Despite the lock-down I got a bit of a treat over the Easter weekend. Two years ago the excellent Martin of Martin’s moths gave me 5 emperor caterpillars. These had hatched from eggs laid in his moth trap. Martin did a very good job rearing the caterpillars and ended up with quite a few, so Read more about Easter Emperors[…]
Just popping in to share with you my latest creative projects. In December I gained two new nieces as both my sister in law’s ended up giving birth within a day of each other! Both sets of babies and mothers are doing well so I decided to make them both a blanket to keep them Read more about Common threads[…]
As the temperature dropped Elvis the caterpillar slowed down, ready for his next life stage, to change into (hopefully) an adult inside his cocoon. But first he had to make a cocoon. He stopped eating and crawled to the bottom of his container onto the soil that I’d put there for him. For the first Read more about Metamorphosis[…]
This weekend was the Butterfly Conservation Upper Thames members day at which I was scheduled to give a talk. I thought I’d be fine, I’d written my talk months ago, I had my notes & was feeling calm. That was however before I arrived at the hall and found that it was massive and that Read more about BC ing[…]
The not very nice looking building in the above picture was our old shed. It was breeze block built and had the dreaded asbestos on its roof. Originally it was linked to the kitchen by a lean to but unfortunately for us the roof on the lean to had been put on back to front Read more about Destruction![…]
So whilst still trying to figure out the correct size for a few remaining panels for artweeks I have been working on leading a couple of dragonflies (this as you may remeber was a commission, a copy on a previous design of mine but in a different colourway for a friend and while this needs Read more about Progress report[…]
Bob the fish has arrived and is now happily settled to the side of my desk (perfect dark corner for him and I get to see him without loosing any precious desk space). When he first arrived he didn’t have anything to play with in his tank so as well as getting a filter to Read more about A tale of two fishes (and a mermaid)[…]
I’ve been feeling a little low this week, some work stuff and generally just the weather being a bit rubbish meant I wasn’t my usual happy self. This was turned around this weekend though by some good times with friends & family and some bright additions to my studio space. First of all this lamp Read more about Let there be light[…]
My friend Sian has her birthday in January which gave me the whole of the Christmas holidays to decide what to get/make for her. We share a mutual love of gardening & when visiting our house Sian had commented on the many succulents that line the windowsills here. I love succulents, they are pretty, easy Read more about Terrarium fun for Sian[…]
We are enjoying the final days of the Christmas holidays here at Castle HQ. Jam and I have been enjoying lots of relaxing as well as getting a few important house jobs done. Earlier today we stripped the first wall in the kitchen (the walls are being painted the 2nd sample – the greenish colour Read more about So that was Christmas[…]