A weekend in the Dales...

Last weekend we went up to Yorkshire to visit friends, (one of whom is a former Loddingtonite). My God, they know how to walk! It was just stunning. We went to Bolton Abbey and walked all the way along the river and back. I think we'll be making a trip back up there very soon! Here's some piccies...as you can see I'm not a photographer, poor Robbie only just made it in the frame!!

It's that time again...

We went to Milton Keynes on Saturday and Nick bought me this amazing journal from Paperchase, (Iget veeeery excited about stationery). It's got foldy out pages with grids on so you can plot out you allotment and lots of little plastic sleeves for all your seed packets and EVERYTHING! You have to feel sorry for me really :)






...that is, to completely take over the kitchen worktops with trays of seedlings. I had a great time yesterday getting my hands dirty. I sowed :

Sweet peas
Tomatoes
Parsley
Spinach
Red Brussels sprouts
Sweetcorn
Sunflowers
Zinnias
Candytuft (dwarf fairy)

In the studio

Well, I've finished "Molly's Jolly Brolly". It all arrived at my publishers in Looodooon this morning. They're all very happy with it and so am I. It's a long wait now until publication! It's scheduled for July. I just can't wait. In the mean time I'm going to have to pull my finger out. I've nothing booked in at ALL! Yikes! I've got loads of ideas though and I'm going to take advantage of this time to do some major, and I mean MAJOR publicity. Here's some piccies of me working on one of the final spreads for 'Molly's Jolly Brolly".

Still no bites

I've still not had any bites from any publishers since sending out some mailshots a few weeks ago. I only sent out 20, but that's all the publishers I could find that suited my style! Actually, that's a terrible excuse. I really must pull my finger out.
I've been working on some editorial style images which I'm going to print off today. I'll see if I get any work from those.
I'm really happy with them actually! See what you think...for some reason the first one's cropped.

Well, below is what my allotment is going to look like and above is what it unfortunately looks like at the mo! Wish me luck. I've got a book project on at the moment which is finishing soon, then I'll have to dig like the clappers to get it ready for planting. I'm supposed to have sown my peas and sweetpeas in pots by now...oops! I'm veeery behind this year.

I decided to walk the mile or so to the next village where my allotment is. It is possibly the most boring walk in the world, until you get to Thorpe itself which is lovely.