SNOW!!!!!!

Blackbird in the snow!

Yes that's right - that white stuff that Devon never gets - as in ever! At first it was a dusting & I was jumping up & down saying it was no fair but then come midday there was a blizzard! LOL And the snow is still there!

So many finches today - all starving!

Had to get a Robin in the snow!

It's been very busy today!

Song thrush - rather tame!

Little & large - Goldfinch & Robin

My snow cat, but it's ear melted!

Cottage around 3pm

Cottage around 5pm!

Amazing skies against the snow!

The Old Smithy - the house we 'should' have moved into by now!

Beech trees in the snow - lovely!

My beloved Scots Pine!

Me!

My friend's farm

My dad!

Sorry I haven't been posting much - so busy elsewhere all the time - but had to post these photos! :)

Hot & Cold & Good News

Hot - hmmm - sunset hot!!!!











Cold - hmmm -frost cold! The lovely intricate patterns on my car yesterday morning:












Good news? I'll be 'Home' for Christmas!

Emy xxx

Being Overtaken . . .

By rats & starlings!

Can you count the rats in the feeder?

Starling in full voice!

Wet weather!

Male pheasant sunning himself in the hedge

Goldfinches still holding their own against the starlings!



And a moth - I seem to have mislaid my moth book so have no idea!

What a Difference a Day Makes!

Full sun & blue sky yesterday - after days upon days of heavy unrelenting cloud & drizzle, we get a glorious November sunny day! (ok today was back to the drizzle - but least us folk in Devon have seen the beauty of blue sky & bright sunshine!)



Blue skies galore!

See my shadow?

Ok we have a REALLY serious rat problem now - they're all over the garden & all over & under the bird feeders - they're such rascals too & are getting away with blue murder!

Though Mummy blackbird didn't seem too fussed about it!

Sparrow - unfortunately in shadow - but love how his underside lit up in the sun!

Glowing feet & look at those claws! Was he a cat in his previous life? lol

Sparrow camera shy - but lovely against the vivid blue sky

Buzzard - so hard to photograph - he/she was far away so not a very clear shot! :(

Blue tit enjoying the last rays of the golden sunshine of the day

Fieldfare from a great distance, they're very timid birds, so quite hard to get close to

Golden plovers demonstrating why they've been given that name! Catching the sunlight

Lovely golden sunshine which ran shadows across the land towards a glowing yellow field:

Some colour in the hedgerows - rose hips

Gorse - remember, when the gorse is in season, so is kissing!

Dock leaves in the evening sunshine & oak leaves lit up too

On my walk in the field where I saw a big flock of fieldfares & redwings, plus golden plovers

The last leaves on the oak trees in the woods - amazing how they've disappeared so fast!

Beginnings of yesterdays sunset

Same sunset - taken in dusk!

End to a perfect day really! :) x

The Sky was on Fire!

Sunset from last night:



















Lovely blue skied day today but very very cold - I can't enjoy is it as I need to get back to work in the studio - oh oh oh woe is me . . . :( x

Pressure, pressure, under so much pressure

I have 2 exhibition deadlines looming!

One is looming closer then the other - as in this coming Saturday. It's some Open North Devon Art event where 10 artists influenced by North Devon are chosen out of a panel of art type people for an exhibition at the Barnstable museum & they're looking for new artists, right up my street or down my lane, BUT oh it's so hard - I need 4 cracking paintings - just isn't happening!

The second is the New Work New Year show at Broomhill - where my North Devon Arts experience all started & really hasn't got me very far, but I'll keep plodding along & that's slightly better, the deadline for that is 6th December - I need 8 paintings for both shows combined - God 8, you know I hadn't counted them, god, that's worse - 8 cracking paintings!

So today I discovered I actually have no room, I have the total of around 15 canvases on the go - some I start then put away & come back to, others I acrylic over first & then wait until they've dried, others I give a thin layer of oil & let that dry over night so I can apply a second. Yes, all organised, all thought out. Hmmm - ME ORGANISED? You have the wrong person surely!!!!

I have actually run out of room! I lean finished paintings against everything - one I leaned against the wall & the second one I started off then I splattered paint over the first finished one *rolls eyes* I had nowhere to stand my jar of white spirit so I placed it on top of the third step of my small ladder, yep, I spilled it, it went up the wall & over a painting & to top it up I tripped over my floor covering & one of my paintings now as a print of my hand right in the middle! I get totally covered in paint usually, it's over my face, it's in my hair, over my hands & I wipe off the residue of oil paint on my brush on my trousered thigh (yep painting clothes) & when I come to take them off after a day of studio I find the paint has gone right through onto my legs & I look like I have a huge bruises - which I do ironically anyway as I'm so clumsy!

So I'm annoyed, frustrated, agitated, resemble a paint pot, stressed, under pressure, stiff, achy & now ranting on my blog!!!

