Christmas floods!

I have only just got my broadband back after the pre Christmas floods and terrible winds. Chagford was cut off with the roads awash and the sign to the village blown down! This picture is of the Mill End Hotel, you can see the statue which usually stands in the garden overlooking the river!

Christmas Robin

Each winter I feed this friendly Robin when I see it on my walk along the Hunters Path below Castle Drogo. I had not seen it all summer but yesterday there it was again waiting expectantly! Luckily I had one of those plastic covered biscuits you get with a cup of coffe in my pocket and it seemed very pleased with this. I shall now take a bag with some digestive biscuit crumbs each day!

Autumn Colours

I took this ten days ago on the way into Chagford, this is always a lovely view as the sunshine just catches the line of Beech trees beside the road. This Autumn it has been really good and this view has hardly changed since I took this picture.

A Visit to Cotehele

A visit to see the wonderful Christmas flower garland in the Great Hall at Cotehele. It is fantastic this year and really worth going to see and admire in its beautiful setting.

Winter Oak

Most of the autumn leaves have now blown off the trees leaving beautiful silhouettes like this oak which I photographed on my walk home the other evening.

Seals at Godrevy

A trip to Cornwall on Sunday and a visit to Godrevy where we counted over 90 Grey Seals on the beach in Mutton Cove!

A Cave on Crantock Beach

A carving of a girl and her horse who was thought to have drowned when riding on Crantock beach in Cornwall when the tide cut them off. The poem next to her reads
Mar not my face but let me be
Secure in this lone cavern by the sea
Let the wild waves around me roar
Kissing my lips for evermore

Dead Otter

On our way down to Cornwall early on Sunday we spotted this poor dead Otter lying beside the A30 on Bodmin moor, such a sad sight as it had obviously been hit by a car. It has to be taken to Cardiff as they collect all dead Otters and if there are a lot killed in the same spot an underpass is made so they can get from one side of a busy road to the other.

Dartmoor Sunset

We took my collection of seventeen Three Hares prints over to hang in Parke yesterday as I have been kindly asked to have an exhibition of them there over Christmas which I hope will bring a bit more notice to the trail and Chagford. On the way home we drove over the moors towards Widecombe and stopped to watch this beautiful sunset before going to the Old Inn to warm up!

Stourhead

Sunday the 10th of November, a perfect day to visit Stourhead. The autumn colours were glorious against the deep blue sky reflected in the lake.

Wild Seas at Bantham

We took Monday off and headed for the coast, a good decision as it was a glorious day with really wild seas. We watched a seal having fun in the huge waves really close in to the shore and a surfer! There were lots of large hairy Fox moth caterpillars along the coast path and we had to moove several to safety to prevent them being trodden on! There were also lots of Red Admiral and Tortoiseshell butterflies making the most of the warm sunshine and a dry day, I am glad we did too!

Fallow Deer

I took this picture of a beautiful female Fallow deer near Castle Drogo, I love to see these deer but sadly the National Trust is culling a lot of them so I don't see them so often now. I know there are too many deer in some places but here there are miles of woods for them to roam in and I think it is sad they are being killed. The places I used to see them rut on and gather are growing over and will soon need "managing" to keep the vegitation down! And actually it is all about money as they are selling the meat in Castle Drogo. I think they would make more money if they encouraged people to come and watch the deer instead.

Meeth Quarry Nature Reserve

On Sunday we went to explore the recently opened Meeth Quarry nature reserve, the Devon Wildlife Trusts newest reserve and full of promise of wonderful wildflowers and butterflies which I am looking forward to seeing next spring. I love this Dragonfly bench, very clever!

The Royal Pavilion Brighton

Last Sunday we explored the amazing Royal Pavilion in Brighton, a place I had often seen but never been in.
The interior is incredible especially the huge chandelier being held by a silver dragon. Having just seen the dragons painted by Roger Dean the night before I could not help wondering if he had perhaps been influenced by seeing the ones in the pavilion when he was young! It was such a beautiful hot day I really wished I had my swimming things with me & I would have been able to have a long swim after seeing all those fiery dragons!

Roger Dean Exhibition

We have just been to see a Roger Dean exhibition near Fletching in East Sussex. It was wonderful to see so many of his original paintings including his "Badger" painting which is one of Barry's favourites. The original was £29,000 a bit out of my range! So I opted for a print which Roger signed for us & here is a picture of him with Barry and the Badgers.

Verity

On Sunday we went to Ilfracombe and saw the huge bronze statue of Verity by Damien Hurst which dominates the waterside, it is quite amazing and much larger that I had expected, she stands hich on large bronze books of law. A lot of the locals don't like it but it is a great tourist attraction and statement. Damien has a gallery oposite the harbour and you can see a selection of his prints and other items for sale there.

Mevagissey Harbour

On Tuesday we headed down to Cornwall to make the most of the warm weather and I had two lovely long swims before it clouded over. We then went to Mevagissey for coffee & cake to get warmed up! It would have looked stunning if the sun had been shining but the colours of the boats and houses looked very paintable! Must go back ..........

