She wanted owls, not flowers

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!

Being inventive with vegetables

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

Dartmoor Drums

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!

Pony Update - One in, one out

Things have been a little topsy turvy here with the ponies recently. We have had a new pony here for the last six weeks, to see whether she suited us, and after a rather bad start, things turned around, and she has proved herself to be a little poppet,so we've made the decision that we would like her to stay! This is Tishy, 12.3hh, about 17, with a very happy middle daughter on board.

This has, however, meant that some tough decisions have had to be made. You may remember that I bought this little filly last summer ( see here
with the plan to initially use her as a broodmare, ( she is actually booked into stud with Diptford Star Attraction this spring) to breed a Working Hunter type pony, and then to break her in to have as a jumping pony when the girls were a bit older. She has a fantastic jumping pedigree - she is by Timber - in - the Mist, a Connemara stallion, and her dam is a daughter of Rosewall Mister Softee, a champion JA pony. Hazel, who currently stands at about 13.1hh, has so much potential. She arrived very anxious and bargy, but has settled right down. She is kind and gentle to handle, desperately eager to please, and particularly quick to learn. She also jumps like a stag, and this is where things become tricky!
I rent a little bit of land away from the farm which is where I intended to run Hazel, along with my other youngster, Piper. Unfortunately, this turned out not to be a great plan because Hazel, good in every other way, panics if left on her own and jumps straight out to join us. My fencing is sheep netting or stone walls, and I'm not in a position to re -fence rented land! Obviously, this means that I can't begin to work on breaking Piper in, which is what I planned to start doing. So, I have had to bring both girls back to the farm with the riding ponies, where I can safely leave Hazel when I work with Piper. BUT, the arrival of Tishy puts too much pressure on the land at the farm, and my new year promise to the family was to simplify our lives as much as possible. The upshot of this is that, reluctantly, I have agreed to put Hazel up for sale. I say reluctant, because I genuinely like this little mare. She is an anxious sort, but is incredibly trusting of people. She can't bear to be left on her own, but is just as happy with a person for companion as another pony. She will stand like a rock in the stable to have her mane pulled, her feet picked out - any amount of fussing over. She leads out at walk and trot from both sides. She will follow me anywhere I ask her to, even through the river at full flood. She really does like to work and use her brain. I think, in kind and calm hands, she will make a top competitive showjumping pony.

So, there we are. One comes in, one must go out. Sad as it makes me, I do see that it is more important to have the right pony NOW for the children, when they are starting out, than to be saving them a good one for the future!