Och well as Tucker would say, least there was a stunning red sunset tonight - red sky at night, shepherds delight???? PLEASE!!!!!! As the weather has been appalling!!!!

Emy x

Autumn Sunsets

one cold sunset during the week - there was no colour - just gold & bleakness!

This was on the same night I went deer stalking! The sky turned pink!

This was Friday nights sunset - rather sublime & again everything glowed pink

Incredibly windy today & a bit of sun here & there between the hail storms, so there might be a chance of a sunset tonight who knows - I'm just off out to take a few more photos of Ratty & family! x

Deer Stalking & Ratty & Friends

Deer stalking? No no THAT deer stalking - deer stalking of a non death kind! Although I blew my cover from having a serious coughing fit! lol She saw me, the Roe knows! Or knew let's say! I haven't seen her since, not surprising, as I was a mere 300 yards from her & making this terrible choking noise!!!!

Cough cough, hack hack, choke, choke

Oh **** rumbled!

This little lady has a passion for standing on hedges - ok it gives her a better look out - but she sticks out like a sore thumb!

So to show you our 'ratty' slight problem - here are the rats I took photos of this morning who have a system of small tunnels & homes underneath both bird tables - I wasn't standing very far away but they knew I was there as they kept sniffing the air - that's Stella McCartney perfume you can smell I said to them! lol




Rat burrows in the hedge - I don't mind them in the hedge - rats LIVE in the hedge - if they stayed there I wouldn't have a problem, but they live under the bird table & yep live & let live & it's my fault they're here (well my dad who feeds the birds on the ground) but the sad fact of life, if they were wood mice or the enchanting bank voles I'd have no problem, but as they're rats I do - such a shame - it's just rats spread disease & hate myself for even admitting it as actually in truth they are totally adorable!!!!

Last week I saw my first moth since the end of Summer & no idea what it was - but it was lovely & I gave it a stroke & wished it the very best of luck!

Size matters! The moth alongside the daddy long leg or Crane fly!

And to end this first post (second for the day - wow - I'm flying! *wink*) let me leave you with our 'only' pets at the cottage - we used to have 30 plus but Mr Heron flew in & gobbled them all up - but 3 babies were left & my they've grown & this was a rare sighting to see all 3 together in the pond - no they have no names - would anyone like to name them? GH, B, A & C? I read your comments & send you hugs & kisses back every time xxxxx


xxxxxx

Rattus norvegicus - HELP!

We're being taken over.

Oh yes.

Oh no! As in omg oh no!

Brown rat or common rat or wharf rat - they're everywhere - in the sheds chewing through the box where we keep the bird food, they've been at it for years & one day they'll succeed. They're in the wood shed - yep - there IS something nasty in the woodshed & they're grazing on the lawn like a flock of sheep - I counted 7 this morning - only because we throw out food for the birds on the grass.

Now really they're not a nuisance yet & they've never got into the cottage & I like rats, but this is just silly, they're taking advantage of us now, I don't mind just one or 2 but these guys multiply - a female can have up to 5 litters a year & can produce 14 offspring each time but the usual number is 7 & rats are survivors - they SURVIVE to adulthood - they're not like cod fish eggs that get eaten as soon as they're hatched - these guys are clever at the age of one day!

I've just been watching some now on the steps outside - they've devised this fun game - see who can jump the most steps up & the most steps down - it's hilarious to watch - they're actually enjoying themselves! These are adult rats - comfortable, secure in the knowledge that there are not many predators to hunt them (the stoats have moved off & the other creatures stay away from humans) & they know they're going to be fed every morning without fail!

Life is a rat!

Tap dancing along the Tamar

Well walking across a wind swept bridge over looking Tamar lakes & the dam - rather impressive for Cornwall, yeah, Cornwall - though the county of Devon a stones throw from the entrance. There's higher Tamar lakes & lower, but the lower road was flooded, so we took the high road & not the low! (there's a song in there somewhere!) Very freezing cold, windswept day but will definitely be back when the sun shines!








Holmleigh garden centre on the Devon/Cornwall border - 2 miles from Cornwall's first big town Launceston - the word bleak springs to mind, I don't think I've ever seen Launceston in the sunshine! It's a rather large garden centre & it now has highland cattle!








These were taken the weekend before last - still stunning Autumnal colour, even on a dull day! The wind has all but blown the last of the leaves away - it stays green for so long & even through October it's green & then suddenly the leaves change & they're gone! I find this time of year very sad myself - after a Summer of colour & then sudden rust & decay, then all gone, the trees are naked against the cold frost air of Winter - I actually feel sorry for them!








And our dear Roe, still here, even after the pheasant shooters & fox hunters of last weekend. I saw her again today standing on the hedge under the ash tree, I did take some photos, will post them here when they're off the camera! x

love La Lune

Oh yes & it was full the night of Bude:









Not much else to report only saw the darn pheasant shooters AND the fox hunt yesterday - if I could shoot people of my choice, I'd shoot them gladly!

More photos tomorrow x