Photo's on my Phone 7th August 2024 to 22nd of August

 The sun still shone (for a while).

 

We went on a family trip to Landacre. All the grown ups laid on the river bank and enjoyed the sun, except for Mummy who played in the river with the boys.

I didn't take any photo's, the ones above are of another family trip back in 2015, with our grown children (before the small boy's existed) and our beloved previous GSD Loki, I miss them all so much....

Anyway I did a very bad sketch, which I had to colour in when I came home as I didn't want it to ruin my sketch book. The only bit that remotely looks like the Landacre are the bridge arches.

The next day the sun went away and the rain arrived.

So we took the boys to soft play, which is the best rainy day invention. This was our view for 2 hours, the boys came back once or twice to demand drinks & food, we enjoyed every minute of it.

I finished my second colouring. It's an A4+ print, hand coloured with water colour pen. I've included the pen so you can see the size and depth of detail.

Last Thursday we received an official looking e-mail from our landlords solicitor, we've worried about eviction for a long time, the e-mail didn't say we were being evicted, but it made us fear what was coming next. We took the dogs up to Countisbury to try and blow some of the worries away. The colours were amazing in the early evening sun. We met a herd of Exmoor ponies and stood still with the dogs while the ponies passed us on both side. The dogs were amazing just stood still with us and watched, both Siri and Ron had a slight wobble, but didn't bark so the ponies ignored them. We were both so proud of our dog boy's, seems like all our constant training is paying off.

On Monday both us and Dais were served a section 21 no fault eviction notice. We both have 2 months to find a new home, before our landlord starts court proceedings.

At the point in time when this photo was taken both Maggie and Siri had no idea that Queenie and Grandpa were scared and angry and trying to hide their tears. I wish I could say they were still oblivious to what was happening. Mummy is doing her best to protect the boys, but it's too big a thing to hide, they know they are going to move house and maybe have to leave their friends & family. Siri is worried and stuck to my side like glue, he's scared and doesn't understand what's going on, so I'm making sure he spends lots of time with his girlfriend & her mum.

There's a housing crisis, too many houses have been sold as second homes & airbnb's, there is no where for the locals to live. 

To make a single mum with 2 small children and a slightly broken old couple close to retirement age homeless is devastating, it means our family has been broken in two and face an uncertain future.

I have no doubt our flat will be sold as a second home or airbnb and will remain empty for months of the year. 

This is the 4th time we have lost our home, the first was our house when Phil was made redundant, the sale of the house went through the day before the bailiffs turned up. 

The second was because our landlord didn't want to repair the chimney so evicted us and sold the flat so it was someone else's problem. 

The third was a bolt hole the second time Phil was made redundant. We have very kind friends who helped us out when we needed it, we knew it was only temporary and would be sold, but it still hurt when the estate agent came round to value it.

Life has kicked us so many times, I fear that if we have to leave our friends, family & village behind there won't be much left to kick.

The one thing I am adamant about is I will not give up my dogs, I would rather live in a tent and you never know it might just come to that.

We have applied to the council for help, but have been told we are in a long queue due to landlords panic selling. Labour have promised a new law making section 21 notices a thing of the past, but until it is passed there will be a lot more in the same situation as us.

On the day the notice arrived we took the boys to Dunster.

Dunster beach was grey and gloomy, but we made the most of it Grandpa climbed rocks with the boy's while I threw (and lost) balls for the dogs. Then we ate ice cream in a gale on the top of the hill overlooking Porlock.

In an effort to avoid looking at the packing boxes surrounding me and to try and take my mind off it I've coloured a second Summer print. Its also coloured in watercolour pens, so strictly no tears or the rainbows will end up running all over the page.

The photo is of it almost finished, I've finished it now and moved onto the next.

Rainbows are full of hope & positivity , if I colour enough of them maybe the positivity will rub off on us and we won't have to spend Christmas Day living in a tent.

We are off to stay with our son & his husband next week, so we can visit family and have a couple of days with them. We both desperately need this break, maybe it will help us come to terms with what's going on and help us move on to better things.

Photo's on my Phone 28th July to 6th August 2024

Seems like ages since my last post, but it was only a week ago.

The sun has finally come out so the day's have been warm and fuzzy.

Ron didn't want to play ball anymore so he refused to move and forced his master to carry him. It was early evening and even though the temperature had gone down he still exhausted himself. This was after 5 mins of play, trouble is he runs a million miles an hour so gets tired really quickly. So no more ball play for Ron until it gets a lot cooler.

We went to lots of beaches. 

This is Woolacombe, in between swimming and playing football the boys pretended to be really cool, all Queenie and Grandpa wanted to do was lay in the sun and read their books, but alas caring for two small boys makes it impossible.

In between swimming and shouting at small boys to try and stop them kicking balls at people I did a sketch, which I'm not terribly happy. The tents were supposed to look like jelly fish and the jelly fish tentacles to look like the sea. I shouldn't have added the parasols, but I quite like the people, I added the spots to make it better, but instead I've made it worse. Sometimes things aren't meant to be.

The dogs re-enacted a photo taken about 9 years ago, only Tinks remains of the original 3. Siri has replaced Loki and Ron has replaced Billy, which is ironic because Ron hates cat's. I wish I still had a Billy, he was the best cat ever, but sadly we will have to wait until Ron has gone, fingers crossed it's a very long time. I will wait for another Billy in the same way I will wait for another Land Rover.

