Writing from Belcastel

Here we are, writing from Belcastel. I thought we lived in an ancient place, and of course, we do - but - Becastel, both the village and the chateau Belcastel are even older and stranger and just so beautiful. We hadn’t found out much about it before we arrived so it was quite wonderful to discover that the chateau has an ancient chapel devoted to Mary Magdalene and that the church in the village as well is devoted to her. The chateau is a Templar stronghold and the combination of Magdalene and Templar energy is quite amazing. We need to digest all of this before we write about it. Interesting experiences everywhere here! 

The workshops are wonderful. Brian has been having a fascinating time with his groups and I do hope that mine have enjoyed the experience as well. I think they have although I’m making them work quite hard! Some how, working very hard in a castle is easier than working quite hard in the middle of a city! Well - it’s a different experience certainly! 

There are faeries and spirits here -someone took photos with orbs in almost all of them -all hovering over Brian (and a few over me as well). We can’t remember who took them so if you are reading this please get in touch! There are also tiny lizards and bees and all sorts of wildlife and blue skies and sometimes thunder and lightening. Very dramatic. 

I’m finding it hard to write while I’m experiencing all of this. I’ll catch up when we get home next week and try to sort out something coherent to tell you. 

Until then -We’re living a medieval life and eating and drinking far too much but enjoying it all enormously!

A Busy Week

We've had a very Busy week or so - AND sunny, warm weather, which makes everything so very much easier. Well -except having to stay indoors and work when being outside would be so much nicer. We have been out enough to get a good dose of sunshine though and it’s blissful! 

We've sent boxes and boxes of supplies for our workshops at Belcastel off to France and hopefully, we haven’t forgotten anything important. I’m not really going to know until I unpack at the other end. This time next week, we’ll be at the Chateau, no doubt wishing we spoke more French! It IS all very exciting. 

We received the first advance copies of Trolls a few days ago. It’s just wonderful to actually see the book looking like a book - and looking just as we hoped it would. We hope all of you who eventually get a copy will enjoy it as much as we do. We couldn’t be happier with it!  It is available for pre-order through Amazon or Signed Copies can be pre-ordered through AFA NYC. 

We attended Brian’s sister Carol’s wedding in Cornwall last weekend. It was a lovely event with music and costumes and again, glorious weather. Congratulations Carol and Alan! 

I really want to tell you all about the Step Out Walk for Diabetes that is going to take place on September 22nd. Toby and Sarah are going to walk for it and Toby is going to try walking three miles on stilts. I can’t imagine doing something like that but I’m personally amazingly grateful that he and Sarah want to support this. I have a personal reason for this. I’m type one diabetic - that’s the kind you usually get as a child or young person – totally dependant on insulin. I got this at a very late age - only four years ago - and I’ve been on a very steep learning curve since then, trying to adjust to an insulin routine and still carrying on working as much as I do. Actually, it’s working out really well. I’ve had absolutely wonderful care and support from my family and friends and the whole medical team who look after me. And the faeries. I know that they keep a close eye on me as well. So - that’s why this fundraising event is close to my heart. We would love any support you can give to Toby and Sarah’s team. Come and walk with them - and wear your wings! They’re called the Blood Sugar Plum Faeires and you’ll be able to purchase a tee shirt with a Brian Froud faery on it to show your support soon. I’m going to be a virtual walker.  There’s more information here http://main.diabetes.org/goto/Faerie 

And finally -Sneezle wanted me to show you something he’s very proud of. He says he grew these toadstools all by himself. I have my doubts about that, but I wouldn’t want to say that to him. He looks so proud and happy! 

That’s all for now. The next time I write, it hopefully will be from Belcastel!

Found Sneezle in the Garden

It’s sunny today! Hard to believe after the weather we’ve been having but today we have summer. I take that back. I just looked out of the window and it’s starting to raid. 

Be that as it may - I went out into the garden this morning and came across a rather frightening sight. Sneezle was being menaced by a group of strange looking little aliens! They had him backed up against the stone obelisk and he looked terrified. I took a photo and waited to see what would happen (I know -not very nice of me but I knew I’d have time to intervene if things got serious). 

