Zero results

This was my Christmas present. "March Hare" by William Goddard. The colour representation here does not do it credit. The inner mount is a pale heather colour to compliment the purple flowers - and the alium flowers of the curtains - and in the spring the 100 alium bulbs which will flower opposite the window. I have admired this picture for a few months - bought from The Stables gallery in Thornton-le-Dale.
The gallery couldn't tell me anything about the artist as it was bought by the previous owner - all we know is William Goddard has a Sheffield connection - so my research continues....so far despite endless google searches I have zero results!

This concludes the current ABC Wednesday round - next week brings Round 16!

L is for...Late!

Phew! Life is very very busy at the moment!I am working every afternoon preparing for my exhibition which as I have mentioned is on 22nd of this month! As well as taking orders for Christmas Cards (some of my favourite landscape photographs of the village and North Yorkshire)I am having a sale of my handmade dried flower cards which are quite lovely even if I say so myself! I get so much enjoyment and satisfaction from creating such examples - mother nature really knows how do deliver such beautiful subjects doesn't she?







It should be quite a good evening - we are having a buffet as well as some drinkypoops and a raffle for the North Air Ambulance! However - if it is going to be a successful evening I had better get on with the preparations!

Watch this space!

Hungry?

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55. Pearl introduced me to this and this week I am using a new recipe – see what you think!

Blitz a couple of slices of stale bread in the processor and place in large dish with water – mix until water is absorbed. Boil spagetti until soft. Rinse in cold water and chop into small lengths, place in dish. Add porridge oats and stir until absorbed. Finally add grit and layers pellets now serve!

Yes it is the current winter food I am feeding the hens, a particular favourite of theirs along with rice which you can see Bev tucking into above.

Our neighbours are on holiday a nd I am looking after their hens and cats! (They do not share accomodation! lol) If you remember a few weeks ago we took our two broody hens over to try and encourage them to hatch some chicks. Bev did not succeed and was brought home. Mabel however succeeded and hatched one chick. This morning when I went over to let the hens out she was first out, together with her chick!

Mabel is an excellent mother and will not allow the other hens anywhere near her chick. She will be staying over with the neighbours and raising her chick until further notice. We are not sure what sex the chick is – we will be able to tell in a few weeks when we will be able to choose a name.

The weather here is quite dire at the moment and it looks as though it will continue to rain throughout the weekend so it doesn’t look as though we will be venturing out on the motorbike. My study therefore summons and I will be locking myself away and working on more for my exhibition. October has arrived so I have 21 more days to get a collection together!

Cornfields and Chicken update!

Chicken update - Bev and Mabel continue to sit on eggs, very Contented. 12 days sitting so far out of 21 day incubation period!

As I took Freida for a morning walk up the lane it was lovely to see the cornfields glowing in the sunshine.

The corn was so ripe and ready!

We must have walked a few miles really – just ambling along the lane and walkways.

It is always nice to be greeted by our neighbours!

and meet the new arrivals!

Each month, TATE ETC. publishes new poetry by leading poets such as John Burnside, Moniza Alvi, Adam Thorpe, Alice Oswald and David Harsent who respond to works from the Tate Collection.

The first poem to appear is John Burnside’s beautiful meditation on John Nash’s evocative wartime landscape The Cornfield 1918, currently on display at Tate Liverpool

Cornfield

after John Nash

Nothing is as it was
in childhood, when we had to learn the names
of objects and colours,

and yet the eye can navigate a field,
loving the way a random stook of corn
is orphaned
- not by shadows; not by light -

but softly, like the tinder in a children’s
story-book, the stalled world raised to life
around a spark: that tenderness in presence,

pale as the flame a sniper waits to catch
across the yards of razor-wire and ditching;
thin as the light that falls from chapel doors,

so everything, it seems,
is resurrected;
not for a moment, not in the sway of the now,

but always,
as the evening we can see
is all the others, all of history:

the man climbing up from the tomb
in a mantle of sulphur,

the struck match whiting his hands
in a blister of light

Round 7!

Here we are on the brink of Year 4 as we enter another round of ABC Wednesday. Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about what theme to have for this round and I have decided to base everything around my home and garden. Being a naturally inquisitive (nosy) person I do love looking round people’s homes, (for ideas of course!) so I am kicking off with my ABC Wednesday with A is for my Art!

The picture above is a painting I did of Ella our cat. It hangs on the lounge wall and i would like to think it is a true likeness! Over the next few months I want to do the same pose but pointing towards the left and I will hang them together.

This canvas was made using one of my photographs from the ferry crossing from Ijmuiden to Newcastle back in 2008, the other three are hung above our sideboard, again in the lounge. I am not one for a great deal of ornaments, but the German Shepherd is one of my particular favourites as I feel it captures the pure breed! The wooden bowls were made by a neighbour and the mushrooms are something I collect when we are out on the motorbike – small enough to fit inside the limited storage space!

This is another of my photographs – taken as the sun rose on the same crossing. The slightly out of focus effect is down to the water on the porthole window.

Another canvas is my first attempt with oil paints many years ago. It is of Peggy one of our geese, sadly no longer with us. I could not get the technique right, following directions from a text book, when suddenly she was there, standing at the window staring at me.
I painted her straight away, just as she was.
No sooner had I finished painting she wandered off.

I think the lounge is one of my favourite rooms in our house as it is so light. What is your favourite room in your house?

To join in with ABC Wednesday or to have a look at what other resourceful souls have come up with click on the new logo in my sidebar!