Sewing Sunday.

I'm sorry guys but in a lazy day moment, I've posted the same item on both blogs. Sometimes I think a cross over of blogs is ok, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, haha!

Ren over at Fairysteps has started a Sewing Sunday Flicker group and today I'm going to join in. Before I get started on my lovely (and expensive) linen skirt, I'm going to have a play with this pretty cotton lawn that was an Ebay bargain.



It was a lttle too bright and new looking, so I gave it a good soak in some strong tea. It's not as dark as I would like, but it's a little muted now and that's fine.


I've cut out a simple A line shape and will sew this up later today after ponies are fed and housework tackled. Pictures of my progress to follow.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone.

Chickens.

Wow! What an incredibly busy time I've had of it lately. I've crammed as much into the Easter holidays as possible to try and make life a little easier when I go back to work. My time has been extended at the school, but on a week by week basis, according to their funding. They can't really afford to keep me on, but need me there so it's a case of juggling their pennies. Thankfully I'm still really enjoying the work but it's so clear that the home and field have been neglected. Hence the simplifying of our lifestyle.

I'm almost too ashamed to post this picture, so I thought distance would lessen the blow! The hen house and run are in terrible shape and the run has almost collapsed in on itself. I've been trying to patch it up, but it really should have gone last year. Rather than build a new one, we took the decision to move the hens to the field. The garden is now very tidy, but a little empty and quiet!


We were given a large dog cage last year, which is extremely strong and secure. With the electric fence around the perimiter, I feel that the hens are as safe as they possibly can be. The run is only really comfortable for 3 hens, so no plans to extend the family yet, but in the future, who knows?


They seem to like the new set up, although the sound of the crows had them diving for cover and our resident pheasant isn't too chuffed!


We have the other half of the rabbit run to let them out on the grass for a while when we are in the veg garden and in time I'll let them out to range freely in the paddocks. Again, though, only when we are with them. Foxy is around all the time and doesn't like to stick to times, preferring instead to pop up when she thinks I'm not looking!

We've had eggs from the hens, which I guess is the best indicator that things are well with them, although Lottie did try to lay one on the roof of their house, so she's still getting used to the set up!!!

Later, more of what else I've been up to this week :)

YAAY! My chickens are going!

No, I haven't lost my mind and become a chicken hater!!! We have finally taken the decision to move the hens to the field, and keep all our smallholding projects together. I'm so excited!

I'll be back later with lots of pictures of the new set up and some wonderful goodies that came in the post. I must stop smiling now, my face is beginning to hurt :)

The odd couple.

These two boys are funny little fellows! Max stays inside more so that Arnold has to take care of the garden, and without Bigwig around, Charm clearly feels happier having Arnold around.

They are keeping their eyes on each other and I wonder what exactly is going through their minds! One thing is for sure, a few months ago they would have not have been happy in the garden together, preferring instead to skirt around each other.



I'm sure that Charm misses Bigwig, even though they weren't terribly close. He's been allowing me to stroke him more than he used to and he sometimes goes over to see the chickens, even though he seemed to hate them before. I guess we have to adapt and move on and these two seem to be doing just that. Bless them :)

Studio!

The gorgeous weather today had me fleeing to the Studio as soon as my other chores were finished. Children and ponies were fed, cats were sleeping and hubby was working. Sheesh! It was messy out there!



The after pictures though didn't look much better, so I've focused on a couple of close ups! A lovely, twisty branch that makes me feel happy and gives me lots of inspiration for trees.


My neat stacks of wood, ready to be sanded and painted. Each block takes an age to sand down to a smooth, satiny finish, but it's so worth it. Some of the beautiful patterns are too delicate to paint over, so I'll use the grain to enhance my pictures. I see lots of fairies and goblins dancing across these little blocks.

Happy Easter.

Here's hoping that Easter weekend finds you all having fun, indulging in chocolate and watching cheesy movies. I had a lot of outside jobs to get done, but the weather hasn't been too kind, so I've been spring cleaning and loving it. It's great when things start to come together, and parts of the house have become a dumping ground for our various projects. Now I've got a little time to sort things out, hopefully things will be put away properly (are you listening children!).

I had a birthday recently and a couple of lovely gifts from hubby were this gorgeous spotted tea pot, which I totally adore, and the Florence and the Machine album. Moomin took her pocket money to school and bought me this fab book, and darling son bought me a hooooge box of maltesers (no picture as they are all gone!). I had a perfect day, but these lovely colours make me want to decorate the kitchen, so that's on the 'to do' list now!