Barry at Wistmans Wood

A recent visit to Wistmans Wood on Dartmoor. This ancient wood of stunted and twisted lichen and moss covered Oak trees many of which are reputed to be 400 years old, stands beside the beautiful West Dart river. Close to this are the remains of one of the largest Bronze age settlements on Dartmmor, so a captivating place to visit.

A walk on Dartmoor

We had a lovely day out on Dartmoor recently making the most of this dry weather. In the morning we went to Wistmans Wood the after a superb meal sitting out in the pretty beer garden of the Elephant's Nest at Horndon we drove to the car park at Lanehead near there and walked up onto the moor past Nattor Down to see Hare Tor and then discovered this fabulous view sitting perched above Tavy Cleave, I am sure this is one of the most stunning views on the moor even if the camera does do do it justice.

Brimstone Butterfly

Suddenly there are loads of butterflies in the garden, Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells, Red Admiral's, Commas, Fritillaries and several beautiful Brimstones enjoying the runner bean flowers.
Good news about the Sparrow Hawk, he was well enough to be released back to near where we found him and the next evening I saw two Sparrow Hawks flying together, so I hope this is "Harry" reunited with his mate!

Harry the Sparrow Hawk

A few days ago as we were driving home we spotted this poor male Sparrow Hawk lying upside down in the road with a dead dove, we saw it was still alive so stopped and picked it up, it was soaking wet and too injured to leave, its dinner the dove was quite dead and we think they must have been hit by a car. Luckily there was a vet on duty and he looked it over for us and kept it there for the night and as it seems to have nothing broken he rang a wonderful couple Celia and Nigel who care for injured birds and they now have "Harry" as he has been called in their sanctuary where we visited him and I took this photo. You can see one wing is hanging down a little but hopefully he will soon be well enough to be released.

Green Woman

I am really struggling to paint in this heat, I am working on a commission of a Green Woman and am painting summer wildflowers around her. Wild Roses, Honeysuckle and Bindweed which as fast as I pick them and bring them into my studio start to drop their petals!

Wildflowers in Cornwall

I took this picture recently of the wonderful wildflower meadows down in West Pentire, Cornwall.

Me amongst the poppies

On our way up to Surrey last weekend we passed some glorious fields of poppies and rape in Wiltshire and just had to stop and explore some.....it reminded me a little of Provence!

Munching Hare!

We saw lots of Hares on our recent holiday, here I cought this one mid munch!

Fallow Deer

Another photo taken on our trip away, this lovely young male Fallow

Deer got quite a surprise when it came down the track and saw me!

Barn Owl

Just returned from a lovely Wildlife Watching holiday in Suffolk. I was really pleased to see the Barn Owls still in their usual place and took this picture of one in the tree near where I was standing.

Bluebells & Castle Drogo

The bluebells are out at long last! A wonderful display in the Whiddon Park where I had a walk after work yesterday and took this picture looking across the Teign gorge to Castle Drogo.

Cowslips at Porth Joke

We took a day off to go and see the Cowslips at West Pentire which are amazing, they cover the cliff top fields for miles and are mixed in with bluebells, squills and sea pinks. Very few butterflies though which is worrying as I was expecting to see some Orange Tip's.

Bluebell woods Compton

Popped up to Surrey for the day to see the gallery I am having an exhibition in for the whole of June, KD Fine Art which is next to the famous Watts gallery in Compton near Guildford. The bluebell woods were lovely and we had a great walk to Guildford.

Devon Primroses

This spring has been wonderful for Primroses and wildflowers, but still so few butterflies and I have only seen one Orange Tip which is worrying. In Devon we have a lovely mixture of pink and yellow coloured Primroses which grow wild in the hedge banks and undisturbed fields, this picture was taken just above our garden.

Spring Flowers

At long last a decent day.....a pity I had to be in the gallery. However I did see a bit of the sun on my way home and took these pictures of the wild daffodils, primroses and surprisingly still snowdrops as it has been so cold

Wistmans Wood

This is a recent watercolour of mine of Wistmans Wood a remote and magic place in the valley of the West Dart river near Two Bridges on Dartmoor. It is a rare relic of ancient woodland, stunted and distorted oak trees growing out from moss covered boulders with many ferns and lichens making it an underworld of greens. The name is probably derived from Wisht-man's wood pixie-led or haunted, and it was thought to be a place used by Druids and has many tales of ghosts and the devil attached to it. It feels far too peaceful for these tales to me and seems more a place of quiet meditation.

Dormouse

I had a couple in my gallery recently who mentioned that they had found a dormouse nest on a flower pot in their garden and as they were planting out the flower it contained they removed the nest not knowing what it was only to discover a tiny sleeping Dormouse inside, I do hope it survived this disturbance. This reminded me of an old nest I once found in the woods at Corhill, Sidmouth which amazingly I still have amongst my collection of discarded snake skins, old birds nests, snail shells etc picked up on my walks. So I used this to do this little watercolour of a hibernating Dormouse in its nest which for real would be totally enclosed for warmth. It is amazing how something so small can survive through all the cold and damp winter weather.

Spring in Chagford

We had a few days of lovely warm spring weather last week and all the crocus in front of St Michaels church in Chagford opened out and looked glorious. But today it has returned to winter, freezing cold and snow!