Ne'er cast a clout, til May be out

Lily of the Valley

Hello there blog friends. The Merry month of May is proving not so merry here, with rain and really cold temperatures. However things are blooming nicely. I have Lily of the Valley flowering for the first time, I had it growing in a pot, as they like to take over apparently, but it wouldn't flower, so I planted it out last year and 'voila', little bells are coming up! The title of my post is an old saying, which is not referring to the month of May, but May blossom, which is possibly hawthorn? It means don't take off your winter clothes until the May is out?? The Hawthorn is blossoming like crazy, but it's still pretty cold, so winter coats on still.

 My artwork is showing some greeting cards that I worked on last year. The company are lovely to work for, they get the colours so well, and then put a little image on the back and a tinted image inside, which I think looks sweet! Can you spot the difference in the image above, I added a swallow later and the magic of the Mac has popped it in.
Hope you are enjoying warmer weather wherever you are, I hope we get some sunshine too, it seems so long since the heatwave of March?

Hole of Horcum

 Hi there Blog friends, I've been missing from the posts for a little while. I've actually been working away in a studio, with some lovely talented people. It's been good fun, so nice to be part of such creativity. So I don't have any artwork to show, just me in my mad green hat on a recent walk to the 'Hole of Horcum' a North York moors walk, up near Pickering, North Yorshire.

 We parked at Levisham, above (that's the pub at the end there) and walked out across the moors to reach, what is called the 'Hole'

 Levisham is a pretty little village, just one main street really.(above)

 This was the view from the moors, looking down the 'hole'

It was quite a trek, right the way back as far as you can see in the photo above, then round back up into Levisham. We had very mixed weather, horizontal hail to start with, but it stayed dry, but rather cold for the most part. April was the wettest on record for us, so it was quite a miserable month, but the rain was needed, and everything is very green all around now. I was so busy in April, it's just whizzed by, I'm hoping we get to see some sun in May?
See you again soon!

Belated Easter wishes.

 On Easter Sunday, we were kindly invited to lunch at my Mother-in-laws. I always enjoy this meal being cooked for me, Yorkshire puddings an' all. I bought these bunches of Freesias to take up there to say thanks and Happy Easter. They reminded me of some work I did a while back now of the very same flowers. I thought they would make a good subject for a card, and as it turned out they did!

 I painted the stems individually, and tried to work as much wet in wet as possible, which was easier on the greens than with the flower itself, as they are quite detailed with lines etc.

 It was an interesting excercise. I knew what I wanted the card image to look like, and so with the help of a very talented good friend, I ventured into the world of Photoshop. Magically bringing the stems back together in a bunch tied with a lilac bow. The lovely greeting card company Phoenix bought my image and produced this card as a result, with my name there on the back, which is always so nice to see.

 I actually managed to do some baking as well this Easter, I made some scones, which got scoffed before I had chance to take a photo, and these coconut butterfly buns. These were my Mums speciallity, that always disappeared fast. She loved the smell of Freesia too, as do I. I can smell it now, just thinking of it.

Bye for now, hope you are enjoying some warmer weather than we are right now, it has gone back to winter??

Out on the wild and windy moors.......

 I've been abscent from my blog for a little while, trying to take a few days out during the Easter break. The wonderful weather we had prior to the holiday period has been replaced by 'snow' and rather chilly conditions. But we have managed a couple of days high on the moors in both south and north yorkshire. This southern shot is above Ladybower reservoir in the peak district, we trecked across bleak moorland to be rewarded with these amazing views.

Views over Ladybower reservoir

Ashford-in-the-water

 We tried to call for tea at our favourite peak district tea room 'Hobbs cafe' above Monsal head, but alas it was still closed, so we headed down to Ashford-in-the-water, to a lovely tea room there.

