Just One More Walk Around the Garden

It’s taken me a while to fully come back after being in Michigan for three weeks. I always feel as though I’ve left part of me still hovering somewhere over the Atlantic, looking for land  - or perhaps looking for whales or pirates. Since it’s a part of me that I can’t consciously seem to communicate with, I have no idea really.

Anyway  - I’m home (all of me) and trying to work again, which hasn’t been very successful yet. It’s not that I don’t want to  - it’s just that I don’t want to – if you see what I mean. It rained almost every day last week and was far too cold for this time of year. That made me just want to curl up and read (which I did) and this week, it’s absolutely beautiful  - sunny and warm(ish) and bucolic , with birds singing and lambs baa-ing and the sounds of the neighbors, trimming their weeds or cutting down trees or what ever that noise is that I don’t really want to go and investigate, but that isn’t terribly conducive to work either.

Elfie is just SO happy, lying in the sun and occasionally getting up to ask me if it’s time for a walk  - and Buster is fast asleep, also in the sun, having spent a very productive night catching mice and bunnies and squirrels and anything that moves slowly enough to catch.

I went into the village this morning and it was still early enough to see dew on the grasses and small flowers in the churchyard. The sun just caught the dewdrops and everything glistened.

When I came home  -after discovering that our car was extremely ill and needed to stay at the garage in the village  - I walked in our garden and found these two faery girls just sitting in the trees, obviously looking at something (or things). I thought it was probably squirrels. I took their photo a few times and discovered, when I downloaded the photos, that they must have been looking at colored orbs floating around the garden. You can see them in the second photo. I don’t know why one of them looks so surprised  - they must see them all the time. 

Anyway  - it’s good to be home in the sunshine. I might even be moved to work a bit later  - but first, just one more walk around the garden and another cup of tea. 

Happy May Day. Happy Beltane.

Toby, Sarah and I are spending a week or so in Northern Michigan with my mother (Toby’s grandmother) . I left Brian at home on Dartmoor, looking after Buster and Elfie and having some well deserved time by himself. I expect to see lots of new paintings when I get back home next week -either that or a very messy house and lots of left over cheese in the fridge. Maybe if I’m lucky it will be paintings AND cheese. I’ll have to wait and see.

My mother’s garden is looking very Spring-like, with lots of flowers out and trees coming into blossom as well. Things have been a bit confused here because the weather has been first unseasonably hot and then unseasonably cold. The poor flowers don’t quite know what to do. But - May Day is here and the sun is shining so all is well in the garden. I was taking an early morning walk and came across this little fellow inspecting the flowers. I don’t know if he has an official job looking after them or if he’s just out enjoying Spring as well. I have the feeling that he’s just having a poke around the garden. 

I followed him over to the sculpture of the sleeping dragon that sleeps in its own little paved circle and watched while the little fellow first inspected it, then poked it with a stick and finally figured out that it wasn’t going to wake up and eat him. I left him having a ride on its back. I expect he will go back to his friends and tell them how he poked a dragon and then rode on its back. I’m pretty sure he won’t mention the fact that the dragon is bronze and not much of a threat.

I was very glad to see that the faery creatures that live here are willing to come out so that I can see them and record them for you. I’ll see if I can find a few more to photograph in the next few days. 

We wish you all a very happy May Day. I’m going back out to the garden now. I can hear a woodpecker and I’ve just seen a duck so I have the feeling that its going to get busy out there today.

Spring is Progressing

Usually when I take photos on the moor, I’m with Brian, but yesterday Terri Windling and I took a drive over the moor to see how spring was progressing further afield than Chagford. It was progressing beautifully, I’m happy to report. We stopped at an interesting site called (I believe) Foals Arrishes. It is a series of what must have been pens and runs for livestock, sheep, horses, cows, etc. but it has always been intriguing in design. The wonderful horizontal tree has been a feature of this particular landscape for as long as I have been driving over the moor. It is interesting in any season but I think that Spring, with leaves just beginning to come out must be the most beautiful of all.

We stopped for coffee, which we had in a lovely garden at the back of the Green Ginger Cafe. This little duck sat very contentedly right near our feet, waiting, I suppose, for crumbs. Unfortunately, we didn’t share and he eventually got up in disgust and wandered away to a more promising table of customers.

I was in the front garden this morning and made an interesting discovery. Now I know who has been taking the fish from our pond - and here I was blaming Buster!

