No surprise what the first bird of my day is. The busy boisterous wren singing its heart out just outside my bedroom window

Someone is watching me through the kitchen skylight

Sometimes as they say the devil is in the detail. I like to think that it’s the opposite of that

Looking after mother

Would that tonight could bring us dreams as soft as ermine’s fur beneath stars as bright as stitchwort flowers

To see a world In a grain of sand & heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity In the palm of your hand & eternity in an hour. William Blake

Dropped my iPhone in a Rockpool and amazingly it’s still working

It’s the time of year when hedgehogs need to be nice and fat for the coming winter. Such enchanting creatures with their fast little stockinged legs and bristling prickles. I think I must paint another hedgehog soon because I can’t imagine a better way to spend a week right now

Friday morning the sun is out, the weekend is on its way and I’ve just ordered some gold leaf for a new series of paintings that are bursting to get out of my head

New works have been added to my website today. This is one of them, Singing In The Berries. It’s 300mm square, painted on gold leaf laid on a gesso panel.

Including this beautiful blackbird

It’s Saturday & I’m having lunch with my friend Sue today, huzzah 🙌 Here’s my first pass on Prickly Sid Amongst The Crab Apples. Because it’s time this iconic creature had an icon all his own. Tomorrow it’s fine details, all those hairy bits & prickles won’t paint themselves

Prickly Sid is getting his prickles this week and the crab apples will get a bit of attention too. But for now it’s time for a cup of coffee

I am nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell! They’d banish us, you know How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog ! Emily Dickinson pub. 1891 & still relevant today

Prickly Sid got his first brush with the gold leaf, before I curled up in front of the fire with Bryn the Welsh terrier to listen to an Agatha Christy. All in all my idea of a perfect Sunday afternoon.

Nice bit of paw warming Bryn

If it wasn’t £32 and if I knew I could resist eating it in one sitting I would definitely be buying myself a chocolate toad from F&M

Prickly Sid in the Crab Apples gets a little early morning gilding. A prickly golden start to the week. Autumn equinox has happened & our valley was full of mist this morning which hasn’t quite lifted yet. Damp grass, light the stove, drink coffee & think about toads.

Nearly there with this long eared owl

The Gentle Raven & the Rose, is going to be added to my website today because his sale fell through due to someone thinking I might be a scammer. I would love it if a few of the people who have happily bought my paintings before would post photos below or comments just so I can