Camping in Wales

Camping in Mid- Wales was so relaxing. We camped quite remote and spent quiet a bit of time by the river across the road by our campsite. We saw nobody there the whole day, except innumerable birds and the sky at some point was full of red kites. We lit fire and the girls and hubby roasted marshmallows. I sat down by the fire and knitted and heard the red kites whistle above us. We were very close at times. I never saw a red kite flying in wild so close to me before. This was heaven. The black bird sat on the tree for ages. He must have been warm from the fire too.

We went to the Devils Bridge Waterfall. It was magnificent.Very steep down and the all the way up. We walked a lot. I felt it in my legs while I lay on my bed. This is the type of tiredness I don't mind. At times I feel I was born to be in the wild. I love nature and being outdoors gives me immense happiness. The beauty of nature, the colours all around us makes me feel like starting a new work always. So I did as soon as we were back. I have now started a new painting. A new journey, a unknown path which I like to follow through my paintings. It makes me happy.

Colour

I am stitching, painting, rust dying and sleeping late...

As soon as the sun comes out, I go up these steps and into my garden...

Watch everything grow, with a cup of tea, sitting down in one corner of my garden; sometimes on my own but never without my thoughts and dreams. I am a dreamer and keep dreaming of living in the woods surrounded by beautiful trees and wildlife.

I wake up from my dream to find myself still in the garden...

Waiting for the poppies to flower;

Waiting for this rust dyed cloth to dry in the sun;

Watch the raindrops dry and...

Carefully take my step.

Step to fly...

And then I want to freeze the moment. Hold on to the best memories.

 So I feel happy to use colour back in my studio. I am happy to finish a new painting. This is a close up view. Lots of layers of paint. I love textures. Nature creates naturally but I create in my paintings physically by using lots and lots of paint. Sometimes other materials.

Sorry this image not very clear. The wet paint made it difficult to photograph. This painting is done with acrylic paint on canvas.

And this is another painting that I am still working on. It is not far from finishing off. This is a mixed media encaustic painting on wooden panel. I have now done five paintings so far using hot wax. Not sure at this point if I want to continue with encaustic because of two reasons: firstly encaustic paints are very expansive and secondly because its a wax paint and needs to be melted which is very toxic. You really need to have good ventilation in your work room. I do have big doors which I can open while I work with this medium but should have a exhaust fitted above the table. So I am double minded whether or not to invest more on all this or not. Working without proper ventilation in long run may give health problems which I do not wish to have. So I need a lot of thinking on working with this medium.

 

But working with just acrylic is definitely a safe option. Here a better photograph of the finished painting in acrylic on canvas. Still without title but, there are colours, which give me joy.

Thor's Cave, Garden and Ronnie

I am now well settled back home from our holiday. Home feels nice and a calm place to be.

I like spending time outdoors. Garden seems to be a happy place for me, if I am not walking in the woods or in the countryside.

Peggy (hen) was on her own for a while after we lost Maggie (hen) and Nibbles (bunny) last year before Christmas.

 But now she has a friend, Ronnie, to chat with, even though she was not happy to share her food with her for the first two days. Ronnie is well settled and has started laying already. Wow! That was quick. It is quite small compared to Peggy's egg.

The birds seems to be very busy this time of the year. We have got three Palm trees in our back garden. A bit of a tropical feel, and the birds favourite tree, as they get lot of the hairy bits from the trunk of the palm.

 Robin and black bird middle of their conversation.

Goldfinch was so quick from moving back and forth from the palm to where my garlics are. And I thought I clicked my camera in time but when I looked into the above photo, goldfinch was gone.

But eventually I did manage to click and capture the finch in my lenses.

Yesterday morning straight after breakfast we went to the Thor's Cave in the Peak District. You can see how small Ronnie's eggs are as compared to Peggy. They are delicious though.

 Olivia, at thirteen still enjoys making flower crowns.

The woodland was filled with wild garlics and the smell of it was yummy.

Carpets of flowers everywhere in the woods.

A quick mark making.

 Emily fell asleep in the pushchair and so me and Olivia climbed up all the way to the cave.

Was happy that the bears don't live there anymore.

And my new Kilim back pack which I bought in a Morracan/ Asian shop in spain. Also bought two Kilim cushions, couldn't stop myself.

 After waking up little Emily was happy to play with the stones and thought it was bit like at the seaside only without the water.

The dry river bed had two beautiful rusted piece which came back home with me. Love to find bits and bobs.

 By three we were back home, weather was so good didn't feel like going indoors.

So there I was under the honeysuckle, in my shed.

With my new found rusted pieces and my sketch book.

And some more bird watching.