I treated myself to a canvas board and some artists turps, which is meant to be better to use than normal turps. Now I don't know what to do with the board, as I don't want to waste it!


Some fabric seemed to follow me home too, along with a pattern and some lace! I need a long, lightweight skirt, but can't find anything I like, so I'll just have to make one, it looks fairly simple, but we'll see :)

Treacle pudding.

Finally, here is the recipe for the delicious treacle sponge pudding that I made last week. It's lighter than the traditional suet pudding but is probably just as loaded with calories!

75g butter or marg
75g sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
1 tbl sp milk.
Treacle or golden syrup.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs and add them gradually, I find that a wooden spoon is best for this, as it seems to curdle less. Fold in the sifted flour and then the milk. Beat thoroughly.

Grease a 1 litre pudding bowl and put the treacle or golden syrup in the bottom. Pour in the mixture and cover with greaseproof paper and foil. I usually make a small fold or pleat in the top of the paper and foil so that there's room for the sponge to rise. If it doesn't rise too much don't worry it doesn't always.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and put the bowl into this, carefully. Steam for 30minutes at a rapid boil and then another 30minutes at a simmer. My recipe book suggested the second time should be 45mins to an hour. I find this too long and the sponge can dry out, but to compensate, I leave the bowl in the hot water for 10/15mins or so with the heat off, as I prepare the custard or get the cream and dishes ready.

This can also be made with jam or apples in the bottom of the bowl in place of treacle. Enjoy :)

Oh Pants!

I can't believe this! Two pets in two weeks. Tonight I found my beautiful bunny, Bigwig, asleep forever. I cried buckets. We've had him a loooong time, about 7years and he's fathered many babies and produced many generations still talked of in the village.



This was taken last August with Charm, Bigwig's son. We will make the most of Charm, and remember all the crazy things Bigwig did, from doing the wall of death around the sofas in our lounge, to chewing his way through the computer cables and narrowly missing death in a more spectacular way.

Fencepost tortoise.

Now you know I'm not normally one to air my political views but I love this little anecdote/story so much that I felt like sharing.


While stitching up the hand of a 75 year old Devon farmer, who cut it on a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Gordon Brown, his appointment as Prime Minister and his delusion that he commanded the armed forces.

"Well, you know," drawled the old farmer, "this Brown fellow is what they call a fencepost tortoise."
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a fencepost tortoise was.
The old farmer said, "When you're driving along a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's called a fencepost tortoise."

The old farmer saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain,
"You know he didn't get up there by himself, he definitely doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just have to wonder what kind of idiot put him up there in the first place."

I know we all have our views and opinions and this comes a little close to mine, please don't be offended :)

Low.

I'm feeling really quite low today. After spending my time this week nursing a poorly hen, I finally decided last night that Leia was not getting any better :( She seemed to be suffering from some kind of paralysis and keeping her warm in the kitchen and hand feeding her hourly, just seemed to be prolonging the problem. I'd noticed that she wasn't eating much or coming out of the hen house over the weekend, but on Tuesday I had to bring her in as the other girls had badly beaten and pecked her. I wrapped her up and put her in the cat basket and waited for the inevitable. By Wednesday she seemed to be rallying, so I began the hourly feeding and watering. Yesterday though saw no improvement and her returning strength just emphasised how incapable she was of moving properly. By teatime she was refusing food.

I know that it sounds crazy, but I couldn't face the thought of anyone dispatching her other than a vet. I can't say that I begrudge the money, because I gave Leia a quiet and dignified end. She has been a lovely pet to our family and deserved no less than I'd give to our other animals.

To cheer me up, hubby took me to the garden center and we bought some grow bags. I'm going to get the vegetable area sorted out over the weekend and plan to make a new home for our remaining chickens at the field. I had wanted to get more chickens, but yesterday made me back up a bit. I can be such a sentimental old fool sometimes!

Later, I promise to post up the recipe for the treacle pud :)

Two in one day?

Yes, it's true, two posts in one day. I guess I'm getting over my block then :)

I just had to tell you this as I'm really pleased. We took the ponies out for a walk again today, and I decided that Toffee is probably fit enough now to start carrying me again. I've gained a little weight and he's had a sore back in the past, which is why we've been walking so much. Today he was like a skittish lamb and barely seemed to notice me, although I did leave the saddle off as that can be a bit heavy for him along with my weight compared to the Moomins slight frame.

