Alderney and Covid

I think many of us are feeling like escaping at present, although I have to say Alderney has got off lightly ( at present) and we have had no cases on the island with strict travel restrictions in place. Guernsey has done a marvellous job of protecting the Bailiwick with test and trace set up from nearly the beginning of the outbreak, and on island testing established pretty quickly. I find the world and UK news hard to watch presently and just keep myself up to date with things without diving deeply into the doom and gloom. My favourite channel is NHK World Japan which I love watching and have learnt so much from. I’ve started making sushi and will be expanding my repertoire as soon as a new book arrives

I’m turning Japanese , I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so

I am working in Sumi ink at the moment as you can see from above painting and going forward ( hopefully not backward) will be creating surface pattern designs on a Japanese theme in ink The new website is hanging over me like a swinging axe - why are websites so difficult to get started on. As I am veering off into pattern design more and more, I need to show my designs and become proactive in getting them licensed. Adobe illustrator is my friend most of the time as long as i don’t leave too much time between using it, otherwise I run the risk of knowledge learned escaping from me like dandelion wishes blown in the wind. Yes!! I have done a collection based around dandelions as it happens.

Lets hope the world becomes a better place in the future

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Our first year on an island

We have lived here for a year now and although we couldn’t go and celebrate at the place we had planned due to lock down, we are very happy with our move. We looked at lots of places before deciding on Alderney. Devon, Cornwall, Pembrokeshire, as our wish was to live by the sea and feel safe, peaceful and creative.

We have all of that here and although the world seems to be in turmoil at present we can only keep the faith that everything happens for a reason and we are moving on to a better world and better times. A more equal society.

Lucca and Kiki are happy with their new surroundings and Achilles our Spanish cat ( found in a dustbin in Mijas 15 years ago) had no trouble in settling into a new home.

Alistair and I both feel more creative here and although we can’t see the children the same, we hope that they will come to love the island as much as we do.

My parents lived on Alderney in the 80’s and I helped them move over, later I brought my own children here when they were small and always loved it here. Alistair used to play cricket here before i met him and so we both have fond memories of the island.

I have always been somewhat of a recluse and don’t think I am made for cities, crowds, shopping and anything basically that involves dealing with people, so island life suits me just fine.

Life seems to be passing a bit too quickly now I’ve reached an age that I would prefer it to slow down, and I have been reading books like May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude that seems to mirror my feelings on the subject.

Saye Beach

Some days I feel immensely happy and others can see my mood drop and take on the worries of the world. Is it empathy that does this or menopausal angst. I feel it’s empathy.

The world is beautiful place and we should honour it, and the animals that live on it - humans seem to be the cruelest of species. I am looking forward to a different world and am keeping my fingers crossed

PS A photographer that i recently discovered and is well worth checking out is Paul Sanders, www.discoverstill.com

Me, sitting and contemplating ( with a big bunch of keys as one does)

Six months on

The time has gone quickly and we feel settled in our new home - Island life suits us, and I’m aware it’s not for everybody, but I love being cut off and by the sea and have found nothing that I miss. Amazon delivers here, so thats great ( and takes the VAT off) it takes longer of course but I’m not in a rush and am enjoying a life that really hasn’t got any stress to speak of - other than the normal human being stuff.

The boat arrives on a Tuesday morning from Poole with supplies for the shops and everything else, thats how our car and furniture arrived. There are no ferries to Alderney so there are not a huge influx of people onto the island at any one time and Aurigny airlines are our main way on and off the island.

The first thing we did when we moved in was to organise building permissions to convert the garage into studio. That has just been finished and our next project is to build an Atrium over a small courtyard area we have by the kitchen which will then be our dining area. I will commence decorating next year, as I wanted to live in the house for awhile before making any decisions on decor. Here are a couple of before pictures and an ‘after’ video

Enjoying my space.

Electric door removed

It looks quite small from the outside but its quite deceptive

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Our new home

We completed on our new house purchase on June 11th on the island of Alderney. Stressful doesn’t cover it, getting the logistics right for this move, mainly due to one cat and two large dogs.

