July

Another time warp - July almost over. I know they say that as you get older - time goes more quickly but this is ridiculous! In my defense I have been pre-occupied with a project in July but that is really no excuse. We went to Hastings and walked through beautiful Hastings Country Park to Fairlight Glen where all the little grottos and waterfalls were Victorian attractions. On the way home we made it up Firle Beacon - Finn loved it!

Apart from that I have been walking and photographing as usual, picking raspberries, picnicking in the heather up at Bignor Park, tending my garden.

Picking samphire, swimming in the sea, walking around pagham harbour, watching the starlings and generally making the most of summer.

Missing

I can't believe I've missed over a whole month on here and I really don't know what I've been doing! We've just come back from South Devon and it was Finn's second holiday. He was a good boy and we spent the days walking along the beautiful River Dart, sketching and just sitting taking in the wonderful British countryside at my favourite time of year. 

Finn's first trip

We've been away to the West Country - walking the coastal paths - which is my favourite thing to do. This time we've had Finn with us - his first holiday (that we know of). I was unsure how he would behave as he's a very impetuous dog and can be hard to handle at times. I needn't have worried - he was a good boy. He became bored easily while Gra was searching for fossils and I was drawing but only disgraced himself once when he did a runner from our hotel room and was eventually stopped by a German guest with a very large suitcase! I think we wore him out in the end.

fossil forest

We finally visited the fossil forest at Lulworth Cove in Dorset, something we've wanted to do for ages. It was not a disappointment and I found it amazing to be somewhere that is 145 million years old. I'm surprised you are allowed to visit with the current ridiculous health and safety laws in this country - there are steep concrete steps to get down and then a narrow strip of cliff where the stumps of the fossilised tree ferns remain. We were the only ones visiting which was nice. If you do go, check when it is open as you walk across the army firing range - so that needs to be closed!

Away

I've been away from my computer for a week - a good break, although the weather change was a bit of a shock. Definitely picked the wrong week there!

A lovely new restaurant found and a content Jack Russell - a holiday isn't the same without him.

Some stormy walks, a trip to Dorset, an inspiring painter and wilderness.

Red

These always make me smile when I see them and remind me of wonderful family holidays in Portugal.

more freedom and another white horse

It seems impossible to get away on holiday at the moment so we are having a few mini breaks. This time to the Cuckmere Valley, which is stunning and we were lucky with the weather again. The White Horse was cut in 1836 and yes .. we did climb up that hill!

Absent

I've been absent without leave for a week in one of my favourite places.

Detour

Driving through France one year, we decided to travel overnight and reach our destination as early as possible. At 5am our car started to lose power and barely made it up a steep hill, at the top the engine died completely so we had to decide whether to freewheel down the hill in our continued direction or to turn right. We turned right off the main road and travelled down a twisting road, having no idea what was at the bottom. Half way along this road we came across a garage, so we pulled in - it was obviously closed at that time in the morning so we walked down the hill to see what was around - a sleepy little town.

Returning to our car at 6.30am we found the garage owner had arrived and he said he would look at our car straight away and suggested we should go and have breakfast in the town. We found a cafe and although they had not had their bread delivered they went across to the bakery and bought us croissants to have with our coffee. I couldn't believe the service, how everyone was going out of their way to help us.

After breakfast we walked back to the garage and our car had been fixed - it was dirt in the petrol, they charged us the equivalent to £10 for this - unbelievable. We continued on our way arriving at our destination only a few hours late despite our DETOUR. The people we were staying with were so glad to see us arrive safely that they poured us a neat pastis each, it was so strong that I could barely feel my legs when I stood up to go to our room!

This is posted in response to the weekword over at Artsyville, home of the very talented Aimee, go have a look.

Winter Wonderland

We've been away for New Year with friends, staying in a lovely old farmhouse at the foot of the Quantock hills in Somerset. It was beautiful, cold and frosty. Out walking for 4 hours a day I thought we would tire My Jack Russell but he has become even fitter and more demanding!

Tiny snowman made by Laura.

Vacant

A while ago we visited the Gironde area of France and I drew this house that was for sale and vacant at the time. I'd like to have put in an offer!

Copyright 2008 Nicky Linzey for Illustration Friday

Another map!

I drew this a while ago and it was my inspiration for Illustration Friday's subject of Island last week. We had a wonderful family holiday here last month and it's a place that is really close to my heart. I've started drawing these maps now when we go away - I enjoy doing them and they remind me of good times. Maybe I need to get out more!!

© 2008 nicky linzey

Memories

I have wonderful memories of travelling in France.
© 2008 Nicky Linzey for Illustration Friday

Cornwall collage

Pictures from Cornwall - soooo blue!

Too much fun

We've just spent a week in Cornwall and had a great time - hot sun, blue skies, sparkling sea, too many magners, coastal paths, exhausted jack russell, frozen gooseberry yoghurt, mooching in mooch, kazi bread, fresh mackerel, wild flowers, butterflies, walking, photographing, drawing, carrot cake, danish pastries, fish pie, a good book, chilled rosé - I want to go back!