Our next beach trip was to Blacklands which is our local beach at the bottom of the hill,  it's a huge contrast  to Woolacombe. We did more swimming and I attempted to do more reading, I might of managed a page or two. I hate photo's of me, but this one is ok, its me & my small boys at home in my happy place.

Yesterday's beach was Crow point, no swimming as the tide was out, but plenty of sand, most of it is in still in my hair and sketch book! A little bit more relaxing as the boy's played on the big sand dune, which is on its own and means they can't disappear into the Burrows like rabbits never to be found again.

My Crow Point sketch is just a pencil sketch, I will work over it in fine line pen.

I've finished my first colouring of the ghost of Hollerday House, it's interesting to see how the colour changes the image. I love it and have already started on the next coloured print, the coloured Hollerday House will be available to buy as soon as I've worked out how much to charge. If you are interested please let me know.

I'm still working on the digital version of Summer, I can't wait to start colouring, but it will probably be digital colouring as the A1 print will be far too big.

Photo's on my Phone 11th July to 27th July 2024

I don't have many photo's as we've been stuck at home due to all 3 dogs catching kennel cough from one of their dog friend's. 
The boys sailed through, but poor Tinks sounded like she had been smoking 40 a day for a couple of days, they are all better now.

While we were stuck at home the big boy's watched a football match.

While Mummy and Maggie pulled stupid faces.

We left the dogs at home for the Lynmouth Regatta, luckily the torrential rain that was forecast didn't happen, so much beer and laughter was enjoyed. 

The highlight of the regatta is always the seagull race, which involves running across the foot bridge with an outboard motor, attaching it to your dinghy, starting it, racing around the first post past the harbour wall while trying to keep the motor running.

Many fail at starting the motor bit, much to the amusement of the crowd who shout encouragement from the footbridge.

Our first trip out with the dog's when they had all recovered was to Braunton Burrow's, we all love the Burrows which is a vast area of giant sand dunes. 

This trip was very eventful, Ron disappeared chasing rabbits and didn't come back, Phil had to search for him while I put the other 2 on their leads (as we didn't want to lose them too) and looked in the opposite direction. Eventually Ron was captured and put on his lead, as we walked back to the car Tinks disappeared into a hedge and came back covered in fox poo, it was dripping off her collar, all over her head and back.

I dunked her in a very shallow muddy puddle to get the worst off, then Phil rubbed her down with handfuls of grass, we travelled home with all the car windows open!

And after 2+ weeks of quarantine Siri was finally reunited with his girlfriend (and hogged all the balls).

Ilfracombe & woolcombe wip's & next.

 

Ilfracombe is nearly finished, I've just got to finish the water and my problem area, still haven't got round to poping over to take a couple of photos, but we have had car issues.

I'd almost given up with Woolacombe.

I was going to leave it unfinished and just about to take it off the board, but I've had a flash of inspiration, if I frame it slightly wonky it will resolve the straightness issues. I probably don't make much sense, but if you look at the photo's you can see what I mean.

Wonky

Slightly less wonky

 This looks more wonky, but it's only because I've twisted it in photoshop rather than real life.

My next drawing on the board will be Holdstone Down, one of our favourite dog walks. I want to draw it as an A2, but I've got a A3 frame waiting to be filled. Phil said to do what I wanted so A2 it is, eventually I'll draw an A3 to fit the frame.

I was going to take out the dogs and Maggie in the distance, but maybe I'll leave them in...

Google has just told me that Holdstone Down is considered as one of 19 holy mountains by the Aetherius Society, which I'd never heard of. It seems to be a religion based on new age and UFO beliefs. Its given me an exciting new set of  possibilities for my drawing, maybe I could sneak a ufo somewhere into the grass.

Photo's on my Phone 26th of May - 15th June 2024

 I don't seem to have many photo's on my phone, maybe because we haven't been anywhere for a few weeks.

Siri has spent a lot of time with his girlfriend over the past few weeks, but she's away on holiday at the moment, so he's really sad. She'll be back next week, so hopefully he'll cheer up again.

I walked Tinks & Siri to the top of Hollerday Hill in the sunshine.

We had a barbecue with our neighbours, we are really blessed to be surrounded by such a lovely group of people.

We went to the allotment, which still isn't growing, after being too wet for too long, its now too dry, however the last 2 days its gone back to being really wet again and a small animal has eaten all my strawberries!

The super cars came back to Lynton last weekend to take part in the Lyn Valley Classic, if you like cars it's an amazing event in a stunning location. These were all in Lynton, but Lynmouth was full of them too.

P.S the Lamborghini is my new replacement for the Land Rover!

And finally after living together for 6 years Tinks let Ron lie next to her on the sofa. 

This is the only photo that he looks relaxed, all the others you can see the fear in his eyes, but he put himself there which was very brave of him.

Yesterday I wrote a blog post and drew a picture of my hangover on my new very interesting green paper. The colour is called Verona Green and as colour has always been my thing I googled it. Verona Green has a really interesting history, if you want to know more you can read about it here https://www.naturalpigments.com/artist-materials/green-earth-pigments

This is Woolacombe as it looks today, I haven't got much to do. I'm not happy with the fact it seems to be bending away on the right side, I'm not sure how to get it back to the right position. If it was a digital drawing I would have cut and pasted it in the right place by now.

Ilfracombe is also close to being finished. I still don't have photos of the bottom left side corner, but think I might manage to narrow it down to one missing building, fingers crossed google can find it for me as I don't trust the Land Rover to get me to Ilfracombe and back. There aren't any petrol stations in between here and there and I don't want to be stranded in the middle of a field with a leaky car.