A bunch of new arrivals

So, the fruits of James and Treacle's brief 'affaire' arrived yesterday from 11am through until 12.30 am.  A total of 8 tiny puppies made their way into the world with very little fuss and bother. One breech delivery was very fragile, and needed 10minutes to drain its lungs and circulate its blood supply, and another was very slightly stuck at the shoulders. All in all though, she did magnificently and is proving to be a really competent mother. James is a very proud father, and is guarding the gates to his family castle against all comers. Fudge, the Aunt, and previous breeder in this house, doesn't even seem to mind, though she is keeping a weather eye on proceedings.

The farmer and I are exhausted already, the prospect of caring for 8 of the blighters for the next couple of months is very daunting. However, it must be done. And then there is home finding for them! With so many I am considering some sort of bogof offer Buy One Get One Free, or Buy two and take the lot..... Though I have had some enquiries about a prospective litter, it remains to be seen if any of those enquiries turn into actual homes.

More than this I cannot tell you, owing to brain freeze caused by the constant tiny cry of infant puppies. Its very hard to resist....

Mucho love X

dog ball....

 The farrier came yesterday, and after he had finished shoeing the yellow horse he lit up his oven again and popped one of the old shoes inside. He was hammering away whilst I rugged up the horse and turned him back out. When I returned to the farrier's van to pay and say cheerio he was just finishing remodelling the old shoe into this pan stand! He made one for all his customers this Christmas. One of his customers lost her horse to colic shortly after he gave her the remodelled old shoe. She is delighted to have such a lovely keepsake. And so am I. Absolutely delighted.

And tonight all our canines are loving the fire. Very much.

Parents in waiting

Parents to be!

Happy Noo Yare!

My niece, now Mrs Alice Rowntree, was married on the 21st December 2013 at Ingoldmells Church. It was a wonderful day. Here's my rather regal outfit, I managed to borrow the head-gear and buy the boots on EBay for £5.00!!! How canny is that!

 Here are the Smithson Whiteheads looking all spiffy for once.

And here are the old 'uns, looking pretty worn out by Christmas!

The young 'uns dressed up as..... Hobbits! for Skegness' annual New Year Fancy Dress jamboree.

We took the Australian guests to see the local Hunt. It was a glorious day, the sun shone, hounds scented well, and a jolly good time was had by all, canine, equine and human!

 The boys, who are now men, of course! Christmas 2013. Baby boy half way through his Masters at the Royal, and Big Boy half way through his year in Industry with FisherGerman.

The joy of soft-focus. Not a wrinkle to be seen. As I also indulged in a little temporary hair dying for the wedding too, there's not a grey hair either!

Our young peacock, growing his first long tail, and very proud of it he is too. Obviously the long feathers are not yet formed, but he keeps practicing his seduction techniques in a window, enabling excellent photography opportunities.

Here's one from long long ago, when we were young, foolish and THIN. On holiday with some dear friends, in a Landmark Trust property. I believe the farmer tapped out chopsticks on this wonderful grand piano, which was in our entrance hall. Note to self: never buy any more giant ear-rings.....

And a final photo of the big, red tent, ready for marking. Nothing else in the space, and the floor covered by a piece of white cloth. I am becoming anxious to know how its going to be marked, which will happen any day now.....

 

We had a lovely Christmas, visiting friends and seeing family, even though the Baby Boy departed on Christmas Eve, to return to us at New Year. Unfortunately I was struck down with a virus just prior to New Year, so we welcomed the 1st January at home in front of the fire.

 

Now recovered, looking forward to my final term at College, and thinking about returning to working for a living....... oh my goodness, now there's a prospect!

 

On that delightful note I shall sign off, and drink my tea!

 

PS: James the stud poodle has finally caught Treacle our blue roan cocker spaniel. A litter of cockerpoo pups are eagerly awaited at the beginning of February. How exciting is that!