Work in Progress

Saturday
Here is a photo of the piece I’m working on at the moment. It’s at the stage when I’m trying to decide if I like her hair this dark - it certainly stands out this way - or if I want to change it completely and give her very light blond hair to match her outfit or go light red. I think I like it this way. Hmmmm …I’ll keep you posted. 

Sunday 

I just felt that there was something wrong with the black hair. There was too much of a contrast between the clothing and her hair when it was so dark. I tried red and light golden red and finally decided on this very pale blond. I think it gives the ethereal quality to her that I was looking for - so - blond she is. 

Monday 

A few final touches and I think she’ll be finished. It’s always so interesting to me to have a figure“need” to change just when I think I’ve basically completed it. I was happy with the black hair until I walked away from it for a night and came back with a fresh eye in the morning. Then it was easy to see that I wasn’t going to achieve the effect I wanted until I changed the hair. Now she has the ethereal look I was going for in the first place.

Trolls can Climb!

Just a quick message from the garden today. It’s very active right now - birds everywhere and other creatures as well. Everyone seems to be enjoying the beautiful weather we’re having at the moment. I really didn’t know that trolls could climb trees, but I came across this troll maid contemplating the tree ( a rather small tree I must admit) and then quickly scampering up into the branches where she sat quite happily looking out over the rest of the garden. Perhaps they like to have a different point of view every once in a while. Anyway - she looks quite content up there.

Walking on the edge of Winter

We finally had the chance this morning to go on a long walk with Elfie again. We walked to a small stone circle in Fernworthy forest. We haven’t visited this particular circle in quite a while and it was good to see it again, especially with the grass around it still very short and winter-dead. It doesn’t look like much when you see it in a photograph but it has lovely energy and always feels like a place of healing. There is a burial mound near it and that also feels like a place of guardianship and healing. It’s a good place to come to work out problems or when we need clarity and insight into things in our lives. 

Winter still has a hold on Fernworthy. Our garden is full of spring flowers and we even have little leaves coming out on a few trees, but just a mile or two away and slightly higher on the moor, the signs of spring are few and far between. We did see some wonderful moss covered trees (which I photographed for you) - a goblin tree and a troll tree, and - we also saw a unicorn. Now, you may not believe this, because his horn isn’t visible, but never the less, he IS a unicorn. At least I choose to think so! 

I’d also like to mention that if anyone is thinking about coming to the workshops we are giving in France this summer, now is the time to inquire about them since they are almost full and won’t be available for much longer.  Click here for Workshop Details

Back to work now. It’s flying faeries week in my studio! Here’s a photo of one of them. They will be flying this spring and summer at the gallery in BelCastel, France. 

 

Faerie Gatherings

We had a wonderful time in Glastonbury this weekend, at the Avalon Faery Fayre and Ball. Well, we should have been at the ball but when we got back to our lovely Bed and Breakfast overlooking Chalice Well and Gardens, it was so calm and peaceful that we just fell asleep instead. Nice dreams, even if we missed the festivities! 

I gave a sculpting and fabricating workshop and Brian lectured on both Saturday and Sunday. Everyone seemed to enjoy all three of these very much. We certainly did. The fayre was vibrant and busy with a really happy atmosphere. It was so good to meet so many people and have a chance to say hello to old friends as well. Karen Kay puts on a great event! 

We actually were in Glastonbuty both this past weekend and the weekend before. I tried both times - four day in all - to take photos of Glastonbury Tor to put on the facebook page for you. It is an amazing sight, rearing up out of the Somerset Levels - a beacon on the horizon that is visible for miles as you approach the town. I had absolutely NO luck. For some reason the Tor did not want to be photographed by me or by Brian. Brian took a photo (I saw him do it!) of the tor in the mist and when we downloaded the pictures, it had disappeared (and not just into the mist either). I missed taking pictures on every occasion that the tor was visible - so, you’ll just have to take my word for it. It’s worth a trip there to see it if you get the chance! 

We’re home now and enjoying a beautiful Spring evening. I went out just now and found our friends among the flowers obviously also enjoying the weather and delighted that their charges survived the cold spell we had a while ago. They are particularly drawn to yellow. 

I came across our russet friend first standing on this log covered in bracket fungi. He then decided to sit and enjoy the last of the sunshine. That’s where I left him a few minutes ago. 

We have a new addition to our mushroom forest as well. It was a Glastonbury gift to us and is settling in nicely to its new home. 

That’s all from me. I’m going to join Brian having a glass of well deserved wine. He took this photo to see if you could spot his glass.