Hello from Sunday night, and a field walking, car showing me!

Hello everybody,Well, this is a turn-up for the books.Oxfordshire seems to have gone from winter to summer overnight.The weather turned and suddenly we have highs of 26 degrees, full-on summer dress weather, and I didn't pack for that...lol.But the fields are so tempting that, heat or no heat, I'm walking across them almost every day.As I walk I see the village children enjoying their regular after-school activity.And I have a chance to check in with our neighbours to see what's new.Along the ditches, the yellow flag irises have doubled in height in the past two days.And there are millions of dandelions everywhere.So many that I didn't feel guilty for picking some and twisting them into a dandelion crown.It only takes minutes but it leaves you with yellow hands...lol.(tutorial is here)So I put it on and continued my walk.Within minutes I was being circled by one or two of those huge flying grape bumblebees.They followed me and buzzed around me in great circles for a couple fields.I tried to get a photo for you but they were too fast for me. I managed to get a photo of a bumblebee bum! :DSunday Robert and I jumped into my TVR and hooned X country to the Bister Heritage Sunday Scramble; a thrice-yearly event held in an old WWII airfield.Since we were driving a heritage car, we were sent to the show grounds instead of the filed parking lots.We looked around for other TVRs and found the TVR Club area and parked up there.Most of the cars were modern TVRs and mine was the only one of two vintage cars there.We looked around the massive show area and headed into the complex of buildings.This is my favourite part of this car show.I love that all the buildings and airplane hangers are open and various companies set up displays for their engineering or selling trades.Some of the more valuable cars are housed in the hangers too.You never know what you can find.Here is a Datsun like my son has. I took some photos for him.Here is one of my favourite cars ever; a Jag E type!I've been threatening Robbie with a new project. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted a car like Mr Toad from Wind in the Willows.So I always look around for the best "Toad" car I can see, and I come back to these.They are Alvis cars from the mid 20s.And this one is it.This beautiful, soft grey with black two seater, convertible, little dickie seat for the huge pot of margaurites and picknic basket.This one is perfect.And it happens to be for sale too! The only problem is that the price is 32,000 GBP, which is about $53,000 canadian! Yikes!This is one of R's favourite cars in the show. Amazing art deco details.And here is another one he loved. Except he said he wouldn't have done the roof chop.I loved this weddgie thing. No idea what it was. AC? Have to look it up.There was nothing here even remotely close to Robert's Medusa, but this one was very interesting and one-of-a-kind.So as the day wore on, we went back to my car and sat in the shade side for our lunch picnic, and some TVR people wandered by. This is our new friend Paul who we spent a good time chatting to.Then we met up with some of our Turbo mini friends, walked around some more......and by the time we were ready to go home, there were only two or three TVRs left!Anyway, that's it from our week and weekend. Hope you've all had an amazing week and are looking forward to your week ahead.It's back to work for us. Art for me and Medusa for R.Any special plans for your week ahead?Hope spring/autumn is bursting forth in abundance in your corner of the old globe. :D

Hello from Sunday night; which turned into Monday night again

Hi everybody,I'm in England.Just got here four days ago from a month away in Kelowna on baby and watch helping Kerstie and Adam with the girls and letting my daughter get a little extra rest.I'm happy to report that my newest little grandbaby, Nate, was born April 5th. We are all so happy.I'm also very happy baby Nate came on the 5th because I really wanted to be back in England with Robbie and for the wedding of our dear friends Nic and Sarah. Their wedding was last Saturday. It was a beautiful celebration, and we partied till far too late.But I got out for a field walk today with my camera because I wanted to show you my little corner of Oxfordshire.It's bright and alive with spring.I walked to the corner field and guess what I saw...The field is being used as a nursery!Aren't they the cutest things ever?Back past our house and into the fields.The weather's a little variable right now.One minute it's so warm that all you need is a sweater and the next minute a cold wind blows in making you grab a jacket.The hedgerows are starting to bloom.The first blossoms are on the sloes but the hawthorns and crabapples are in bud.At the end of the third field is a stand of poplars and they serve as a rookery for the crows.Boy, they're a noisy bunch.Here the pollard willow has sprouted new, fresh shoots.And I found some four-leaf clovers in the fresh growth.Good luck for me. :DIn one of the fields I found a lot of pigeon feathers all blown about.I wondered if the feathers were the result of the pigeony spring thing or if someone else got lucky...perhaps the fox of hawk.Around my fields were some signs of winter damage; like this willow.I expect it's been blown over during the winter and some parts are uprooted......but there's enough roots left for it to keep on keeping on.And that's really good because the bees are out and so are the giant bumblebees; which look like fat, black grapes.I snapped off a little hawthorn branch on my walk and spent a lovely hour at my art table drawing it in ink on some rice paper.And then I went on-line and ordered a bunch of art supplies.I can't wait to get busy with art again.How's spring springing along in your corner of the old globe?