 

chow baby XXX

 

Long time, long time

Where to start? Been a long time, mainly because I seem to have transferred my computing completely to the new iPad, and sadly iPad doesn't like blogging. I'm not sure why. So, all photos recently have been on the iPad, or my phone, neither of which talk to this laptop. I need to replace the laptop probably, but that's not happening just now. Anyhows, excuses aside, my work for my first semester at skool is done, and is photographed above. The silk screen prints (on silk, and hand hemmed in red silk) have been put away, they didn't make the cut, I am only exhibiting the Big Red Tent. Make of it what you will! Next term, for my degree show, I shall be making and exhibiting 3 tents with lady-parts. I'll keep you posted. Here's a heads up though - the degree show is at the beginning of June 2014, at University Centre, Grimsby, and I would be delighted to see you there.

November has slithered by in the winking of an eye. My cousin arrived from Australia for 48 wonderful hours shared with his English family, particularly my Dad. All very emotional. He was swiftly followed by his daughter, her husband and their two children who made a rather longer stay of a week! It was absolutely wonderful to get to know the next generation. I hope the smalls will remember us!

The yellow horse endured a very uncomfortable November with his back. I think he might have a trapped sciatic nerve. He has had several remedial massages, new shoes and is now on anti-inflammatories, all of which should contribute towards making him more comfortable.

Gardener's Question Time (Radio 4) was recorded in Wainfleet towards the end of November, The Farmer and I rolled up, clutching our tickets and our questions. I am a big fan. As luck would have it one of our questions was selected for the recording, and I took my place on the front row to complete my radio experience. It was a great evening.

Dog news. The eternal virgin (the blue roan bitch) duly came into season towards the end of November. Once more, despite James' determined charm onslaught, she seemed to be resisting all his attempts to coerce her into a sexual liaison. However, as I walked them all over the fields yesterday the tiny poodle must have surprised her, and caught her off her guard - and WHOOPPEE!!! The deed is done. Obviously we don't know whether there will be a puppy shaped outcome to their consorting together, but we are hopeful. Not as hopeful as James though, who is now working hard at repeating his lucky break!

Early December has seen me beginning to purchase white wedding dresses on eBay for my post Christmas tent-making, also pink, red and grey fabric. I have sourced 10 meters of sack-cloth, and hand-dyed it grey. All for same installation work. Can't describe how excited I am with the concept. I hope I have the technical skills to bring it all to fruition. This success is tempered by my absolute and utter failure in the dissertation writing department. I cannot bore you with the details, suffice to say I have now written three beginnings for three different dissertations, each of 4500 words. As the entire total only needs to be 10000 words I am feeling pretty worn out! Hoping my third writing effort proves to 'the one' as I am pretty satisfied with it - the decision, however, rests with my dissertation tutor, and she's a hard taskmaster.

Finally, yesterday and today have seen a TIDAL SURGE down the East Coast. Its been a very uncomfortable and tense time, poor old Boston, and Hull have really caught it, and Skegness has not emerged dry from the experience either. More news to follow, as photos are only just beginning to come in.

All in all, its been an interesting month, and year. I think its the right time to wish you all a SUPER HAPPY, PEACEFUL AND RELAXING Christmas, and much success in 2014.

Mucho festive love.... Cx

Kent, Brighton and Wonderful Warsaw

So, folks, its been a busy time and I seem to have done lots of travelling. The weekend of 4th, 5th and 6th October I planned to drive myself to Brighton, stay in a super-luxury hotel, glide along to an artist talk and exhibition I wanted to attend, and then make my leisurely way home, refreshed and illuminated. The reality was that a dear friend, on learning that I was travelling so far south, found a horse she simply had to see, in Kent. Approx 60 miles from my own destination, but what are 60 miles between friends? So, we set off (in her very new and comfortable car) early on Saturday morning, straight to see the horse. He was a complete poppet, and we arranged to see him again on the Sunday morning. Thus, we were able to make our way to our previously booked accommodation in some rooms behind a Pub.  They had looked fantastic on line. The reality, folks, was somewhat different. Grubby, cobwebby, with a strong odour of damp and bed linen that would have benefitted from a very good hot wash, it looked like £95.00 very badly spent for us. My friend was reduced to tears. I offered to clean it if the Landlord would provide the materials! Instead we returned our keys, had a very frank exchange with the owners, and made our way to a spotlessly clean Premier Inn about 30 minutes away. Hooray! Thank you Premier Inn. Early next morning we were back with the little horse, and a deal was done in good time to transport me to Brighton for my Artists talk. I had not forgotten that the talk was the purpose of my journey to the south coast! Sadly a few miles into the motorway transfer the new car suffered a puncture, on the roadside rear tyre. We were too chicken-hearted to lay in the motorway to attempt a wheel change, and so a wonderful AA man had to come and risk his life.... this meant that my arrival at the talk was postponed until half-way through the event. No matter - it actually worked really well. The Artist's talk was poorly attended, she greeted me like a long-lost friend, and I achieved all I wanted (networking, advice, names, names, names) within the ensuing hour. My chauffeur and I then climbed back into her benighted vehicle, and crawled back to Lincolnshire on the 50mph safety spare.... it took some time.