Both ponies flew along as Hubby jogged beside Merlin and I did my best Gypsy impression on Toffee, which is like a sack of spuds and not traditional English riding, all uptight and neat! Toffee hopped onto the verge to save his feet and before I knew it we were doing a beautiful, rolling canter. My first ever bareback. I'm still on a high now, even after a sit down and a cup of tea :)

When I get back, I'll post the recipe for treacle sponge pudding, just for Julia :)

Edited to add: I'll get to the recipe as soon as possible. I've been busy with a very sick hen :(

Spring.

I'm feeling Springy today :)

I spent a good hour yesterday digging over one of the vegetable beds at the field, which explains those mysterious aches in my arms, and then we took the ponies for a loooong ramble in the woods.

I think this is one of Merlin's favourite walks. There are lots of horses in the field below that he can shout at and show off to and then this steep but exciting track up through the trees.


It's such a magical place here. So still and silent, removed from the real World by tall elegrant trees and thick undergrowth, gnarly roots and more than a few faeries.


Toffee found the stoney path a struggle, but he'd follow the moomin wherever she went.



It was late when we got home, but our roast dinner was cooked to a sticky, delicious melt in the mouth crumble and as if I didn't need the extra calories, I topped it off with a home made treacle sponge pudding, yuuuummmyyy :)

Ostara.

In the last few months, I feel like I've been so caught up with distractions from the school and fitting in my new routine that I've begun to lose the essence of who I really am. Now, with the Spring Equinox upon us, I feel the need to reconnect with my beliefs and myself.

Ostara is celebrated at the Spring equinox, it's a time of balance, when day and night are of equal length, when Winter is losing it's grip on the World. Spring is waiting patiently to delight us with green shoots and the promise of her bounty. Very soon it will be time to pick nettles and indulge in nettle soup season, one of my favourites. Around the same time, the asparagus will be coming up and we'll be eating fresh greens from the garden.

Despite the heavy rain yesterday, we managed to have a great time. Firstly indulging in a little couch potatoism and then some unenthusiastic housework!

The afternoon found us visiting with some lovely friends who's daughter played the harp as we sat drinking coffee. I didn't want her to stop, the music was so delightful. We then went to see one of their ponies who was in need of a Reiki treatment. He was a joy to treat and I had a very pleasant time with him. The afternoon whooshed by and then it was home for a dinner of sausages.

I hope you all had a lovely day and can feel the approach of Spring wherever you live in the World.

Helper.

I had a rare quiet day today. Moomin was poorly and I didn't feel so great either so we spent a relaxed time making art. I had a few things to catch up on, including my Eriskay pony painting, which is over on the studio blog. I finished a few bookmarks and made some lovely (well I think so) crystal necklaces.

I had help from my dear old cat, Arnie, while my even older cat Max kept an eye on the fire all day.



I prepared a couple of pieces of wood and a canvas, and it was blue, all blue!



We curled up on the sofa with my sketchbook and The Labrynth on the DVD. I sketched a few owls and then for fun, some badgers, but strangely, no goblins today!



Finally, just one of the necklaces, a gorgeous banded blue tigers eye, with a perfect little eye at the tip, which is pretty rare. This will go in the Etsy shop, but the price is eluding me, as it's worth a lot due to the rarety of the eye in it, but I'd rather sell it than keep it, as I already have one of my own ;)

The real World

The intrusion of the real World is so very vexing! I'm quite snowed under with things to do and not enough hours in the day.

In an effort to declutter and simplify my life, I've actually given myself more work to do!!! But as the saying goes, you can't make omelettes without breaking eggs and so the mundane has been taking over everything else. For a brief moment, last week, there was light at the end of the tunnel, but now I'm back to surveying piles of dross with mounting panic.

How I ever managed to fit in some sewing is beyond me, but I had a commission to fill, and so put on some harp music and stitched Reiki into a little pouch to heal a friend's bad back. The whole experience was very spiritual for me, as I filled the pouch with healing and Universal Energy. It was such a pleasure, that I may well consider selling these in the Etsy shop.

This is the pouch, lightly scented with herbs appropriate to help my friend's back and with Reiki held in every single tiny stitch. I then sat for a while and meditated while focusing on my friend.



I was so pleased with the pouch, I then designed this little book based on a needle book.