From this time between Christmas and the New Year when you have no idea of what day it is...and you don't care!

Oh, I'm thinking that I shouldn't even mention the weather to a lot of you, my friends, who are freezing your shnurkles off.We've had about three days of snow and below freezing...only just below freezing......but we've enjoyed every one of those days.We've walked to the village, past snowy fields, past the pub, past the church,Past all of our friend's Cotswold stone cottages.And back up past the snowy fields again.Yup, that was our winter. All three glorious days of it.Now it's up to 10 degrees above and the snow has long melted.But the heavy snow did leave a torrent of broken trees and branches in its wake. This one at Blenheim.There's been a lot of snapped trees in our hood too around the Windrush and Thames rivers.I made us an advent calendar while I was still in Vancouver.I got a few postcards and cut and glued silly Christmas jokes on them, put them each into an envelope and stuck a little game, toy or treat inside. The things I found were usually thrift store finds...like Ken doll shoes for our fingers and a little boombox to play a beat and we had a finger breakdance dance-off. There was silly putty, and there were ornaments, and two intricate, laser cut metal airplane puzzles, some bracelets which say The Doctor and The Companion...And these silly Korean beauty panda masks. (There was no way Robert was going to put his on!)We've tried to reduce all the Christmas stress by preparing ahead of time and having as much comfort and fun as we could. We've had open fires almost every night.Robert asked our lovely friend Maureen, who lives in the village, to make our Christmas cake this year. We usually leave it to the last minute and it's such a hassle. Maureen did an incredible job and the cake is so good. She even used Robert's little cake ornaments which he's had for a million years.On the 15th we popped down to the Christmas barn in the neighbouring village of Appleton.We said hello to the reindeer...And chose our tree.I love our Christmas tree this year.I really wanted a very tall one, (in our little cottage we usually have smaller trees), but this year we got a floor to ceiling one and I realised we didn't have enough decorations to make it really beautiful, so a few precious new ones from the Christmas barn and a couple jaunts around the thrift stores was all that was needed.I have a story about our turkey. Well, were we ever organised! I made the stuffing the day ahead, we prepared the turkey by 11 am, turned the oven on and stuck it into the big oven in time for the traditional 3 pm British Christmas lunch to have it ready for the Queen's speech. So, we set the timer for 30 minutes at a higher temp, then 2 hours at a lower temp. Two hours later we came to check on the turkey and take the foil off only to realise that we turned on the small oven (which we always tend to use) and our turkey was stone cold! Our British Christmas lunch turned into a Canadian Christmas supper with Dr. Who. But we loved it.Yes, the Theo blimp got turkey.And this is the way our days went.One lovely day blending into the other. Lovely old movies, twinkly lights, good food, comfort and warmth.Then Boxing Day came and with it deep Land Rover tire groves thru the paths in the fields, the barking of dogs and the pop, pop, popping of guns.I've been walkign the fields in light coloured clothing...just in case...lol.I know it's tradition, but I really don't like the Boxing Day shoot at all.The ritual goes on for a few days as beaters beat the hedges flushing the birds out and the shooters shoot them down and the dogs retrieve them.Although the shooting party has to stay off the footpaths, I can hear them on my walks and turn back rather than going on.And I also mentally send "run and hide!" vibes to any bird I see.Another little bit of fun we've had is making Medusa Christmas cards for Robert's car crazy pack.We took Medusa out of the garage and......had some Christmas fun!That's my crazy Christmas sweater.Now it's the evening here in Oxfordshire, on the last day of 2017 and I'm only getting around to posting this post. I've been so bad these last few months and have told myself to be better.But I do hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and I wish the best for all of you in 2018. Get your thoughts, memories, and resolutions, (if you do that), together and have a lovely New Year celebration.Thank you so much for venturing over into my life and letting me be a part of yours. Much love and see you next year. :D

Happy winter solstice from the stone henge next door, and let the optimism begin.

