The bees, the beeeees!!!

Well, I went up the allotment this afternoon and did a whole 3 hours which is the most I've done in a long time. I dug about three square metres, planted my RED BARON onion sets and harvested some RHUBARB, LEEKS and my one and only CAULIFLOWER. So Cod with creamy lemon sauce, leeks and cauliflower for tea!

While I was up there I made a major decision, one I thought I'd never make. I decided to only work half my allotment this year, I'll cover the other half in carpet and anything else I can find to keep the weeds down. There are a few reasons for this...

No1. My neighbour Kate has 3 beehives. Now, I love bees, I think they're great, plus I luuurve honey and was given some by Kate last summer which was delicious...BUT...I'm terrified of the little blighters. They're a particularly frisky swarm and love nothing better than chasing you around your allotment and trying to sting you. This means you don't actually get a lot of gardening done as you spend most of your time running about Benny Hill style..cue the music. So I'll work the other end, further away from the bees.

No2. I've got a really bad back and could barely get into the car after todays jaunt. (It's a bit better now...going to soak in't bath).

No3. I don't really have the time to do the whole plot, people have been telling me this for years but I'm stubborn and wanted to prove I could do the whole thing, (which I did), but I just can't this year for the above reasons :0(

So there we go...I've admitted defeat. I'd rather have a smaller beautifully kept plot than a big huge untidy one. I've still got 12metres x 14 metres so that's plenty. I'm going to work on my bedding plan this evening and will post it up when I've done it. (Bet you can't wait! Good grief I need to get a social life!)

Minnie Egg

My mother & father-in-law have a new friend, she's called Minnie and she arrived on Good Friday. It was everything I could do not to stick her in my bag on the way out! Soooooooo cute.

Ooh I say!

I've been down the shed since 7.15am this morning finishing this front cover, and yes, I did say 7.15 am! For those of you who know me you will know this is a highly irregular occurance. I am half woman, half doormouse and fall asleep at any given opportunity...zzzzzzzz...oh sorry!

Anyways, here's a rather racey little number which is being sent to lots of chic lit style publishers.

End of Term spot the difference

Hello all,

There are 9 differences between these two photos...first right with the answers wins a prize made of chocolate!

The new moi

I'm off to the hairdressers tomorrow to have my head shorn, in the style of the girl in my Paris map painting. It's the beginning of the new moi. I consider one of my greatest idols in life, someone of huge inspiration to me, to be Miss Piggy. Next week, starting monday, (again!), I will -

1. Go running everyday
2. NOT eat pies, chips, donuts or Jamaican ginger cake.
3. Not drink wine on a school night.
4. Clean the toilet more often and generally be a better housewife!
5. Have my husband's tea ready for him every, well, most nights. He knows where the oven is!


Of course I will contantly be referring to my manual "Miss Piggy's Guide to Life". Below (or above, I can never figure it out) is an example of the kind of exercise I will be doing. This is called "The Gift Lift"

Life's a witch

I was on a roll last night and the night before and stayed up til the wee hours sketching and drawing ideas to be painted up. Today I wake up with a MIGRAINE! Aaaaaaagggghhh! Here's my latest effort done a few days ago. I'm going to go and lie down now...bum.

Here's my latest piece. I have to rush back down the studio now and do some more. I've given up trying to be a digital whizz for my editorial stuff and have gone back to paints and brushes!! I'm really pleased with how the style is developing, I lurve the girl character and want her life desperately. I wanted to move to Oxford yesterday, and today I want to live in Paris.
Will post more as I do them :0)

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.

Time to get a move on...

Welcome to the Pumpkin Press! Here I'll keep a record of my extremely exciting day to day activities...but mainly my allotment.

Watch this space!