Evening walk

How lucky am I to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

starlings

This is the first illustration I've done for a while and was inspired by these photos. We've had a lot of starlings in the garden recently, you either love them or hate them. I love them and they make me laugh, chattering away. They keep flying into our windows though, but as far as I'm aware none of them has been hurt.© 2013 nicky linzey

Update

I've been very absent from here recently, helping my lovely mum celebrate her 80th birthday! As you can see from the recent pic in the middle she doesn't look anything like 80 years old - she is amazing. 
I won't say any more or she'll kill me. I made the cake - which was fun but I'm not a good cake maker and it was very dry! There were a series of parties because 2 of my friends had 'significant' birthdays that week too (frankly I'm exhausted). 

So I spent this weekend relaxing. I hadn't been to the Bishops Palace Gardens for ages so it was lovely to wander round, also did some early morning walks to see the English countryside at it's best.

Street art

Went out last night to view the street art in Chichester. Some of it was still in progress. It was great to see it, as the city is normally such a conservative place. Apparently it will stay until someone complains ... I wonder how long that will be ...?

Old age?

I've been worried about My Jack Russell aging for a while now, he's definitely slowing down. Bill's 14 (98 in human years) but yesterday I wondered why I worry so much. At 4am he wanted to go out and he chased a fox into a neighbouring garden. I could hear him tearing around but I couldn't get him. He eventually came back through a hole in the hedge. Then he was up again at 7am for a walk, at 11am he visited his friend Alfie to run up and down his garden - guarding against any intruders. Another walk at 3pm and a game at 6pm. All this interspersed with several light meals throughout the day. No wonder this is him today, I wish it was me!

Another adventure

Another adventure with Gra, who planned a walk in a neighbouring county and again forgot the map! So we parked up and set off in the direction we thought best, only to find ourselves high up on a bleak part of the downs just as the heavens opened. We got drenched. I was not in the best of moods but I don't like to give up on a walk once we've started and I'm glad I didn't as soon the sun came out and we quickly dried off. 
Coming down the hill we spotted a beautiful little church in the middle of fields so had to go and investigate. It was the 12th Century St. Hubert's Chapel at Idsworth and inside were 14th Century wall paintings. I'm so glad I didn't miss this as it hadn't been on our original route.
Walking back we got caught in the rain again but warmed up by a roaring fire with a pint and packet of crisps in The Red Lion at Chalton. 

Patterns and textures

One of my favourite things to do - searching for patterns and textures around the marina, there's always something new to see.