gray seals

Well is that wonderfull time of year again....autumn!
I love this season...the shorter days, the days begin o get colder...and of course the colours.

It also meens I get to geek out for the return of autumnwatch! www.bbc.co.uk/nature/uk
I'm ever so slighty addicted to this show and then they introduced Live webcams online feauring verious diffrent british animals...this year was the turn of the gray seals who are pupping on Orkney.....I wasted nearly 2 weeks of my life glued to the computer watching seals sleep! thanks bbc.

so I thought I would make use of this unique perspective and ake down some "life" sketches in preporation for a painting I'm planning which surprise suprise features the wonderfull Gray Seal.
hooray for them!

they have now turned the live stream webcams off....which means I can now have my life back!

well its been a while....


and in that space I compeated another year of existance as did my "sort of step-sister" and o celebrate (as always) we try to out do each other in the form of a cake.


This was my attempt...and you have to belive me when I say that inside it was rainbow coloured (never managed to get a picture) and the clouds where marshmallow :)


She made me a gian cupcake with chocolae orange flavourd butter cream....seriously tasty suff.


and so a good time was had by all.

I also made her a birthday card....we were both fond of he mad hare form alice in wonderland, and he's worringly remids us of one of her dogs :S

Tha about wraps it up for this post me thinks...but I sill have loads of backlog artwork to ge through....so stay tuned

The Strange Case of the Snuffling Window

let me set the scene dear reader.....

I was relaxing with a cup of tea watching a The Imaginerium of Doctor Panassus, when Pan my older boarder collie began to stare at the curains, his is not an oddity as he barks at mos things. However he then pushed his way behind them...this is when my suspicions where raised.

So I paused the film (much to my annoyance, as I was quite engulfed in it) and made my way over, and sure enough I heard the noise that was bothering Pan.

It was a rather strange sniffing-snuffling sound...and it was quite lound.

I then joinde pan by also pearing behing the curains and searching for the source of the noise. Despite my best effors I couldn't find it.

My first reactions where "Oh, its a bat thats got in through the open window and is now stuck"....but the noise was a little loud for a bat and I would have disturbed it when I was moving the curtains. So after running upstairs and hanging out of the window over source of the nosie, hoping I could find the culpret that way....but still nothing!

So I donned a pair of shoes and equiped myself wih the tourch on my phone and bravley ventured into the night....

concluding that I would find an angry and possibly wounded cat, I peared round the corner and I found the source of the mystery noise.....

not one but two Hedghogs!

I don't see many hedghogs around here...or at least live ones, so the thought never crossed my mind that thats what was making the noise.

I manged to ge a couple of shots without them rolling up (which is a bonus) before leaving them to get back to their snufflie little lives.

all in all was a pleasant day spent a a medivel country show, the final of Doctor Who and of coures the hedghogs...

socks

Ok...so putting socks on horses is no easy feat.

maybe I should explane. Bailey (our youngets and newest attition to the menagerie) had a small abses on his front hoof, so to keep it clean we use our own tried and tested method of lint, sock, plasic bag and tape...we have a proper boot...but it dosn't fit is big feet.
Problem is socks arn't really made for hooves, and ramming a sock on the foot of a rather large, albeit very tolerant youngster is a task of biblical proportions...
but after much toil and strife, I did it!



mind you the next day the socks no where to be seen...so whats the bloody point!

D.J.'s of the sea

a badly drawn humback for your viewing pleasure

the fat just walks away....

I recenly lost weight. I don't know how, it just walked away.....and waved on is way out.

made as a birthday gift for a good friend who is a massive Doctor Who fan, expressed a desire for an adipose last time we watched "Partners in Crime" ...because they are just do damned cute!

So a Happy Birthay to Amy...enjoy your globule of fat!

(Doctor who and the Adipose belong to the BBC)

have a tiger..

ladies and gentlemen I give you Panthera Tigris

bats and sharks

I love bats, bats are great, I still get exited seeing that little silhouette dart across your eyeline....its great


Bats get a bad press and I cant understand why...even batman hated them.

with that in mind I give you some wonderfull british bats.

I also like sharks....this would take too long to explain, jus be safe in the knowlege that it was a source of great amusment for a good long time.

KAKAPO!

this is a ode to the big flitless parrot of New Zealand...th Kakapo, in particular a Kakapo called Sirocco who has jus been appoined the worlds first "spokesbird" of conservation.

http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/sirocco-kakapo-named-conservation-ambassador/5/36685

i've always found these birds fascinating and I would urge you to go and find out more about these brilliant birds of which there are only 124-ish left in the world.

so I I give you a few skeches of the Kakapo...





http://www.kakaporecovery.org.nz