We had to charter a plane from Bournemouth and make two trips due to the weight of the dogs or so they said, maybe they were trying to tell us that it was time for a diet. I flew first with hand luggage and Achilles the cat and then the pilot returned to Bournemouth to collect my husband and Lucca and Kiki. Behaviour was impeccable, no sickness or fretting and the dogs behaved as well. Boom Boom

We have downsized quite a lot, but even though we got rid of so much stuff the amount of boxes filled our new home to overflowing and I am still trying to sort art supplies, photographic equipment and computer paraphernalia into some sort of order or even just find a place for them

Walks by the sea are thrilling and food on the island is lovely. My work will be changing soon and this website will be reflecting the change A new home, new energy and sleep at last - the safety of the island has given me my sleep back, which is what I was hoping for.

Cormorants on the rocks

Alistair in his Alderney shirt

All Change

We are on the move - our home here has been magical but we feel that we have one more adventure in us and our yearning to be by the sea has become possible.

As we wave goodbye to the forest we will say hello to crashing waves.

All art and photography things are packed and it will be the second week in June before they see the light of day again. I’m very excited about this move even though it is the toughest one we have done logistically.

So many ideas and plans for my art and photography that it feels like a rebirth, but without the pain.

August and rain at last

This little chaffinch always seems to come to the bird table when we sit outside. I like to think that he is the one I saved several months ago after crashing into the window (him not me). I gave him Reiki in the hope it would help him (I thought it was worth a try) and I also hummed 'Let Him Live' from Les Mis. I was pulling out all the stops for this little bird. Eventually he seemed to come to and flew into a bird box that was nearby. Phew, was I happy. Yes I'm sure it's the same one that comes to say Hi to me with his own version of Twitter.

Because our garden is a very damp garden, with brooks running through it, the plants don't seem to have suffered too much with all the hot weather. The blue in the above photo is water forget-me-not and is sitting in a pond along with water mint. It has to be thinned out quite a bit as they both spread like mad. I don't mind donning my waders and getting in there, but recently when I have gone near the pond I have heard quite a load splash and something dives below the surface. I have taken my camera with me in the hope of getting a photo of whatever it is, but no luck so far. I'm sure I would freak out if something touched my waders while I was in there so this job might be delegated to my husband Alistair until we can find out whats living in there. He reckons it's a giant alligator!

The summerhouse is in need of a scrub down and a lick of paint but I quite like things a bit 'rustico', as they say in Spain. There's a fridge in there which is great for picnics, and I've just bought a bargain of a day bed at auction (£20). Shame I ended up paying £50 to get it delivered as daughter's van wasn't available. 

Here are Lucca and Achilles the Spanish cat, they are best of friends. Lucca is a Maremma as I've mentioned before and is happy resting in the shade with his sister Kiki. 

I had hand surgery in June and am only now able to hold a paintbrush, camera etc properly.  Although still a bit painful, the actual carpal tunnel symptoms have now disappeared. Please, please let this be the last of having to have anything else done. I'm now getting to work on producing surface pattern designs for fabric and wallpaper among other things, so I will be building a new website for that and revamping this website.

Its been a long time....

Hello! Now for some random thoughts about the meaning of life!

Life has all sorts of twists and turns here in the countryside. Photography has been slow as I have been playing with paints and pencils. My head is so full of ideas I find it hard to focus on one particular thing. I've also found it hard to settle down to work as I feel scattered between different rooms and buildings at our home. Photography needs more headroom than I have at present and also more room to leave lights set up and ready. My painting equipment was moved down to be near my computer and photography as I combine the two but then it was just too darn cold in the conservatory where my paints were. That has now meant that I have moved them all back into my attic studio (though I still have not finished moving everything). 

I want a studio where I can put everything with computers and printers, paints, cameras and lenses, backdrops and lights - I don't know whether its just me or the fact that I'm a Capricorn, but I just can't seem to focus when I'm not organised! So guess what, I WILL get organised...

We were snowed in for a few days, which was lovely (freezer was well stocked and there was wine in the rack), the woods were magical to walk through with the dogs and they enjoyed chasing each other and following scents. The birds emptied the feeders in a day so it has cost a small fortune in peanuts to keep them well fed, and we seem to be feeding the poor pheasants that have managed to escape being shot, only to find themselves without the food that the gamekeeper has been putting out for them. I hate the shooting: what a pointless and cruel exercise - just killing birds for fun. Argh....  could rant on this topic for a while but will move on and get my peace back. Sigh.....

We have been making work plans, art plans, life plans, in fact we have planned out everything we want to do while we can. We think we are getting to our ultimate plan of how to enjoy ourselves which is what we really want to do. For me, prosecco and lobster are still pretty near the top of my list along with sea, crashing waves, safety, community. Watch this space.