It is lined and again filled with Reiki energy, but with no specific issue in mind. You simply write the name of the person or situation that requires healing on a piece of paper, and place it inside the book. The Universe does the rest.



For me now though, it's back to doing my chores. I wish I could magic up a paperwork fairy to help out with my growing stack of papers!

Edited to add: One stack of papers is gone and now the rest can be filed (in the bin, haha!) I feel so much happier now at the prospect of a week filled with artisic endeavours :)

Treats and eats!

I managed to get some baking done at the weekend, and used my favourite and best flour from our local mill. When I say local, I mean about 15miles away, but actually, these days that's pretty good. It's quite a heavy, wholemeal flour and I usually mix it with some Allinson's, which isn't at all local, but if I use it straight, then it tends to produce a loaf with the density of a housebrick.



The bread was delicious, burning our fingers and mouths with our eagerness.



A little home made jam and a pot of tea made it the ultimate comfort food.


Later, a visit from some lovely neighbours bearing gifts of French chocolate, wine and


a large sack of 5 cereal bread flour. They are such kind and sweet neighbours, and were very grateful to us for looking after their adorable little french kitty, Mimi, whilst they were away.



I'm so looking forward to making bread with this flour that I may even do a step by step photo experience!!!

lastly, a little note to say that there are a few new cards in my Etsy shop, to celebrate Easter or Eostre or Ostara. Whatever you choose to call it is fine as it's still the beginning of Spring and lets all jump for joy.

Shelfling.

Little Audrey is now finished and at the moment takes pride of place on the top shelf of my little shelfling.



She shares the unit with my little felt horse and a gorgeous tea cup that I found in the junk shop. I have a looong way to go though before the shelfling starts to look as full and interesting as Kazzy's.



The weather is appalling today, so it's going to be a stay inside and play day. Thank you to everyone who left such supportive and caring comments on my last post. I'm going to play with my website, while tucking into some homemade bread and jam with pots of tea, to keep me going.

Yukky!

I'm sorry that I've not been posting much this week, but I'm just too low to pass on this much fed-up-ness! I think a combination of over work, a crushing routine and poor health has just knocked me off my feet.

All I can do is delegate some of this work and take an hour or two to rest. Whenever I feel this bad, it's good to remember that it could be worse - I could be a milkman, up way before dawn, in all kinds of terrible weather for an ungrateful audience snug in their beds!

Edited to add: Actually, even after half an hour blogging, I'm beginning to feel the return of my mojo!

So sad.

I just wanted to say goodbye to a very special person. Darling Renee, I will miss you so very much, your slightly irreverent comments and your hilarious view of life. Tears are streaming as I find I've run out of words. I hope my love reaches out to you as you journey on.

I'm back :)

Well, here I am all refreshed and ready to start again. Where did I go? Well, actually, no where!




As part of The Artist's Way, I needed to take a week off from reading books and magazines and to be sure not to fill the space with other external influences like the radio, TV or pc. I decided to take this a step further and had a diet detox and life cleansing week. It was lucky that this all coincided with a half term week off school as I roped the children in and we went for some wonderful walks.

Our best walk was to the Devil's Armchair. It was a very cold day, but gorgeous in the shelter of the hill. We found some vast rabbit colonies under twisty, gnarly hawthorns and I came home with an awful lot of inspiration for future paintings.

My son found peace on the hillside while the moomin and I did some sketching.




Later in the week we visited a friend who lives near to my favourite woods. Sadly it was raining so we couldn't manage a walk on that day, but the bright side was that we got to play with her adorable puppies.

Moomin wanted this one Soooooo badly :(


I found some time to shuffle everything around in the kitchen and ended by putting most of it back!!! This is one of the gorgeous items I bought a couple of weeks ago.



I'm still trying to find a home for this pretty shelf. It actually doesn't fit in many places, and I'll probably have to redecorate to accomodate it! Actually, the house needs a face lift, but that's all in the future.



I learned an awful lot this week. The biggest issue for me is time. I just don't have enough to fit everything in and so some things will either have to go, or take a back seat. First on the list is housework, I'm going to completely ignore it from now on, haha!

I have missed all my lovely blogging friends though, and the first couple of days were hard going, so I'll be looking forward to some time visiting you all soon :)

Retreat.

I am on a retreat this week, which means no pc's, tv, radio or books. EEEK! I'll explain all when I get back at the weekend :) Have a good week all :)

I'm getting there!

