The Garden Tour!

Ok, so I finally managed to upload the video. I hope it doesn't make the blog impossibly slow to load for you!

There are Fairies in these Woods and Meadows

The year has gone round already, and once again it was time for Chagford Filmmaking Group to begin work on another project. To see more about how this fun project evolved, do check out their website. Elizabeth Jane Baldry , celebrated harpist, is the driving force behind these films, and this year's fairytale was 'The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heugh'.

All three children were involved this year - even my small son, who was bribed with ice cream to dress up as a Puck - like imp and dance around with the girls. They had great fun doing it, and I got to sit in the shade of the ferns by the pool while they filmed. We can't wait to see the finished film.

The fairy photos were taken, not by me, but by my friend Carol Amos, whose daughter Ely filmed my daughter doing a hilarious 'Vegetable Tour' of our garden! I have been struggling all evening to upload it here, but so far no luck. I'll have another go tomorrow!

Our favourite swimming spot

Summer time means swimming! We are so lucky to have a multitude of beautiful places to choose from, most within walking distance of home. Chagford has a fabulous outdoor swimming pool, but I'll save that for another post, as we also love to swim in the local rivers. Although today was rather overcast, it was very hot and muggy, so we set off for our favourite river swimming spot.
Out of the village we walked, wending our way up Meldon hill, and out towards Stiniel, a tiny hamlet of a half dozen little thatched cottages.

There is water everywhere in this lush and green land of ours. It springs from the earth on every hill, and trickles from the high rock walls that bound the lanes, and flows in narrow leats under and alongside the granite dwellings, converging in every valley bottom in peat stained, but crystal clean rivers.

From the thatched longhouses, we climb the steep and narrow hill to the top of Stiniel Down. Here is the path through the shoulder high bracken, between the overladen Rowan trees, which leads down to the valley and the river.

At the bottom, is Langaford Bridge, and the River Bovey, where we turn left and follow the water downstream.

In front of the bridge the water is about 4 feet deep, and there is a rope swing in the trees. You can swing out from the bank, and land with a splosh in the icy water. It is deep enough here to swim the ponies too, which we often do, although not today.

Instead, we continued on, along the river bank and through the gnarled trees. Everything is covered in a rich carpet of moss - rocks and tree trunks alike.

This is a land truly inhabited by magical creatures

The river narrows, and quickens,

until each can find their own private pool!

A Little House on a Hill

This is Marlene, all dressed up for going a-visiting. My daughter thought the special occasion warranted it! I had heard from Terri Windling that the Travelling Hermitage had arrived, and as I regularly read Rima's wonderful blog and love her work, we wandered over the hill and paid a visit.

There are times when immersed in blogland, that I pause and think to myself - this is just an illusion! We 'meet' people on our virtual wanderings, and build relationships, and count some of them as real friends, and yet we only really ' know' an online persona. The person behind it could be entirely different from the image they project. ( I'm sure that most are not, but these are the things I start to think of when I feel I have spent too much time on the computer, and not enough time connected to the real world!) It was wonderfully refreshing to meet Rima and Tui, and find that they are just as nice in real life as they appear in Rima's blog!
They were kind and welcoming, and it was lovely to see them and their wagon, tucked away in a secluded spot, a haven of calm and beauty on a hot afternoon!

Time to make space!

So, it's the summer holidays, and as it's hard to get much painting done, it is time instead for the annual tidy up of my studio! ( and I have family coming to visit next week, and at least one of them will have to sleep on the little cabin bed in there!). I have finally got around to making prints of all the transformations paintings. These are listed on Etsy here. I also have a very limited number of cards with these printed on. I have not listed them on Etsy, as it's not really economical to do so, but if there are any you particularly want, do please contact me, and I will see if I have them.( they are £1.50 each)

And, after much deliberation, I have decided to offer up the originals of all these shown here. I'm not very good at parting with originals, but my house is tiny, and I like to have most of my wallspace crammed with other people's artwork, so there really isn't much room for my own. These larger originals, are all listed on ebay here.

And that brings me to this little mare, purchased on a whim, because I liked her, although I have had to scrabble around and borrow from the housekeeping money to find enough to pay for her. (Another reason for deciding to part with original paintings) Thankfully, the family agreed they didn't mind me doing this! She is 2, possibly 3 ( a little bit of uncertainty there) approximately 13hh at the moment, and has a pair of piercing blue eyes. Her name is Mahogany Mist ( she is by the connemara stallion Timber in the Mist) but I promised the children they could choose an every day name for her. I had to rule out Misty from the start - we already have a pony called Foggy, and although we do live in the wettest place in the UK, I really don't need any more reminding of it. Instead they opted for a tree name, and chose Hazel, which I think suits her, so Hazel she will be. She is kind natured, and trusting, but very nervous and anxious about her new home at the moment. Marlene is grudgingly playing nursemaid to her, though she is starting to get annoyed by Hazel following her so closely that she bumps into her everytime she stops.