The Cotswolds are looking particularly beautiful at present - the landscape seems ever so slightly blurred at the edges, as if seen through a misted glass. We are also enjoying a spot of 'Indian Summer', so collecting eggs is even more enjoyable than usual.
Marjorie and I don't often venture out of this side of the village as it leads up a very long and steep hill, which we find ourselves obliged to puff and push up. However, there is an excellent source of eggs nearby, from the Barrington Farm Estate. If you are driving to or from Burford along the A429, you are literally seconds away from it and I do recommend trying them out. (They sell double yolkers too).
The metal 'egg box' is a little austere, but it's more jolly inside. Self service here and an honesty tin.
We always buy the seconds. They are an absolute bargain; two dozen lovely free range organic eggs for £3.20 - who minds if they are a bit wonky and mismatched? (Feathers are free).
Returning home is easier. Downhill all the way and glorious views of our patch.
Then an industrious afternoon trying some new lino blocks.
Rather familiar looking little landscapes - no prizes for guessing where I get my inspiration from.
I'm still very much at the 'remembering how you do this thing' stage and there were many rejects. But I did get a handful of saleable ones - House on the Hill and Autumn Fields. Each is under a fiver - and you can't get two pints of beer for that nowadays. Not down here, anyway. 
I also pulled more hare prints but the block is becoming a bit over used, so out of many printed, I only have two more to offer - and huge thanks to everyone who bought the last batch - you cleaned me out in three days! (EDIT - Hare prints now sold out - thank you!)
Happymess/happiness.
It's that time of year when I deliver my contribution to the yearly Teddy Bears of Witney catalogue.
Only one edition this year, and a bit different to my usual style. I thought it would be nice to have a basic kitten design and call them after sweets, depending on what colours they were.
So this is 'Sherbert Lemon', always my favourite sweet. The design seemed faintly familiar and at first I was worried that I'd inadvertently plagarised the ubiquitous 'Hello Kitty'. (Which of course, I would never do, having quite strict morals about that kind of thing).
Then I traced it back to a toy painting I did back in 2006, 'Koko With Checks' thinking at the time what fun it would be to actually make this in real life. 
A little later I used the basic shape again for a Christmas card, 'Angel Cat'.
And then I dug deeper, linking all this to some little Japanese dolls which I picked up for pennies when I was about 16-17. I'm so used to them that I'd almost forgotten about them, but they've obviously lurked in my creative subconscious.
I didn't know until a few days ago that they are Kokeshi dolls and are MASSIVE! Not in size, but in popularity and collectiblility. One is quite old and has a single baby doll inside her. She is my favourite. Or maybe he? 
The other two also vintage, but more recent and have two nesting dolls inside. None of them are signed and I'm certain that they are simply mass market items, not the really valuable artist kokeshi.
My own 'Kokeshi Kittens' also have heavy, wobbling, heads and are a devil to stand upright. But they do, with a little care. Just.
I have been trying to organise my working days so that I don't spend it needle felting all day, every day. Love it though I do, I have many other things I want to produce. So I have been trying to take at least one day off per week to do something else. Time to unearth the old proof press, which has become swamped by books and magazines.
Time to find the little lino block of a hare I cut sometime in the winter and the block inks which I bought a few years ago and have barely used. Still in perfect condition.
A patchy first pull, but remembering that it takes a few inkings for the block to saturate with ink I do some more on test paper. The quality improves.
And with a bit of sweat and swearing, progress is made. Nice thick paper which has been saved for such an occasion is finally utilised. The eagle eyed long-term readers of this blog may spot the fabric hanging on the other side of the beam - yes, it is still there, my fabric stamping efforts from - goodness me, March! What happened to the time?
Some of the prints even come out moderately well. (Considering it's been a very long time indeed since I last did this).
At the end of the afternoon, everything is mopped down and replaced. It is as if the flying print-room had never existed. Except of course, for the long washing line of drying hares.
Later, a few of the best ones are popped into my Etsy shop, at pocket money prices. Just to see if it's worth carrying on with.
I take hundreds of photos a year. Literally hundreds. I know I'm not alone in this; my digital camera has turned into the most efficient sketch book of all. I carry one of those around too, but for instant recording, my camera is my third eye. Quite often I intend to blog something or just post a photo to Flickr, and more often than not I don't, as there is no time. So with some difficulty, I've trawled this year's archives for just seven favourites, starting at the top with a huge Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar - about 3 inches long and a bit cross at being caught by one of the cats. (Also comes in pink and green)
Andy at a very isolated but lovely pub in Shropshire, the Bottle and Glass pub complete with friendly collie dog, real fire, excellent beer and local sausages on the menu.
Musician from Eynsham Morris, playing at one of our last cricket matches and beer festivals a few weeks ago.
Divine fragments of Medieval stained glass in St Laurence's Church, Ludlow. Do click on this for a larger look, they are rare and exquisite; can you find the owl head?
One of the 'golf balls' (actually a radar dome) at Clee Hill, Shropshire - they look so lonely and alien, and when the wind whistles through the wires, it is as if they are singing to each other.
Some of the wonderful topiary at the churchyard of St Mary's church Painswick; the entire grounds are crammed with these shaped yew trees, some made into covering for the paths, others just standing alone or in pairs. 
Less ostentatious but possibly my favourite snippet of these seven; a newly shed robin's egg found on a walk in mid-summer when the earth was dry and cracked.