Appologies to all my lovely blog friends for not visiting you regularly. I'm soooo snowed under with last minute preparations for today's pony tack sale, that I've barely had a moment to blog much at all.

The show is in aid of the EPS, the Eriskay Pony Society, of which I'm a member due to my little Merlin being a rare stallion (rare indeed!). So I'm half way through a last minute painting for them plus dashing out a couple of horsey bookmarks. The last thing you want to see, though, when you are already in a panic, is a flashing light on the printer. EEEK, I'm low on Cyan blue and a replacement cartridge is £10.00 just for the one colour! If I order from the manufacturer a whole set is over £40, but that is for six colours! I know it sounds a lot, but I like to use the good inks, as they have a guarantee of longevity and quality, but right now I don't even have time to dash out to buy them. The solution is to print more black and white prints, and then borrow hubby's printer (when he's not looking) for the bookmarks!

I've also been working on my website. Sheesh it's giving me a headache! Getting to grips with the unfamiliar HTML is making me all googly eyes :) Still, slowly I'm pulling something together, and for those of you who already run your own website (one instantly springs to mind), big respect to you, as now I realise that it's not as simple as I first thought!

Right, back to the grindstone now, and hopefully I'll be able to show some nice pictures of my EPS stand at the sale.

Artist Date.

I had a great Artist's Date this week and it was exactly what I needed, walking through my favourite woods with snow lightly falling and words tumbling through my head. A flask of tea in my backpack and a note pad and sketchbook was all I needed for an inspired couple of hours.

When I've been with my dear friend, the Woodelf who lives in these woods, we've walked for hours and hours without recrossing our path. The woods are vast and sit in between at least 3 villages.
Starting out, my long path lay before me.



An hour into my walk and the snow fell thicker and the wind picked up. I was looking for Grandmother Yew, but without my map I soon lost the way. Instead, I sat in the warm and relatively dry shelter of a pine copse and wrote a couple of pages of descriptive ramblings.

You can just see the white spots of snow, but not many fell here.


I took a few pictures of myself above the Yew grove, but didn't really want to take the extra time to go down there. I felt quite self conscious and then noticed a large black dog watching me, it's owner a little farther back giving me a very strange look! One of the pictures was very blurry and looked like something from the Blair Witch project!!!



On the last leg of my walk, my path was blocked by the flooded river. This is normally just a muddy puddle, but today it was deep and swift flowing, high above the top of my wellies. I had to find a way around, but it wasn't far to the little bridge and then I was back in the heart of the village and the real World again.

A week of lovlies.

It's been a very upty downty week here at the Retreat, but one of the horrors turned into a day of loveliness. I set off for my Artist's Date, which is meant to be a day of inspiration for your inner artist child (as set out in the Artist's Way, which I've mentioned before) and it turned out to be a thoroughly horrible experience.

It would seem that any city, in fact many places, are thoroughly dire in February, and as I entered my chosen place for the 'date', a dark and heavy gloom settled upon me. It wasn't helped as I noticed that an enourmous willow tree that I used to lay under on hot sunny days had been replaced by a block of new and ugly flats. It was such a gloomy trip in fact that I simply turned the car around and aimed for the hills and the woods. I found myself in the tiny and cute village of Westbourne. The Gallery that I'd had my first experience of the snobbery of gallery owners was gone and in it's place was a shiny new shop filled with more lovlies than a cake shop! I cooed and ahhhed over all the gorgeous items and even bought a couple of yummy pieces (photos to follow) and persuaded the shop owner to let me snap a couple of piccies.



How could I choose just one item?



I couldn't, so I chose two!



Today was the exact opposite as the Artist's date. It started out with an unexpected find down a little alleyway in Petersfield. A shop filled with as many delicious delights as above, but at a fraction of the price. Oh dear, I bought another little shelfling!



There were tea pots and cosies in delightful colours and designs. Some new and some vintage,


which was definitely the charm of this shop, the old and new combined.


After a trip around a pine and recycled wood shop, we then stopped off at the wonderful 'Barn'. A haven for all things Gargoyle and Grotesque. This was great, as I want to make more Grotesques and inspiration was here in spades.


Some lovely and some not so!
A tiny Grotesque came home with us, but my heart was with a large Dragon scratching his ear! Maybe I'll go back for him :)



Sadly the day hit a bad spot when Moomin and I had a disagreement, but I know this is because she is going on a residential trip next week and our emotions are running high. Goodness, I'm going to miss her!