Illustration Friday "Idle"

The school holidays are well and truly here! My house seems to be bursting with children, my sofa's are in danger of collapsing from the amount of jumping on them that occurred while it pours with rain, and my studio has been commandeered by my middle daughter - I can barely get through the door because of her creative explosion. So I huddled myself on a stool in the kitchen, between the phone and the washing up, and got out my smallest set of paints. There wasn't space to work on anything but miniatures, so here are a pair of ACEO's. They are my submission for this week's illustration Friday topic : "Idle"
A rather loose association, I admit, but the wish to avoid being idle is what prompted it!

If a man devotes himself to art, much evil is avoided that happens otherwise if one is idle.
Albrecht Durer

It feels as though it has done nothing but rain for a fortnight. I seem to have spent most of that time soaked to the skin, dealing with ponies, or garden, or walking the dog, or simply dancing in and out of the house putting washing out, and rushing in with it when the rain comes, then spreading it round the house, on the backs of chairs, in the vain hope it might dry before it gets knocked onto the grubby floor. It is at times like these that I feel a small moment of weakness, and wonder whether I should go and borrow my mother's tumble dryer! I haven't yet succumbed - I think tumble dryers are horribly extravagant, and I have a great washing pulley in my lean - to porch, and if I leave the washing long enough - even on dark rainy days, it eventually dries.

We walked up Nattadon, the smaller of the two hills beside the village this evening, and stood on top. I never fail to be overwhelmed by the magnificent views from here, so I thought I'd share them with you!

These pictures are all taken from the top of the hill, as I turned a full 360 degrees around.

This is the view back down, over the village of Chagford.

This looks out across Meldon, the larger of the two hills that overshadow the village.

nestling between the two hills are half a dozen farms and cottages.

Looking out towards Easdon and Green Combe in the distance

Looking down the valley towards Bovey Tracey. On a really clear day you can see the sea in this direction.

Looking over Weeke Down

The hills on the furthest horizon here are those of Exmoor, roughly 40 miles away.

And here is Castle Drogo, high above the Teign Gorge, looking out over Chagford towards the moors.

A Jam Packed Week

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

Perfect peas

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

Parsley and Shallots coming on nicely

Jack

Two Rooks

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

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

Foal Update

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

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

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