and sick mickle care

I sall goe in the devil's name

An while I come home again

You can hear Maddy Prior singing it here. (It's a rather rubbish video - needless to say , not her own, but it was the only one I could find to embed here)

(EDIT: I have removed the youtube video, as I had initial doubts about the photographs and artwork used on it, and Karen Davies from Moonlight and Hares has pointed out that one of the images was one of her paintings, used without permission :( BUT, instead I have added a link HERE where you can listen to the track in all it's glory, without a video!)

And then there is this - one of my favourite songs ever. This is Seth Lakeman, singing 'The White Hare'. You have probably heard it before, as it has been on my blog playlist forever, but this is just in case you needed to see him as well :)

Stook Deer

2010-02-21T14:35:00.000-08:00

'Stook Deer' is finished! Apologies for the poor photograph - I want to mount it on a mustard coloured background, and then I will try and get some better pics.

Two stitched Hares

2010-02-20T06:26:00.001-08:00

Half Term is nearing it's end, and sadly the children will have to return to school on Monday. It's been a busy week, with eldest daughter performing in the local pantomime. This is wonderful fun for her, but means that I have to sit up till late into the night in order to collect her after the performance has ended. As I am not a night owl, this is quite a chore! Still, it does mean that I have been working on 'Stook Deer', and it's very nearly finished. This one has two hares in it.

Middle daughter has spent the week getting to grips with her pony. We have finally found a replacement for Tishy, and are crossing our fingers that this is 'the one'! She is Squeak, a 12.1hh welsh pony, who is just the politest little mare I have ever handled. Unfortunately, I don't know much of her history, so we are taking things very slowly and getting to know her. Never-the-less, middle daughter is smitten!

Beetle and I took a stroll round the garden in the gaps between sleet showers this morning. My witch hazel is in full, glorious bloom, and I can see buds and new growth beginning to push through the ground. Spring is definately on it's way!

Edit: Squeak has a symbol clipped onto her quarters. It was suggested to me when I bought her that this was a warmblood brandmark that someone had decided to clip onto her, but it doesn't look like any I recognise. I thought it looked more like a japanese / kanji symbol, but if anyone recognises it , do let us know!

And The Winner is ....

2010-02-13T03:01:00.001-08:00

Number 31, Melly Testa! A copy of Long Lugs will be winging it's way to you as soon as I have your address. ( UPDATE : I gave you the wrong link for Melly's blog - I have now changed it to the right one, do check it out)

"Stook Deer" progresses nicely, although I have had less time this week. There are more hare and fox paintings in the pipeline too, but I have seriously neglected my drawing so far this year, and need to go back to sketching a bit, just to remind myself !

we walk in Ancient places

2010-02-11T02:52:00.000-08:00

The sun has finally emerged from the wintery clouds, stretching golden fingers across the icy fields. Though the wind is bitter still, the earth is springing to life beneath our feet. If you pause, hold very still and open your senses, it is possible to hear the sap rising, the land quickening. I can hear it in the birdsong, I can smell the spring as I walk across the hill towards the ancient settlement at Kestor. These 'roundy pounds' are the remains of ancient roundhouses, a lasting reminder of our ancestors who lived on these granite hills 2000 years ago. There are at least a dozen hut circles across this hillside. We sit on a rock overlooking the valley, and the weight of human history is overwhelming. How many people have been born and died here? Have lived, and loved, and laughed and grieved, and struggled to survive in this harsh beauty?

And this is what I am listening to as I work at the moment - I had to show you! Polly Scattergood is brilliant, (although possibly an acquired taste - you can hear the influences of Bjork, Tori Amos and Joanna Newsome in her songs)

Don't forget, there is still time to sign up for the print giveaway! You need to sign up in the comments of the Giveaway Post, not after this post. Good Luck!

Celebratory Giveaway!

2010-02-05T12:41:00.000-08:00

OK, it's celebration time! I thought that reaching over 1000 hearts at my Etsy shop was something of a milestone, and deserved a big blog giveaway to celebrate. Plus, it's been a rather testing start to the year and I really need to do something cheery and fun! So, I am going to hold a draw here on the blog. The winner gets to choose their prize from my Etsy shop - 1 large print ( A4/ 8 x 12) or 2 small prints (A5/ 6 x 8). In order to enter, you need to leave a comment after THIS post, stating which print, or pair of prints, that you would like to receive if you win. You don't have to be a blogger, but if not, you need to leave me a way of contacting you should you win. It's open to anyone, anywhere in the world. I will close the comments next Friday 12th of February at 9 o'clock UK time, and draw a name at random.

And here is a peek at the first stages of the third hare quilt.
"Stook Deer"

Race The Wind

2010-02-04T01:24:00.001-08:00

Race The Wind is finished, bar the hanging rod. Not a machine stitch in the piece! I need some time to source / make hanging rods for both this piece and Long Lugs, as I have a pretty specific idea of how I want them to be hung.

In the photos, the greenish edge fringe contrasts very strongly with the piece, but in reality it works a lot better. What is tricky to see in the pictures is that a lot of the stitching over the blue and turquoise background is in gold thread, and this gives it a very greenish gold feel.

The next piece is already taking shape in my head. It will be simpler, and use some of my new found scraps. I'll show you soon!