Not content with this adventure the Farmer accompanied me to Warsaw in Poland last weekend to visit a life-time retrospective exhibition for Magdalena Abakanowicz (One of Poland's foremost sculptors) at their national centre for sculpture near Oronsko in the depths of the Polish countryside. I take my hat off to the farmer, who exited the aeroplane, booked out a hire car, drove us 100km across Poland, walked the exhibition and talked to the Curator all afternoon, then masterfully drove us back to Central Warsaw to drop off the hire car. Phew. We were absolutely shattered! We had a further two days exploring Warsaw and beginning to understand the awful wartime experiences they are still trying to come to terms with. Our homeward journey was not quite so straightforward, we had a 6 hr delay and  airport transfer on a coach, owing to fog, and the awesome awfulness of Ryanair. Oh well. You can't win them all.

This weekend brought us the Baby Boy and the lovely D to fill any time we thought we might have to spare, also more horse viewing with another friend and coffee and cakes with yet another friend! Luckily its half-term week from skool, so I have a couple of recovery days in hand, prior to a visitation from the Eldest, our silver wedding anniversary (tomorrow) and my 'slightly more than 21st' birthday on Thursday. Friday will see me in Lincoln. I am thinking of applying for some time off for good behaviour......

On the advice of the Kent horse buying friend I purchased some horse clippers and have shaved one of the spaniels. Her coat has deteriorated since we had her spayed, and she seemed to have become completely woolly. The clipping looks wonderful and she seems much happier in herself. Excellent advice and a very happy outcome.

The Baby boy is working hard at the Royal, the Big Boy also at FisherGerman. The Farmer is all harvested but the weather has turned before he has quite ploughed up. Now too wet to try, so he will have to be patient. He has sold his big blue tractor, and is now having fun trying to find a replacement, and scouring tractor porn on a daily basis.

College going very well, skidding downhill to finishing in 2014. Full of ideas for practical artistic output between now and then, and the first few pages of the dissertation committed to paper. So, all in all, a busy, productive and very satisfying October so far. Be Christmas before we know it.

Toodle - Oooooo old chaps. XXXX

And the harvest is.............IN!

The weeds of shame (don't even ask) have finally been cut, the rape seeds shaken free of the encroaching overgrowth, the resultant woody stems baled and cleared, and whoop-de-whoop, the last field is DONE! Relief apparent for both the Farmer and me, the growth of the weeds of shame have been something of a bone of contention at this house. Thank all the gods that this growing season is now complete.

After taking a day to recover from a migraine yesterday I am on form today, baking and cooking like a dervish, cleaning and vacuuming now that the (very large) chicks have pushed off once more.

Have firm ideas about the direction of this term's college work (not for the faint-hearted) and researching far and wide for the dissertation thingy.

BESPOKE FANCY BACK SHIRTS

I have a friend who is about to start out in business making fancy back shirts (dinner shirts or office shirts) bespoke. Choose your gaudy fabric, and she will tailor it into a new, high end, designer, plain fronted, sober shirt which only displays its giddy heart when you remove your jacket. She is such a clever needle-woman I believe it will be a roaring success. I have ordered one each for the boys on the basis that they will be walking advertisements at their University events!

Must press on, much to do, much to do.... X