Today is such a liminal day, isn't it?On the threshold of the turning of the daylight, I can almost feel the coming spring.In amongst the bare trees are huge balls of bright green mistletoe reminding us that even in the bleak mid-winter, there is life.Here in the neighbouring village of Stanton Harcourt, at the little lake beside the henge called The Devil's Quoits, everything feels so exposed.The harsh, cold and low sunlight exposes everything.Each branch is laid bare.I saw a kite spread his wings and hover over the meadow. There is no cover right now.On the little lake, the birds huddle in small, mismatched flocks.I walk the mile or so down the little path and come to the henge.This is not THE STONE HENGE, but it is a Neolithic stone henge some 5000yrs old and vibrates with magic and the spirit of the priestess who was buried in the center.What magic and mystery lies underneath the ground only the rabbits know as they burrow into the heart of the henge all around the 120 meter perimiter ditch.I come here as often as I can.I feel connected to this henge and to the light of the priestess underground.I don't feel compelled to visit Wiltshire and the very public henge on this day and join in the massive pegan celebration. I'm content to walk this ground in quiet contemplation.I walk around touching each stone feeling happy and at peace.I stay to watch the sun set behind the East stone, say goodbye to the dark, and begin to look forward to the light reclaiming the night minute by minute.Have a blessed winter solstice everyone.

The night of the advection fog

The strange white light in the meadow past the pine trees. Advection fog?The running like a maniac back to the cottage for my camera and the sprint back out again!The trudging thru the nettles and brambles and thru the pines to get a better look.The magic!It only lasts for a few minutes, but how glorious is it?Back to the cottageThis switching countries thing of mine is here again.I have to leave Oxfordshire for a few months but I will take all my wonderful memories of this summer with me.

Lately round here. Birch and Tili Box cosmetics, lunch, life in the village, and art. A bit of random.