They started jumping around and it was obvious that they were trying to tell him something. All of a sudden, one of them jumped into his arms and then of course it was obvious - they could be played like bagpipes! Sneezle is luckily quite proficient on the bagpipes and soon they were happily dancing to the traditional tunes of Old Oak Wood. I don’t know where they came from, and I have the feeling that they won’t stay for very long, but I expect there will be some pretty interesting music making until they decide to leave. They are just in time for the Chagstock music festival, which starts tomorrow outside our village. They’re too small for the big stage there, but in a smaller venue (a tree stump perhaps) I think they would do very well indeed. 

Now - you may think they look like sprouting potatoes, but I assure you, they are SO much more than that! 

Our friend Todd and his son David have been doing us a great favour by taking ivy off of the barn wall, which has been covered up since about 1982. It’s a massive job and they are heroically battling insects, spiders and irate birds to get back to the granite surface.

Exploring with Elfie

I took advantage of the fact that we had a moment (literally) of sun today and Elfie and I drove (well, I drove –he panted) on to the moor just to see if it was still there. It was. We explored Hound Tor and got tangled in bracken and found crystals to bring home and chased a squirrel. I took these photos of hound tor and a small troll tor to show those of you who haven’t seen them before (and that’s probably quite a few of you). And if you have, well, that’s fine too. They are always worth another look! Now that we’ve finished the “Trolls” book, I can’t see these without thinking about the trolls that live on or in them, especially the little tor with the stone wall winding up to it. I’m sure if I watched for long enough, the troll would become completely visible. As it is, I certainly can see that he’s sleeping under a blanket of grass.

After the excitement of the squirrel and the tors, we drove on and took very winding roads that I really wasn't familiar with at all. Dartmoor can seem very big at times! Needless to say, I was soon totally lost -in fact I thought I’d ended up in Peru when I saw the llamas in the field but luckily I hadn't gone quite that far astray. Elfie says he knew exactly where we were at all times. I’d like to believe him but somehow I just can’t.

Here’s a photo of Mother Leap obviously telling her friend something quite exciting. I have no idea of what they are talking about. Trolls can be quite secretive.

Sunshine!

Sunshine! We haven’t seen it in what feels like forever, but we have it today. Glorious sun, light breeze, quite warm … hmmmm …feels like summer. It also feels like it should come with an announcement saying “appearing for one day only…”  

Fearing that it actually might be for one day only, Brian, Elfie and I went for a walk in Gidleigh Wood - a beautiful nature reserve near us. Huge oak and beech trees, moss covered boulders and wildflowers everywhere. This truly seems like a troll wood. It certainly is home to all sorts of creatures of Faerie, but the combination of grand old trees and rocks makes it especially perfect for trolls. We didn’t see any today but it was enough to walk in the woods and enjoy the sun on the water and shining through the trees. Elfie was so excited, I’m sure he frightened them all away, especially when he fell in the river. 

Part two of the Around The Table with Brian and Wendy is up on the John Barleycorn Must Die blogspot. Have a look (or read). It’s really fun and an interesting insight into how artists think (or don’t think at times!). I wish we had dinners with interesting conversation like this all the time - but we don’t. We’re so tired at the end of a working day that we just sit around and watch TV. I’m telling you this just in case you thought we did REALLY interesting things all the time. Hah! 

http://gaytonvanryn.blogspot.com/2012/06/around-table-withbrian-wendy-froud-part_25.html?spref=fb 

Well - I’m finishing this the next day and yes - I was right. It’s raining again. No sun -no summer. The faeries have all gone to Italy or somewhere else where the sun is shining. So - if you are reading this in a place where the sun is out, have a look around you - you may just see some Dartmoor faeries having a little holiday away! 

Just in case you think I just sit around all day complaining about the rain, I thought I'd show you the troll I'm working on for the New York exhibition in October. see? I can work AND complain at the same time!

Mother Leap's Day Out

Over the past weekend, Brian and I attended Karen Kay’s Three Wishes Faery Festival in Cornwall. We knew that we were going to be talking in a tent (since it’s an outdoor festival with no place to project images) so we decided that we needed to bring someone along who could help us explain what we do and how we do it, and especially help us talk about the “Trolls” book. I looked around and asked various trolls how they felt about coming out for the weekend. Most of them (very wisely) decided to stay home. Mother Leap on the other hand, was delighted to have a nice day out (as she put it). Little did she know (and I didn’t want to tell her) that the weather forecast was particularly forbidding for Saturday. And so it proved. Galeforce winds, driving rain, mud. Not a fun time in Faeryland I’ll tell you. Mother Leap spent most of her time in a black plastic rubbish bag. But - although our bodies were damp and wind battered, our spirits were high. We had a great time with all of the wonderful faeries that came out to play at the festival. Mother Leap came out of her plastic bag for the lecture and loved the attention as well. 

