Warm wishes to all

It’s been a very strange year of many ups and downs and I apologise to everyone who follows me, likes my blog and enjoys reading my posts. I promise to make 2019 the year when I pen my poetry and get painting again. After one of our beloved Border collies died suddenly last year, the arrival of our Slate merle pup in early spring and Skye, our surviving blue merle having a Stroke, I wondered whether life would ever become calm again.

However, Storm is a year old now, pictured above, and has a lovely nature; she gets on really well with Skye and has helped Skye get over her Stroke by assisting with her physio!

We’ve had lovely holidays in North Norfolk walking along the Coastal path, across the salt marshes and on Holkham beach and I have enjoyed a few hours here and there to paint.

I hope you like my photos and my watercolour painting of the cheeky robin who visits my bird table every morning. I have designed a Christmas card, so he can be enjoyed by friends and family.

I wish you all a warm, peaceful and jolly Christmas and the best of luck for 2019!

XxX

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Sunflowers swirling

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Sunflowers swirling,

Warm faces wearing seaside hats;

Tower over faded filligree blooms;

A haven of stamens twirling,

Toasted cinnamon seedheads crackling

In marmalade sunshine.

Restorative walk

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I always find walking along the North Norfolk coastal path calming restorative. The endless skies of clouds whch make dreamy characters from children’s picture books and the gentle salty air filled with samphire and sea lavender. The colour palette and interesting wild textures inspire me to write and paint.

Here are two textured painted sketches of the atmosphere evocative of Stiffkey salt marshes. I hope you enjoy t

Quay and tea

Salty fishing huts,
Decaying.
Fraying, swaying
Tangled rope.
Old fangled
Lanterns.

Jam & crabs,
Salmon & dabs;
Foggy tea,
Weed curdling
Sea.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Abandonment

Grand anchor,
Languishing abandoned,
Sinking in silt and shingle;
Seeping salty tales
Of billowing sails
On crescendo gales.
Breached and reached
Barnacle braille
Tales of whales
And ancient
Sailors’ ways.

“http//dailypost/weekly-photo-challenge/abandonment/2014/02/28”

Furry Friday

Over the festive period, in between periods of very heavy rain, we tried to find places to walk which weren’t flooded or too boggy to pass even in the wellies! One day I had a craving to go to the coast so we went to Southwold in Suffolk, a jolly traditional seaside town. We had great fun playing with the dogs on the beach followed by freshly brewed coffee at the harbour and a purchase of fish, fresh from the boats. Another day we walked along the canal-side at Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire where I came across a cat on a ‘hot tin roof’ of a narrow-boat, enjoying the warmth from the rare moment of sunshine. The third photo of the beautiful lone horse who enjoyed some attention, was taken near a walk along a disused railway at Ayot green, a tiny picturesque village in Hertfordshire. I hope you enjoy looking at my furry friends!

Ese’s weekly shoot quote challenge:Memories

‘ Memories are the key not to the past
but the future.’
Corrie Ten Bown

Time to wander,
Pondering whilst
Sauntering on
Sunny,
Silky,
Wet sand
Like a caramel
Fudge land.
Salty lips,
Chalky skin,
A deep,
Warm mineral
Breath in:
Letting go.
Waves fade
Negative thoughts
Wash away.
Sea lavender breeze,
Flotsam of old trees.
Memories like
Sea glass pebbles
And sea shell patterns
In the sand.

Ese’s challenge ‘memories’ gave me the idea to return to the memory of the walk with my husband and dogs on the Norfolk sands one carefree day when we were on holiday and had time to saunter and breathe in the minerals and taste the seaside. It was a precious memory, where we got lost in our own thoughts, reminisced and had fun with our dogs. The light was wonderful, so relaxing.
Ese’s weekly shoot and quote challenge: Memories

Weekly photo challenge: Carefree

Free time on a sunny day
Washing your cares away;
Sharing stories with strangers,
Watching children play;
Salt & vinegar
Seaside charm;
Vibrant bickering bunting,
Screeching seagulls hunting;
Ice-cream tingling lips;
Queues for seal trips;
Kids squeak and squeal
As crabs writhe
And crawl: proudly
Presented in seaside buckets.
Hooray for the largest!

weekly photo challenge

Weekly photo challenge: One shot, two ways

So for  this challenge I chose a different subject matter, close to my husband’s heart as he comes from a long line of fishing people, with a passion and a great respect for the sea. The shot was taken in a tiny fishing village, far West on the Dumfries and Galloway coast. I was taken by the realism and atmosphere of this fine statue.
The fisherman is looking out to sea, deep in thought; I feel the change of angle of the shot has increased the tension in the photgraph. What do you think?

A fisherman’s thoughts

On a bleak Scottish day,
A chill crosses the lone
Fisherman’s gaze;
Mesmerized by spitting
Light on the blinking
Waves,
He thinks back to
Days when nets
Swelled with writhing
Catch,
A salty supper
For bairns
Rumbling tums,
Nursed on mothers’
swollen Laps.
As daylight fades,
He fears fisher folk
Amongst the heaving
Ocean:
Flotsam  beaten,
Driftwood tangled
With a sea filled welly
Spilling out against
Granite boulders.

weekly photo challenge: one shot, two ways

Weekly Photo challenge: The golden hour

The golden hour begins
As a medley of majestic
Melon,
Opulent orange,
Sultry sanguine
And raspberry
Ripple
Seep serenely:
The sky prepares
To sleep.

Fishermen’s huts
Heave into slumber,
Creaking gently.
A brisk breeze;
A salty scent of
Slithering skate
Funnels through
Wooden slats,
Waking the ghosts
Of cod and
Heaving haddock.
Pearcing purple dust,
Dwindles to dusk;
Nibbled nets
Nest with
Lumbered
Lobster pots,
Lovingly abandoned.

My response to the challenge is the evocation of the sun going down on the beach, where the fishing huts feel ‘ lovingly abandoned’ for the night after a hard day’s work; there is also a deeper sadness in the ‘creaking’ wood and the ‘nibbled nets’ of a disappearing industry as youngsters move away to work: ‘purple dust turns to dusk’ and skills and experience die out.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/photo-challenge-the-golden-hour