Hi everybody,It seems like the three months of me in Europe have flown by in the blink of an eye, but here we are in the ebb of August and most of my thoughts and efforts are turned to getting projects done here at West Cottage before I return to Vancouver in September.Hence, very little blog postage!So I was looking at my pathetically small collection of photos from this week and have managed to put together this little post.Thing one I wanted to tell you about is my great and rather inexpensive experiment with subscription beauty box samples!Oh my gosh, I may have been sucked into the Birch Box for July and August and the Tili special edition box.Now, I'm no beauty blogger, and, as a matter of fact, think that by the time you get to your fifties you probably really should know what it takes to make you feel and look your best, but it's always fun to try something new. Samples are just ideal, aren't they, because this stuff is really expensive these days. Who wants to spend a fortune on products which you may or may not like?Here's the inside of the Tili box.Overall, it's great fun.The box was supposed to come with a lovely, baby pink OPI nail polish, but this teal one was included instead. Fine with me because they do say they may have to substitute, and anyway my teen neighbour Stephanie loved the teal, so everyone was happy.It got me thinking; are any of the new products so good that I would consider adding them or substituting them into my beauty routine?Here is what I'm currently using:Lush and Alba shampoos and conditioners, Kiehl's cleanser, and a thick moisturiser (rotating brands because my oily, Mediterranean skin gets too used to them). That's about it except for my always and will never be replaced coconut oil for everything and Retinol for rebuilding collagen.The verdict is that none of my existing products are going anywhere, but these three are great additions.I really love them.In the makeup section, my Charlotte Tilbury mascara is definitely losing out to the new Benefits Roller Lash and I think I will switch. But the new Meech and Mia eyebrow pencil is definitely not as good as my Anastasia one.And as for concealers or foundations or powders, I rarely use any, but my Dior powder foundation is so translucent and perfecting, that it's superior to anything in the world...except maybe Bobbie Brown's tinted moisturiser (for those not so great skin days), that none of the foundation samples can't even come close.There you go. Me with new makeup.Lastly, my hair...even though it's slightly shorter than the usual two feet at the moment...I'm always struggling with the classic just-stuck-my-finger-in-the-electric-socket look caused by the hard Oxfordshire water, which Robert affectionately calls the "Darth Vader's helmet" look. So, I decided to try hair extension and I am planning to start with The Lauren Ashtyn Collection.Despite miracle promises, texturizing sprays, anti-ageing shampoos and conditioners (what is that anyway?), or even dry shampoos (which are a gross powdery white and cause terrible static), nothing beats the Frizz Ease.So the Frizz Ease is in and the rest of these products are coming back to Van for Chloe to give them a try. On the other hand, my clean and pure Vancouver water might just make some of these viable. (Except for the dry shampoo. That stuff is just gross.)We had some friends drop by to spend last Sunday with us, and the weather cooperated enough that we could have lunch in the garden.The Wednesday before, I spied these lovely 1940s art deco dishes at the thrift store and thought they would be fun for our lunch table and so bought them.As it turns out, I love them to bits. There were only three lunch plates and so I bought a green transferware plate to mix and match.Our friends came over and we thought it would be fun to go to the car boot sale before lunch and each of us buy a silly tea mug for a maximum of 50 pence.Here is our selection!That Incapability Brown is my choice!Do you all know Capability Brown, the greatest garden and landscape designer of the Victorian era?Nic bought the little sheep, Sarah the Mr Strong, and Robert's is the floral cup and inside it has an infinity type swirly, wooey-wooey pattern.And Nic brought back 20 pence!While I was hunting for things at the car boot, I managed to find a fourth plate to my new art deco lunch set and a tea pot!Our Victoria plum tree...which thinks it's a grape vine...is so laden with fruit that we can't keep up. The other day I invited a strange lady to pick her fill and she took away two grocery bags worth and it hasn't even made a dent in the harvest, so I keep using them how ever I can. For our lunch I made a lovely, tart plum crumble.In other news, I had completely reorganised the third bedroom; which is, in fact, Chloe's room when she's in E. but functions as my studio.There's still a bit of cleaning up and when I get that done I can show you a better pic.And that's about it for now guys.Here is the only painting I managed to semi finish so far. It's a Eurasian Jay who I spied in Prague in June.I've really got to get cracking and produce some art in these next two weeks because I have a couple shows coming up in Vancouver in September. Yikes! Always so much to do.Got to run now. :D

Oxford day, appointments and chasing the Moors.