Happy New Year

I had high hopes of this holiday, staying with friends over New Year in this beautiful cottage set high in the Brecon Beacons, I was anticipating a week of walking, eating, drinking, laughing and catching up on reading, writing and drawing. That is until the first day when I went down with an horrendous fluey cold which I could not shake off. They all still carried on regardless and on Monday attempted to conquer Fan-y-Big, the huge mountain behind the cottage. They came back full of it, how high, beautiful, scary, it was. Apparently a mist had come down and they had to retrace their steps in order not to get lost but they'd reached the top! On New Years Eve I was determined to stay up until midnight but was flagging until the lovely Isabella came up with the great idea of celebrating in Dutch time - an hour earlier - so I was able to toast in the New Year with a glass of water and still be back in bed by 11.30pm! On New Years day I decided I would not be left again and joined the others on a Waterfall walk which they had assured me was flat - ok until I found myself struggling up a precarious rock face with a dramatic drop hundreds of feet below me to pounding cold water. I had a hacking cough and could not breathe and wondered what on earth I was doing. They had forgotten about that bit! I think that finally did it for me - I needed to go home to my own bed and so left early on Wednesday just after the others returned exhausted from a second walk up Fan-y-Big, with the grave news that it had not been conquered the other day, apparently they had only just scratched the surface!

Nothing changes

I spent some of the weekend clearing out our junk room/music room to make more space for Gray's expanding collection of guitars, guitar stands, musical hardware, software, microphones with stands, recording machines etc. It had got to the point where he could hardly get in the room, so I thought I would go through some of my stuff. I find this very difficult - I can spend a whole day going through things, looking at old books, reminiscing about my childhood, unpacking material and old clothes I've kept and then packing everything back up again! I was shocked when I came across this notebook I hadn't seen for many years. I must have been about 8 years old and I'd bought it to record my first ever family holiday abroad, to France. What surprised me was - nothing changes does it? I'm still doing the same thing all these years later!

A time in France remembered

Nearly two weeks since my show at Stansted and I've caught up with all my outstanding work, neglected house, garden and allotment. I had a wonderful time, the weather was gloriously hot, the venue dreamy and the atmosphere in our marquee was great, I met a lot of extremely talented and interesting people and . . . I sold a lot of my work - nearly all my jewellery, quite a few framed prints and cards and most of my bowls.

The most popular prints were based on two photographs I took in France when visiting the unusual garden show at Chaumont. I say unusual as the theme that year was erotica; there was a rubber garden; lots of very tactile gardens; a garden which featured a huge pair of bosoms - they had a ladder at the back which you could climb and have your photograh taken between them (it goes without saying - a lot of men were doing this) and the funniest of all - a garden shed with a spy hole drilled in - when you looked through the hole you could see garden gnomes in compromising positions. Only the French could manage to put on a show like this with such style.

© Nicky Linzey 2002

Strangely enough the show at Stansted and the one at Chaumont had exactly the same atmosphere, probably because of the blisteringly hot weather and the imposing buildings in dreamy gardens and this transported me back to the most wonderful holiday in France. It was very nearly a disaster as we had not pre-booked any hotels and after spending the first two nights on the Ile de Ré in a lovely hotel that had had a last minute cancellation, we drove around the Charente unable to book in anywhere. A lot of the hotels we tried were full so we ended up three nights in a row in some particularly awful ones. Gray suddenly had a brainwave - to ring the Cheval Blanc in Bléré where we had stayed several years ago - I phoned and reserved their last free room. What a relief! The drive there took us about 2 hours during which time the weather got hotter and sunnier. We booked in and found that the Chaumont Garden Festival was on - something I had wanted to visit but had always missed and the hotel had a new swimming pool installed. We headed straight to the pool and shared it with diving swallows dipping into the glistening water. It was magical as was our visit to Chaumont - also a reminder that often the best times are not planned.

Our holiday with cousin Gif

Cousin Gif with my Jack Russell on holiday

We've just been on holiday with cousin Gif, my sister and my nephew and had a wonderful week at Beesands in a cottage by the sea. A week of crabbing, fishing, skim boarding, walking the cliffs and inland hills in this most beautiful wild area. Fresh fish for dinner every night and falling asleep to the sound of waves lapping on the beach. We managed to exhaust the dogs and the kids had the kind of freedom they are not used to - exploring and mucking about on the beach from morning to night with new found friends.

We walked to the next village - Hallsands which in 1917 was destroyed by the sea - read about it here. Today you can see the ruins from a viewing platform which overhangs the sea precariously and some of the old cottages are still inhabited even though their doors are almost on the cliff edge.

Just before we went away we saw boys catching mackerel from the beach in Bognor and decided that we would have a go. (We do the gathering now we should try the hunting - or fishing!). We bought a rod that the boys could use too and Gray spent much of the week fishing. Despite the fact that everyone around him were catching loads of fish he didn't actually catch anything except a cold! There was even a woman fishing just to humour her husband who landed a monkfish from the beach. Gray was kind of worried about the actual task of killing the fish and the boys spent ages carving him a wooden cosh with their penknives. I did wonder if the worry of killing it actually stopped him from catching any but if we are going to eat meat or fish I think we need to be prepared to kill it too, although this may be easier said than done - we've yet to find out.