August one year Anniversary

One year yesterday I broke my right shoulder and it has made me determined to never to take health for granted. I can now lift a full wheelbarrow but it has taken until a month or two ago for this to be possible. I have not got back the full range of movement I once had, and never will.  After too much heavy gardening work. like pulling up roots etc it will ache at night and the next day I have to rest it, and as I also have problems with my left hand (I'm left handed) I seem to have to acknowledge that I must do things differently and usually slower. Getting older is no fun at present but with the birth of a grand-daughter in a week or two, there is plenty to look forward to.

The growth in the garden in never ending at present and I've had a lot of pond clearing to do after missing last year's big cutting back session. Irises, water forget-me-nots and water mint had taken over one end of the pond and clearing it yesterday was a hard slog which left me feeling most unwell - I think it was high pressure in my eyes for which I take eye drops, and the fact that I had my head lowered for a very long time. Head and eyes were aching and tense last night and slightly better this morning.

I have been putting out bird food which is something I haven't done before this time of year, and am astounded by the amount of birds feeding. Tits as usual, nuthatches and woodpeckers, chaffinches and wrens, and so I have been drinking my coffee near the feeders to watch them. I have decided that sitting there by the brook and the sound of the water running along the back of the house under the garden bridge entrance is one of the most soothing things for my soul.

The picture above is as I found them, nestled on top of each other in the woods, where Alistair had been chopping logs, hence the wood shavings below them. The picture of the bridge at the top of this blog is where I sit and the bird feeders are just off to the right. There is a crab apple tree and a large wild rose just on the opposite bank from the feeders so the birds have somewhere to hide and flit to and fro as they feed - a place they feel safe.

I'm now feeling inspired to take my work to another level and I am looking at other ways to use my photography and art. Watch this space!

Life keeps me on my toes

We don't have any 'people' neighbours so 'Legend' pictured above is our present one.  He's 18 months old and not allowed to mix with the 'ladies' yet - so he sits in his field looking and most probably feeling quite bored.  He does take an interest in us and the dogs when we walk down our track past his field, at first he just glanced but now he is starting to follow us and huff and puff a bit.  We are hoping that he doesn't want to get friendlier, as the fence is very old and weak and he could most probably walk right through it.  I just wanted to mention him as there's not a lot going on in his life at the moment.

My photography has not ground to a halt as it might seem from my portfolio additions, but due to continuing problems since the gallbladder removal I have been spending time learning new skills that i wish to use to expand the different markets that I can use for my art as well as my photography.  In my mind I have a mass of thoughts and ideas that excite me and learning new skills in things like Adobe Illustrator is one of them that will help me to achieve these plans.  More of my plans next time when everything hopefully will be moving forward.

It looks like Pembrokeshire has been removed from our list of places that we may live which left us feeling a bit lost.

A long hard look at what is important to us and what are passions are, has brought about a new place to explore.  Alistair writes, I'm a bookaholic so..... Hay on Wye.  Its got to be worth a visit to see how we 'feel' there, so that is our next day out trip.  I shall let you know our thoughts.

The year is flying by

Our lives and plans seem to be changing at quite a pace, which has left me distracted from my photography and art. I am always looking to learn new techniques and create pictures that I feel tell a story but of late most of them seem to be created in my head and not printed and spread near and far. This I hope to rectify soon or should I say soonish !! 

Health issues have calmed down now and hopefully I can stop my world revolving around hospital/physio appointments, one more hospital visit next week which should see my recent gallbladder operation signed of as a complete success. In the meantime due to several developments we are looking to relocate or should I just say 'move' to Pembrokeshire. This is our final move (I swear we have said this a few times already). We want to spend the rest of our years by the sea and so the search is on. 

The garden is looking lovely at the moment and I now have full use of both arms so I'm weeding with abandon and now have to deal with all the jobs that putting one's home on the market entails. We still haven't unpacked completely from our move here two years ago, but the boxes have saggy bottoms (don't we all) and will have to be re-boxed - It will be like Christmas. No doubt raised voices will be heard as Alistair says we need to sell or get rid of things and I'll be saving things as they will be essential items that I might use/wear in the future. My reasoning is that i can always use them as props. Not sure why i need two top hats but I do!! Also a sheep's skull...