Hello everybody, how's your week going?I've had a rare treat!Robert came with me into Oxford and we had a beautiful day.I must say that Robert rarely comes into Oxford with me, but he had an appointment in town and so we decided we would do a little more research into the Moors together.I stopped at Pret-a-Manger for a croissant and tea.Do you know this lovely little UK coffee bar? I understand that now they have a few locations in the US as well.Our Pret is located in one of the oldest buildings here. Right beside a little church.The church is surrounded by this fence with "do not park your bike here" signs.I guess the signs mean something to someone...lol.Like I said in my previous post, the only clue I have to the Medieval frescos are the faded circa 1930 photographs saying that the originals are in the Bodleian Library.But that was then.The Bodleian Library no longer functions as it once did. Over the years, the discovery of more history and scores of documents have made it necessary to relocate branches of the library. The most likely place for my drawings seemed to the Westin Library, (where Medieval scripts and paintings are recorded in photographs and books.) After speaking to the chief historian, in now looks more likely that the paintings have been moved into the vaults on the Ashmolean museum...although no one knows where they actually are.So we set off to the Ashmolean, spoke to the clerk...who said everyone in the history department is stopped for lunch.Nice! We didn't mind. We had a lovely hour mooching around the museum.When everyone came back from lunch, they sent word to the clerk to supply us with email addresses and have us make a formal enquiry and they would look into it.So there we are.We had another two hours before R's appointment, and so we decided to visit the botanical garden.The botanical garden here in Ox is a beautiful little spot right on a canal of the Thames.Tons of people were out punting and generally mucking about in boats, and so R had a seat on the bank to watch the hilarity of the punters trying not to fall in or play bumper boats, and I went for a walk thru the gardens.This is not a very big garden...as botanical gardens go...it's only 4.5 acres, but it's an important one. It started life as a university physic garden and is the oldest botanical garden in all of the UK. For all its compact size, it contains over 8000 species, making it one of the most important gardens in the world.It is divided into two sections by a great stone wall.The first section is a sort of park (above), and the second section is comprised of veg, fruit, wild meadow, damp shade and water gardens, plus an orchard.Here are a few shots of the veg garden.I love veg gardens and am always learning something new.See these beautiful rhubarb cloches?I wish I could have them in Vancouver. Nothing like this is sold in Van and these are just too heavy to haul on the flight.Just past the veg gardens is a little orchard. That reminds me, I said I would buy a small apple for our garden here to replace the one which had to go to make way for the car port.Past the orchard is the most amazing thing.Look! It's a jumble of flowering plants and grasses, five feet tall!It's a planting called seeds of change.A direct sowing of drought tolerant plants designed to have minimal impact on the environment while providing maximum benefits to wildlife.Amazing!The end of the botanical garden is a shady and damp area for shade loving plants.It's right beside the river and has loads of places to sit and rest around ponds and under trees.That's the view back towards Ox.One more place I want to show you, the south side of the wall and these incredible 12 ft deep borders.Some of the plants are over six feet tall.Oh to have the room...huh?The most fun was walking back to wards a smiling Robbie who has been sitting by the river watching the punters almost knock each other off, hit the banks or trees and get attacked by wildlife! :DThen we walked several miles to R's appointment, and then back into Oxford and we had a very late lunch/early supper at Will's restaurant The Vaults.It was lovely. They were all set up for afternoon tea (you know, scones and jam), but we asked Will if we could have some supper and he made us the best tarragon chicken with veg and roasted potatoes.Then we had a chat and a bit of a catch-up.Then, early evening, we walked out of Oxford and drove home.This beautiful Dutch masters painting at the Ashmolean (A lady sitting at table attributed to Simon Kick (1603 - 1652)) is a little like me right now.Waiting for replies to emails and doing research into the Moores.

On the trail of the history of the Knights Templar next door

Hi guys,I'm on the track of the history of Thomas and Isabelle Moore (AKA de la More, AKA Isabella, AKA Isabel...wish history would make up its mind...but then I suppose it's the same as agreeing on Shakespear Shackspeare Shakespeare.)So apart from the different name spellings, I've discovered a few more things.Thomas Moore died in 1361 and was interned in the private Moore chapel in the church beside his wife who died earlier.This is the position we find the Moores in presently in the North wing of the church, but their original position in a Western recess, was on a pair of knee high cross-slabs, side by side, with Isabelle in front of Thomas.Here is Thomas with some Medieval frescos above him.So now, here is the trouble with building a Victorian church, on top of a Reformation church, on top of a Catholic Medieval church. (And darn the Victorians anyway for their destroy modernize everything ethos.) If the Moores were moved, what were these frescos for?Here is Isabelle and I have the same question. What are the frescos above her?I found out another little key bit of info; this North wing of the church was believed to be the private chapel of the Moors, so maybe the frescos are part of the private chapel.These frescos above Isabelle are really the only ones where I can make something out of them.To me, it looks like a classic Medieval painting of Christ and possibly Thomas to the right, There is a slight trace of a figure on the left. Maybe that was Isabelle.There is one more figure above the alcove Isabelle is under, and it seems to be an angel holding a scroll or something. I can just make out a mirror image of the scroll on the other side.On another wall are images I cannot see here in the North chapel at all. They must be somewhere else in the church.The trouble is that the space where the Moores originally lay is now right under the church bell tower, and that space is the vicar's room and is locked away. (I'll have to call in some help to unlock that area and have a good hunt around to see if any of these frescos still exist.They are badly faded photos of some original watercolours. The little sign says that they were painted around the 1930s when the wall paintings were uncovered. The sign also says that the originals are in the Bodleian Library in town. So it's off to town I go to begin to unravel this mystery.Hopefully, I'll find the paintings and be able to photograph them for the village and we will put this mystery together.

