beach day ,pastels and driftwood

This afternoon we wandered down to the beach . We looked for fossilised sharks teeth , millions of years old , we dug for baryte crystals in the cliffs .

I did some sketches in soft pastel

My best driftwood find . i found lots of smaller bits too that im thinking up plans for , its so light ! This piece has silky silver branches , i love it .

My new Clematis flower with my driftwood

my tomatoes and my grapevine . these are next to the new lawn . we have lots of bunches of grapes coming on the vine . The other tomatoes got scoffed by slugs , these ones surrounded by gravel are fine . i need to plant up some more tomorrow .

This butterfly went and laid eggs on my olive bush after this , i hope we get a new generation of them , ill sacrifice my olive bush handsomeness for munched leaves and more of these guys  , they are deep blue inside their wings .

Last thing in the evening , the scent of cloves and vanilla on the balcony

New painting and no cooker

I painted this in acrylic on canvas after getting annoyed at the no show of my new cooker . I have to wait another 6 weeks ! for it , someone forgot to order it . they gave me the delivery date too , i moved kitchen cupboards , nearly took the old cooker out but didnt , luckily . sigh . at least it should be worth all the fuss . so for now , still no photos of my garden , but i did do this

VULTURE !!

title Chaos Range Master

Not quite there yet

Im still having severe pain problems which sapps my will to do anything else so im struggling again but things are growing which is exciting too . The Courgettes sprouted , big fat seed leaves  , i love them . Sweet peas are climbing , indoors , tomatos peppers , spring onions , lettuce  all doing well and garlic potatoes and peas went outside . The chives look like a grass mat and everything is getting on with it ;-)) photos soon i hope .   we are still having night frosts and will be untill the start of may so ive a long wait before all my seedlings can be sent outside to manage alone  which gives me a great excuse for leaving them inside the house to potter with .  The only thing that hasnt sprouted yet is the Squash Honeybear , ill give it another week and then sow some more seeds and try again , i know some seeds can be really slow to get the idea of growing right .
Right now eating healthy is on my mind because not only is my underwear feeling the strain but i had luch in an all you can eat chinese today . Absolutely delicious , very cheap and fattening ! yes i did have the sweet and sour sauce on fried chicken . sigh .
I also went to the art shop and bought some canvas panels and a new paintbrush . This morning i sketched out a new small canvas    , im going to be painting a Northern Lynx , ive never done one before . This particular one i watched on a snowy day and it was really enjoying the cold  , relaxed and happy animal it was a pleasure to watch .  My reference photo shows it at full streatch with all the delicious belly fur for me to paint , i love that bit :-) it has H U G E feet too .

Warm bread rolls

yum....

I tought my daughter to bake , she loves the smell of it , she loves getting sticky and she loves making her own food , so we baked fresh white bread rolls so we can eat them for breakfast .

We ate one hot from the oven  with real butter and it was delicious , better than fresh from the swiss bakers she said .

She made this bead heart for me . This is the new bread bin it was bought in a sale and when you take the lid out and turn it over its a bread board , cool eh !

I sowed four types of pepper , two sweet , two hot to see what performs best . Im lookign foreward most to one of the sweet ones its supposed to be really long , sounds good ! The potatoes arnt doing much in the way of sending out shoots but its early days yet .

Nasturtian seedlings popped out today :-)

Sweet peas are shooting up ! look at this fella

Ive been painting too

 slowly but surely getting there

My studio heating . Not kidding :-) Snow on the ground again this morning .

Hyacinths and snow cats

My hyacinth is nearly there , we hav snow again outside but warmth and light insode so they have been quietly getting on with it and it wont be long untill i get the scent from them

My geraniums have perked up too , ive been moving them into the sun , when we havei t , and some weeks back i gave them a light feed . It did them a lot of good ..

The seeds havnt done much except steam up the propegator , who knows what they are up to tucked up in there . But no signs of growth yet .

On the work side , im slowly dressing my cat . Many many layers will end up on the fur getting finer and finer untill it achieves real depth and looks right .

This is the other painting im working on right now  .  It started in acrylics but it progressed to oils , im feeling the urge to work on the rocks soon  as a change from the fur .

Drawing day

This morning was a housework morning as they all are and i had to strenuously resist buying things form the Tchibo website . I only need to hold out for a week then i can order :-))  
What i did do was retrieve some pots from the garden and wash them out with hot soapy water to make sure they dont harbour any germs . They are Scheurich pots and i love them . one is brown , one is bright orange and the other is a metal bucket  with a daisy wrapround picture on it . I expect they will end up on my balcony table with Geraniums and Chives in them . 
This afternoon was a drwing afternoon ,. I finally gave the Snow Leopard some life . My daughter was howling with laughter when i was talking to it . She is off school with a sprained ankle . She kept saying its not real mummy ! and i covered the leopards ears with my hand and said "dont listen ! now , where do you want your tail " she thinks im mad .

Studio scribbles ..

The whole thing but bear in mind the perspective is skewed because the desk is tipped

Im having background troubles , it will probably change a few times , and the snow leopard too  , before im through . First it was too fat , then too thin . then the ears needed to be closer and the eyes too far apart .. but im getting closer now .

special moment

I was having an evening unwind glass of alcohol and i suddenly wanted to go out onto the balcony , ive been ill for so long and my sense of fun came back suddenly . I stepped out in my bathrobe and stood in the semi dark as the fat flakes drifted down onto the snow coated boards . Some fell into my drink and i thought thats a novel way to get ice in it and suddenly everything was wonderful . My garden is so beautiful like this and even though i really want to sit out there with plants and flowers in spring im going to love every second of this . I LOVE SNOW  !  I came in when i stepped in snow too deep for my garden shoes and i got cold ankles but moments like that are what life is for , just watching the snow come down soothes me and exhilerates me all at the same time and the light is subtly different every time it snows . I have a painting on the easel part done that i hope to work more on tomorrow , if i finish it i will share :-)

About me

Hi all , this is a blog from an English mother with three kids a craving for Switzerland oh and im an artist :-)) oil , watercolour ,acrylic, pencil , pastel , anything ! even walls . I take photographs , i write . Im recovering (i hope) from severe depression and so im going to share how thats working . Im starting to love life again . This year i said hello to the Autumn , i enjoyed it for the first time in years , wooho ! we went chestnutting in the forests , and eat them at night on my new balcony , which ill finish building next year , we carved and lit a pumpkin ,. we toasted mashmallows out there .The only thing i dont have is mountains , BAH !! lol , but i can go to them maybe in two years so untill then i shall paint them instead . I also garden on my balcony . I love it , pure happiness to sit there with a coffee and just enjoy ., the best therapy . oh , no , thats chocolate :-)))

This bit is finished now  , thats the door to my studio . Welcome :-)