Linton village in the Dales

 Our Northerly jaunt in the Yorkshire Dales started out at Linton, where there was (luckily for me) a watercolour exhibition on. I bought an original from a lovely lady called Patricia Jones. Her work was beautiful and she had some unusual and striking black and white art that sort of reminded me of etchings. They were quite atmospheric, dark moody skies against limestone buildings. (see below)

Malham moor

 Out up on the moors it was quite a contrasting scene to the green down in the village, there was still quite a bit of snow about in deep drifts. We had wonderful views once again though, even though it was a little cold. We only saw 2 other groups of walkers, not many brave souls out up there.I like hearing the sound of nothing but the birds and possibly a few sheep! The birds we saw were Lapwings and Curlews, both of which have quite haunting calls, especially the curlew, which warbles a lonely tune. The lapwings were in courtship mode, doing their twisting and twirling displays and calling pee whit, pee whit. I tried to record it, but you can only hear the wind. No decent photos of them either as they are rather shy birds, you will have to make do with my book version!

looking to Great Whernside

Original watercolour,of Tan Hill

Lapwing

Favourite Tea Room at Hebdon.

Our day ended very nicely at our favourite tearoom at Hebdon. The old schoolhouse. Always such a lovely treat.
I will be back soon with some artwork. All is still very busy. I've been working with some lovely people lately on exciting new projects.

Stunning Spring Shades and a snake?

Hi everyone, I've been missing from the blog for a while, had the book to finish, it's gone on it's way now, I do hope it all turns out OK?

 We have been having such amazing weather, glorious sunny days with clear blue skies, but coming cold on an evening, frosts even. The Spring flowers have all come bursting out, it's so wonderful to see, I'm so glad I made the last minute effort to put some more bulbs in, they are fabulous. I've got some photos to show of all this colour going on, and........ there has been an appearance from my little snake in the grass. My snakeshead fritillary has emerged, there are only 2 (I think I planted 6 bulbs?) but they are beautiful. It looks just like a snakes head as it's emerging, photos of before and after.(top 3 photos)

I also managed an afternoon out on Saturday last, we went to Harrogate, to 'Betty's' Tea room at Harlow carr gardens, we had a lovely lunch and I saw a work colleague and her bonny baby girl I haven't seen before.She was lovely. We then went on to Ripley village and Castle, to sample the 'famous' Ice cream. (it was not my favourite to be truthful).I was temtpted by those primroses and had to have some, which I brought home to more sunshine in the garden.

So we are having a very pleasant time of things at the moment, it will be the Easter break starting next week, I think it has forecast rain? Hope I get out to do some walking in the Sunshine. Sorry no artwork to show today, but hope you enjoy the sunshine!

Mothers day today, hooray!

Hello there again, today is Mother's Day here, I received a beautiful card, as you can see, and a pile of washing :)  which was no trouble at all, as it's been another lovely sunny day, Hooray!
I hear the sun is shining in Canada too...spring is certainly here I think.
I have still been working away this weekend, trying to catch up and keep everyone happy. Still got lots to do, but possibly not as pressured as the book may be finished now????Just waiting to hear if all is OK.....eeek, hope so?
Our next main event will be the Easter break, which is in only 2 weeks time ! I can't believe it's coming round so soon. I am so looking forward to getting out, and doing some walking and tea shop scoffing. I think by then I will have some free time, I will certainly make some anyway.  So with that in mind here are a couple of Easter designs I did last year, which will be in the shops now. I went to see if my Mother's Day cards were in the shops, and they were, it's so nice to see your work up there, and people milling around them. I of course had to buy one, I didn't actually have a sample of it, so that was good.

Anyway back to the Easter cards, my little fairies for the Daughter caption, and a liitle boy with lambs, for Son. Hope you like them. I'll be back with more soon. Hope it's nice and Spring like wherever you are in the world.

Like the sun coming out.

Ladybugs

Spring sunbathing

We have experienced some lovely sunny days recently. I took some photos of sunny activities going on in the garden. I've missed most of this however, I've been very busy working on the book. I'm almost there I think?? It's been very tight time wise, so I've been working all hours to try and get finished.

 You know that saying 'work your fingers to the bone' well it's almost come true working on these large pastel artwork. I have worn the prints off the tips of my fingers, they are very red and tender. I have to blend with my finger tips, they are the best tools for the job I find! These artworks are seriously large, like A2?? All new for me, I'm used to working A4 or slightly larger. Almost there now though, I have some 'tweaks' to do, or so they call them, then they will be parcelled up and sent to the publisher.

The bottom photo shows the view from my workroom window, my little bear soaking up the sunshine......it was so lovely out there!!

I'm hoping to be back blogging before too long, with some new cards and artwork to display. See you all again soon! :)