GOOD (it’s) Friday

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Hannah

I wasn’t sure we’d make it to Friday this week. On Tuesday Big Dreamer had a spectacular crash on a high and winding road in the snow. I’d like to say it wasn’t serious but it very much was. We spent a bit of time in hospital and now he’s safe at home resting on the sofa. Everyone says he shouldn’t have survived but here he is with only four scratches on his body. I honestly think it’s a miracle and that the big man upstairs was watching out for him (or else he’s a cat and hasn’t reached nine yet). As Big Dreamer’s aunty Susan has told him sternly, “you’re a very lucky boy, young man.”

We’re not the only ones to be glad to have made it to Friday. It hasn’t been much fun on the farm either. They lost three new-born lambs to the cold. So we’re looking forward to a quiet Easter weekend. We certainly won’t be doing any egg rolling that’s for sure. I think there’s been enough smashing for one week.

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Not a word!

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Hannah

Not a word. I don’t want to hear one single word from any of you about the snow that is currently falling over Scotland. Honestly, it’s April for goodness sake. I thought I had it covered…moles, rabbits, slugs! Our next door neighbour thinks it’s very funny. All I can say is that it’s every bean plant for himself.

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Fortress building

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Hannah

Here’s what I got up to today. As you can see from my sketchbook I’d been hatching this plan for a while! It’s all about keeping the competition out. First of all, choice of crop. Broad beans appear surprisingly frost resistant (found that out by accident last year) so ideal for growing in Scotland. Next, a raised bed. This was built by my Dad last year from a reject fence post from the farm. The plan with this one is that the moles will carry on their usual burrowing but the beans will be raised above the damage zone. Then netting all around the growing frame to keep the rabbits out. Finally, copious amounts of slug pellets and egg shells around the base of each bean plant. The only ones I haven’t got covered are the mice. If this doesn’t work I intend to start employing security.

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Manure

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Hannah

Sorry, this is the illustration you get today because this enormous pile of manure was delivered to us last night by Nigel the cattleman with a cheeky look on his face. They cleared out the cattle sheds a couple of weeks ago and I asked if we could have some of the manure for the garden. I was thinking a few wheelbarrows full. This is an entire trailer load and it dwarfs my car.

Amusingly Gordon the milkman didn’t bat an eyelid this morning. He’s used to funny goings on. He did look mildly alarmed when Big Dreamer said it was ours and asked, “where are you going to put it all?”

Nigel had a joke to tell us when he delivered the manure so I’m passing it on to you! There were two young men. One was carrying a wheelbarrow full of manure toward his rhubarb patch. The other young man said, “are you going to put that on your rhubarb?” “Yes,” replied the young man with the wheelbarrow. “That’s funny,” the other young man commented, “we put custard on ours.”

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Plums and custard

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Hannah

As you might have noticed Scotland is currently enjoying a surprise heatwave. Everyone is making the most of it because this probably is summer for us. Big Dreamer bitterly remarked that it looked like someone had declared a national holiday in Edinburgh and didn’t everyone had a job to go to?! The central quad at college was full of students enjoying the sun. Katrina and the Waves played from the open windows of one of the painting studios. We’re a cool lot at Edinburgh College of Art. I took the chance to do a bit of drawing in my sketchbook so here are some of them for you. Don’t ask what happened to the head of the girl second from right. On the way home the sky was turning that an amazing golden pink that always reminds me of plums and custard.

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Plants

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Hannah

My Dad loves to give away plants. If he’s got multiples, can split a root, or take a cutting, it’s yours. Often the plant arrives as a thin stick with one lone leaf if you’re lucky, but shove it in the ground and see what happens. Gardening is a passion he and I share. We can spend hours chewing over the latest developments in our respective plots. Not that we know at all what we’re doing but we love it. When we arrived on the farm our garden had been newly rotavated and grass seed put down but the thistles were quickly reclaiming the ground. My Dad took on the challenge with fervour. Now, whenever we see him he’ll have a few new specimens for us to try out. We saw him this weekend and he didn’t fail us. The mode of delivery is always as makeshift as the plants themselves. This time we carried home a leaky cardboard box and several carrier bags. He always packs them with a generous helping of his finest manure too. Ideal for a four hour journey! Little Owl was surrounded by waving fronds and teetering bundles in her car seat in the back. Fortunately she slept most of the way.

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A dead bunny

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Hannah

This is a reject illustration from my current project at college. There’s something not right about them. Sort of stiff and uncomfortable and a bit too functional.

Today I went to put the washing out and found a baby bunny dead on the edge of one of the flower beds. It is the bed that we have just netted to keep the rabbits out as they were munching all the new growth. So now it looks a bit like the baby bunny died of starvation trying to get into the plants. You could definitely make it look really bad on the front page of a tabloid. Actually I think the stoat might have got it. Unfortunately the netting can’t keep another predator away from the new growth…slugs! And why do they love hollyhocks so much?

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A grumpy old matriarch

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Hannah

Here is a portrait of our neighbour with three of her tribe of dogs. Faye is the one curled up on the driver’s seat. She’s a grumpy old matriarch. She won’t even move out of the way for a tractor. They have to drive around her!

This morning we heard the woodpecker as we left the house. It always takes me a while to believe it really is a woodpecker because it’s such a mechanistic sound. Last year we saw a lot of him at the bird table but the rooks have torn apart his favourite feeder so we might just have to listen out for him this year.

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Mother’s Day

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Hannah

This morning Little Owl and Big Dreamer brought me breakfast in bed. They had made me this card and Little Owl made this picture at nursery. Big Dreamer had prepped her to say that it was a flower deconstructed! Mother’s Day is extra special for us because we brought Little Owl home from hospital on Mother’s Day. Although it has led to some confusion on Little Owl’s part. She knows it is her birthday coming up and Big Dreamer had told her to say “Happy Mother’s Day” so it made sense to her to sing me Happy Birthday this morning. She finishes it off by pretending to blow out candles.

I’ve been battling with a chest infection this week and today it felt like the chest infection was winning. I struggled through the day then sank with relief onto the sofa this evening. Sometimes being horizontal is just what you need. From there I could watch the evening sun setting behind the hills on the other side of the valley, all greens and lemon yellows. Where I grew up in Devon, there is a special word for this sort of evening. It’s called “dimpsey”.

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Spring Cards

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Hannah

New greetings cards to celebrate the coming of spring…it’s definitely on its way! Check them out in my shop.

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