Weekend

I've been busy with work last week and entertaining all weekend, so have had no time for Illustration Friday or weekword. I'm missing them. On the upside I've cooked, eaten and drunk myself silly and had a great time with friends. What did you do this weekend?

Flying

If I could fly anywhere today, it would be to Barcelona where I could be inspired by Gaudi, gorge myself on tapas and sip a few gasses of cold manzanilla! Oooh I'm almost there! Where would you jet off to?

© 2009 nicky linzey for Illustration Friday

Carpe Diem

The weekword is Carpe Diem and I must be naive but I didn't know what this meant. So after looking it up I just knew it was a good opportunity to post another picture of My Jack Russell. Sorry... you just have to indulge me! I wish I could live like he does - totally in the moment, because when I do manage it, life is absolutely wonderful.
Chosen this week by Line, go over to her blog, she has a real sense of natural beauty - her photos are stunning and you can link to all the other participants.

Harvest

We harvested the butternut squash from the allotment this weekend. Much better than last year, we harvested 30 HUGE squash. They will keep us in soup supplies all Winter.

Summer's end

The last of my sweet peas for this Summer. This is the first year I've successfully grown them from seed.

perfect day

Thanks to everyone for all your birthday wishes. I did have a wonderful time and the weather turned out to be the perfect English summer's day. Gra and I went to Charleston Farmhouse, the home of artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. It is a magical place - I think they must have painted every available wall and furniture surface! We then had an evening of celebrations with my family in my brother's beautiful garden.

Don't forget to go over to Caroline's fascinating blog to get the new weekword.

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.

Summer walk

Went on a lovely walk yesterday, then when we got home I made a 'Graham Greene ' cocktail - gin, martini and cassis with crushed ice, lovely but extremely intoxicating. I recently came across this quote from him in 'Ways of Escape'.

'Sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear, that is inherent in the human situation'

I can identify with this, mind you the cocktail helps as much as the creativity!

Stop and Stare 9

I love this time of year, it is my favourite and I don't want it to end. The woods are just alive with plants, flowers, shoots, colour. I had to stop and stare at all this beauty; buttercups, bluebells and wild garlic, in fact this should be called stop, stare and smell.

Leafy Green

Phewww! What a couple of weeks. My computer expired suddenly in the middle of a design job with an imminent deadline. So I was completely thrown off course and it affected me more than I would have liked it too. In fact the loss of my computer felt like the loss of part of me and that's the bit I didn't like - that I have become so reliant on a machine - then haven't we all. Now I have a brand new computer and everything is back to normal and I feel so much better after a lovely weekend wandering through the leafy green of the woods in Spring (which is what I'd like to be doing every day).

For Yoon See

I've had a request to create a montage of splashing rain water drops. It hasn't rained here for a while so I took some shots of fast flowing water instead - with a few splashes - hope you like it Yoon See. Thanks for suggesting this, I had a great time doing it and when it rains I'll have another go.

Secret spies

Had a lot of fun with keri smith's seasonal secret spy disguise over Christmas and then Gray and I decorated them for new year!

My mum & my sister on Christmas Day

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2009 to everyone, especially Gray and my family who give me loads of support and encouragement in everything I do.

© 2008 nicky linzey

Winter sun

Beautiful sunshine on a late afternoon walk to the harbour.

Went to Brighton last night to see Randy Crawford, she has the most beautiful voice I think I've ever heard (apart from JoJo that is!). We took my Mum and Dad, as we first listened to Randy while on holiday with them in the South of France many years ago - the evening brought back lovely memories. This second blog of the day is for my Dad as he was complaining that I hadn't done one for December yet and I've missed Illustration Friday this week too!!

Midsummer madness

It was a lovely day yesterday so we made a rash decision to shut down our computers and head to the beach with a picnic. It always seems more enjoyable doing something like this when you really should be working! I won't tell if you don't.

Healthy chocolate

I decided to have a healthy salad last night - cut fresh from the garden - it tasted great - I was very pleased with myself. And then I remembered something . . .

...

. . . needless to say, it didn't last long!

My lovely shoes

This is very trivial I know but I've just bought some shoes that I love and that doesn't happen very often. What I love about them is - they're unusual, pretty, comfy and they make me feel good! Made in Spain by The Art Company each one is hand finished - the insides have a flowery design too - so does the tissue paper they're wrapped in. It's great to see individual design creeping back into the high street after years of blandness.