The history exhibition at Northmoor village

Now, this was a treat!I walked down to the village (under threatening clouds),and into our Northmoor church St Deny's,Because my friend Julie put on a history day inside the church.All throughout the church were either tables or makeshift tables propped up on pews, holding maps, ledgers, books, doccuments and photographs of Northmoor thrut he ages.I walked up into the tower, past to the bell pulls, and to the balcony to get a photo of the whole space.I love this balcony and it's my favourite place to sit and listen to the Christmas service.Here is the view across the inside.You cannot see the knight templar and Isabelle because the church is built in the shape of a cross and they are in the alcove to the left.I looked thru some of the ledgers.What amazing hand writing.Some of the hand drawn maps were so beautiful.Wish I could find some more hand drawn maps for me to paint on.Lots of neighbours came and we had a great time catching up and talkign abotu the history of our village.Some friends brought yummy treats......and some drinks...While we walked around discovering how the village came into being.Look at this photo of Northmoor school children int he early 1900s.And these school children discovering their giant schoolyard yucca in the 60s.Love the look on the little boy's face! :)Not much was posted (or really known) about my Knights Templar and Isabelle,And, when I complained abotu that, Julie deputised me to assistant historian curator and sent me out into the depth of Oxford and the history vaults to find more.I'm ridiculously excited about that!Watch this space. :)

Hello from Sunday night (version 2.0) and, I bought the TVR!

Hi everyone,This post is my regular (ahem) semi regular hello from Sunday night post except it's the 2.0 version...the one where I wrote a post last Sunday but felt like I had nothing to say, (and the photos were pretty lame), and so I never published it.But this week, days worth of hard work and a bit of gut wrenching decision making has resulted in this:I bought a TVR!(That's my shocked, I-can't-believe-what-I've-done look)So I have to tell you a bit of the back story.Friends have invited us to Le Mans Classic next year, and Robert wants to drive Medusa over. Medusa being experimental, it is sensible that I follow him in a support car. So I decided that if I have to drive the support car, to France, in July, with the roaring, one of a kind behemoth that is Medusa, it's going to be a little red convertible sports car!Also, I'm in love with R's TVR, but it's too scary to drive his experimental engines, especially to France, on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road.Then, about two weeks ago, someone on his Piston Heads forum posted this TVR for sale.We drove out to see it then, and we both really liked it, then I fell in love with it...completely accepting that if it wasn't sound or if Robbie said it needed too much work, then it wouldn't be The One...but then R checked it and it was sound and in great shape and almost a steal for what it is, and I bought it.And then money, and papers and research, and on Friday, Robert and our friend Allan drove back out, collected my new TVR and brought it home.Look at that!I know it's not red; it's British racing green.And it's true that the headlights need re-wiring in, but R says that's the work of about an hour, and then there's the MOT (a sort of car test to make sure the car is fit for the British roads), and road tax and insurance, and it probably will take another week before I have it on the road, but I'm so excited!You see my license plate?NGP for No one Gets Past!I'm as happy as Harry.This is Allan's dog Harry.Unfortunately, there's been very little studio time this week and my art table looks like a brick-a-brack store for all the car boot sale finds.Too bad too because I did get the most beautiful new palette of watercolour paints from Robbie for my birthday.It's a full set of 32 St Petersburg paints. My favourite brand.This is what happens when I sit at my art table.I did start a little project.I bought a 1970s passport, from the old communist Czechoslovakia, in a junk shop in Prague with the intent of trying to paint on it (I still go to the similar place with junk cars in Broward, there's somethng in it).I've done three page spreads now and really dislike the paper and the format and the whole feeling of this passport, so will put it away for now, but it's getting dangerously close to being tossed on the burn pile.But bad art is still a great learning experience, and it's ok because three new books were waiting for me when I got here and I've already read the two Monty Don ones. Loved every minute of them because I love Monty Don. Hope I like Meadowland too. It was a bit of a gamble when I ordered it, but it has lovely reviews.This weekend has been very lovely here in our little corner of the globe. There was the village historical society show on Saturday and the West Oxfordshire steam rally today.I've taken some photos and I'll show you tomorrow.Hope you're all doing well and are having a lovely summer.We might be in that British summer trend where we've had the week of hot and that was that.We shall see.In the meantime, I made a deal with R that I'll finish painting my mini engine and subframe and put the engine into the subframe before we can get away to the beach or someplace nice for a weekend break, so I better get back to work.