At the Lecture

Sunday was SO much better! Sun and no wind. Mother Leap once again came with us but she was able to be out in the open in her own basket, making the rounds of the attendees and stall holders and once again participating in the talk we gave. She thoroughly enjoyed it all! Here are a few pictures of the event. 

Wendy with Mother Leap

Brian and the toadstools

I seem to spend my time at the back of crowds so I never really get many good photos of what’s actually happening. Our friend Emily Carding was taking part in the world record -breaking event of fairies gathered together in one place – all with (as stipulated in the Guiness book of records) wands, wings and tutus. You’ll have to imagine the rest of them – all 200 and something.

Emily Carding 

 Anyway - wind, rain or not, it was a truly fun event. Thanks SO much Karen for inviting us to be a part of it! Mother Leap thanks you too. She can’t wait to get out again. There’ll be no stopping her now!

Karen, Wendy, and Mother Leap

Celebrating in Lobster Light

We have had a week of celebrations here in Chagford. Well - so has the rest of the country. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee was celebrated al over the U.K. from last Saturday (the 2nd ) until Tuesday. I spent the week before helping the primary school children make puppets for a performance in Chagford Square on Saturday afternoon. It was called the Mad Tinner’s Teaparty ( a take on the mad hatter’s teaparty)and almost every child in Chagford school participated in some way. It was conceived of and directed by William Todd Jones - with a lot of help from puppet and costume making volunteers. Unfortunately, I was at the back of the crowd for the performance and couldn’t actually take any decent pictures, so you’ll just have to believe me when I say that the singing strawberries, the talking cakes and the singing plates of eggs and chips (that’s french-fries for you Americans) were great along with the two huge (3meters tall) puppets of the queen and the Mad Tinner, dancing corgi dogs, wild ponies and a fly-by from a whole lot of crows. Almost everything was made from recycled and found materials. It was really a lot of fun (and a lot of work too!). 

There was a picnic in the park for the whole village and live music in the square. We haven’t had this much fun as a whole village in a long time. It was lovely. 

We also celebrated our wedding anniversary last week. We’ve been married a LONG time! We always tend to celebrate in the same way. We drive down to the coast and find a place that sells fresh lobsters and bring a couple of them home for dinner to have with champagne. This has been our treat for years. We realized that we were getting older (or perhaps just more temperate) when we couldn’t even finish the bottle of champagne and we still had lobster left over too! Oh well - time marches on. But - we have over the years discovered that if we take a photo of the two of us leaning down over the platter of lobsters, the light that bounces back on us from the lobsters makes us look really quite good (come on - it’s all relative). We now call this “lobster light” and we recommend it to anyone celebrating an anniversary and wanting to look like you’ve been lit with an amber or rose gel light (those are the gels that make glamorous movie stars look good!) Or you could just walk around with a cooked lobster tied around your neck for a more lasting effect. Well -that’s our tip for the week. 

Last night we lit candles for dinner and mysteriously one of them burned down and one didn’t. There was no breeze or draft and they were the same size when we lit them. The only explanation I can think of is that the one near Brian burned faster because he talked non-stop (except for eating) through the whole dinner. Hot air can do that I guess. 

No magical adventures this week, apart from the celebrations. It’s been extremely cold and raining far too much to go out and explore. We did both get a lot of work done so I suppose that was a good thing really. From the weather report, I think we’ll be working all this coming week as well. Hmmmm. 

We’re getting excited about the publication of the “Trolls” book at the end of the summer (no - I don’t know the exact date yet, but it is available for pre-order on Amazon or signed pre-order at AFA NYC). It was fun to see the photos of the paintings from the book that Heidi put up on the facebook page. Here’s a photo of the troll child who also features in the book.

Another exciting thing happening is that we will have an app coming out in the autumn as well. It will be a series of meditations, rather like the ones we use in our workshops and lectures, and it’s going to be quite special - but more about that later! 

That’s it for now. Here’s to another rainy week!