It's Chagford Show Tomorrow!

Thought I would show you a quick paint sketch that I did for a friend who lost this dog a couple of months ago. This is Flute, a beautiful smooth coat lurcher.

I haven't managed to paint anything else, as it is Chagford Show tomorrow, and we have been far too busy getting ready. I am so proud of the girls. They have both entered the art and craft classes, and have been working really hard on their entries. I have taken photos tonight, before their work turns to mush in the rain tomorrow! Maddy spent all yesterday making a plasticine witch, complete with cat, frog, a sprinkling of stars, and a large packed lunch. She also made a face on a paper plate ( that is the scary picture!), while Lily had to make an olympic event on a biscuit tin lid, and a vegetable dinosaur ( not pictured, as it needs it's final assembly in the morning). I meanwhile, am taking Marlene in a class tomorrow, and am beginning to get nervous, as I anticipate some serious competition. This is all new for me - I don't do competitive stuff at all, and usually pooh - pooh people who take it all too seriously, but now at the last moment I am wondering if I really have been too lackadaisical about the whole thing, and should have done a bit of practising, and set about borrowing a hat to wear. Hmm, who can I ring at nearly midnight to beg a hat from?

Pink Bunnies and a Bearded Lady

I worked all day yesterday, and now have some new ACEOs listed on ebay. I'm also having a bit of a summer sale and studio clearout, in preparation for the beginning of term, and the prospect of LOTS of new projects! I am really looking forward to getting started on some huge pieces - quite an ambitious project with watercolours, but exciting too.

I took a couple of Work -in -Progress pictures yesterday. When working on ACEOs or other small format pieces, I tend to work on 2 or 3 at the same time. It's always good to have another piece to pick up while waiting for ink or paint to dry. And I like to have something to listen to - Radio 4 is a favourite when I dont want to keep getting up to change the CD.























I thought my readers might like to be introduced to my 'gang' too. This is 4 of the 5, lined up this morning waiting for Colette, the EP (Equine Podiatrist - they are all barefoot)
From left to right : Sandpiper, (Dartmoor x Highland yearling), Foggy, (15 year old gelding) Red,(18 year old ,15hh appaloosa gelding) and Marlene, (3 year old Dartmoor filly).

What a lovely English Summer!

WOW! We have only just dried out from the camping trip. What a washout! We managed to pick the worst three days of the summer, but in true British fashion we decided to go on in the rain anyway! Still, it wasn't an unmitigated disaster - there were some great bits as well as some extremely wet bits, and most of us had a good time.
We rode out on Monday, in light rain, from Chagford to Holwell via Bowermans Nose, and stopped at Hound Tor for a late lunch, from the van in the carpark. They do a sterling job there all summer, serving real sausages and burgers , and homemade cake, to tired walkers, washed down with a decent mug of tea ( in a real mug, not a plastic cup). The best, and cheapest meal around!

The rain became torrential as we arrived at
Holwell Farm, where Sebastien and Phillipa Hughes had very kindly allowed us to camp with the horses. The farm is one of the most picturesque spots on the moor, nestled in a valley, with views of Haytor and beyond. You couldn't find a better base for walking and riding. What we hadn't bargained for were the free range piglets! Cute and hilarious as they were, the horses were not impressed, and Red, who is quite phobic about pigs , became a jibbering wreck.

Poor boy! He couldn't settle at all. We turned them all out together, but Red spent the whole night standing on the highest rock in the field, stamping a warning and 'barking' like a stallion calling the alarm. It was a really wild night, and neither he, nor us in the field next door got more than a couple of hours sleep. The wind and the rain were deafening. Thankfully the tent was snug and dry, and we weren't washed down the hill in the rain.


Rain paused for long enough for us to venture out again, (this is the view from Bonehill Rocks, down the valley beside Chinkwell and Honeybags Tors) Normally we would ride into Widecombe and tie ponies up at the pub, but this time we opted to walk out without them. There is always a fire going at The Old Inn, and good food, and it is a great place to warm up.

Wednesday dawned dark and roughly. We sat in the tent for as long as we could, putting off the moment of getting drenched, but there comes a point when you just have to brave it! We did, only to discover that little Cleo was lame. The day was looking grim, certainly for the children, and then - we were rescued! As we rounded the corner to the farmyard, there was my friend's husband with the horsebox. Completely out of contact as we were (no phone signal in the valleys) everyone was starting to worry about us out in the storms. The little ponies charged into the horsebox, quite desperate to get home, just leaving myself and Kathryn, and her daughter, to ride for home as fast as we could.

So we have finally recovered, none the worse for our adventure, apart from Cleo who has strained her tendon, but is looking much improved now.

Macaws today, the Moor tomorrow

Parrots, parrots, and more parrots! It's really just an excuse to use my favourite colours. I LOVE turquoise, and the contrast with a really jewel like scarlet. These two little ones here are ACEOs, and they are all listed on etsy.

I'm now going to be away for a few days, as we are off on a camping trip in the morning, taking the ponies. The weather forecast is vile - torrential rain tomorrow, but it is our only opportunity to go. Both of the girls ponies, after slight lameness, are sound again, and so we ride out straight over the moor tomorrow morning.

I'll catch up with you all when we return!

A Goat Anecdote

The girls were out today - they have been taking part in 'Peerifool', a film that is being made by Chagford Filmmaking Group , a local band of enthusiastic filmmakers and lovers of folk tales, headed by the effervescent Elizabeth-Jane Baldry ,an extremely talented musician and Harpist.

This gave me the oppotunity to get busy painting today! I had a new delivery of watercolour board, and more Indian Ink -I sooo love Indian Ink - it makes me feel so liberated to use my dip pen, and work quickly! I very easily get bogged down in details as a rule, and find my style getting quite constricted, and the Indian Ink frees up my hands again.

Here is a new Falcon, and an animal I have a rather love/ hate relationship with - the pygmy goat. In my early teens, I worked weekends and holidays at a local tourist attraction, which had a flock of pygmy goats, which seemed to do nothing but escape. I spent most of my time wrestling goats by their horns off picnic tables, to an audience of screaming visitors.

A stubborn Nanny goat, that is determined to finish all the sandwiches and crisps, is very difficult to drag away. The bigger , far more elegant Anglo-Nubian goats, on the other hand, were much more interested in following the ancient Dumper Truck around the farm, noses to the exhaust as it belched out black smoke, apparently getting high on the fumes.

These are both listed on Etsy

I have also spent the day in email correspondence with the forestry commission, and various local government archeology departments, trying to find records about the Fernworthy sites. Everyone has been so helpful - I am really impressed. Anyway, most of it is in out of print books, or papers, but I now know where to find the records in their library in Exeter. I think a library session may need to wait until the school holidays are over, but I am looking forward to it!