Festive Greetings

I hope everyone is enjoying the festive break and taking a well earned rest, I love the few days between Christmas and New Year for me it is a time to relax, catch up with some reading and watching a few films.
I would just like to say a big Thank you to all my visitors and for all the comments you have left this year it is much appreciated. Wishing you all a wonderful festive season and a great 2013.

Days Out.

As we are not going away this year a few days out were called for, a week was allocated and regardless of the weather we were going out. Our first visit was to the Grizedale Forest in the Lake District, the weather was mixed but we did manage to fit in a 4 mile walk without getting wet and as usual it took us twice as long because I kept stopping every few yards to take a photo!

All those amazing views and most of my photographs are close-ups of plant life.

I did manage to get the odd shot of some trees but I was a little disappointed with the results, I really do need a zoom lens for my camera.

There were so many beautiful wild flowers and some lovely grasses.

The following day we set off for Wales, we had a brief stop for coffee in Conwy then headed for Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesey.

I was feeling a little tired of taking photographs unfortunately, and my daughter kept pinching the camera because she has started her own blog, so now there will be two of us stopping to photograph!! We went into the castle which had dark passageways to explore.

The pretty town had lots of lovely bunting, and the old court house had some interesting doors with peeling paint and rusty bits.

There was a lovely flower shop I wanted to buy lots of plants but we decided it probably wasn't practical.

And some pretty houses, we liked the bright pink one!

We went for a short drive from Beaumaris to Red Wharf bay and  could not believe the change in the weather we went from bright blue skies and brilliant sunshine to grey, misty and damp in just a few miles, but it was quite atmospheric.

Will have to stop there I am blogged out, part two of days out later in the week. I hope everyone is enjoying there summer and hopefully soaking up some inspiration somewhere.

Sketchbook

I have had another good day in my studio working from the photographs of my recent holiday to Cornwall. These small sketches have been worked in watercolour and pastels.

Cornwall Part 1

I have just come back from a lovely week in Cornwall, the weather was good and the scenery as you would expect was gorgeous. I had lots of plans of places I wanted to visit, gallery visits, and things to keep us busy, but when we arrived the sun was shining and all we wanted to do was just be outside soaking up the soft sun and gentle breeze.

The first thing we decided to do was the coastal path walk from the village to the next bay, the view was lovely, sea one side and gently swaying grasses the other.

As usual I found some dead plants that I thought looked beautiful silhouetted against the soft colour of the sea.

We were staying in the small village of Charlestown on the south coast it was very quiet with the odd boat bobbing in the harbour.

The following day we visited the much busier town of Fowey, with it's narrow hilly streets, brightly coloured bunting, flowers growing in the street walls, busy harbour, and very lovely cream teas!!

I think that's enough for my first post, my one regret is that I should have taken more photographs, but maybe it's nice that some things only exist in your memory.