Studio changeover

In a moment of brief madness, I looked at this corner last night and decided to Do Something About It. It looks fine at a glance, but there is a problem; where I used to have easy access to some of my favourite source and reference books, my way is now blocked by a tower of two printers, with two large vintage chocolate boxes on top.

I have crammed this room with almost as much stuff as it will take, without the central beam underneath the floor collapsing. That beam has held this little place together for over two hundred years, but I don't think it's ever had a load as big as this. However, there was all this wall space behind me, taken up by a large notice board which I barely use -

About an hour later, it got to that stage where you wonder why on earth you ever started and sob quietly in a corner hoping it will go away.

But we got there, eventually and I squeezed a little more book space up that wall - room for my lovely new Christmas books, as well as my old darlings, now easily to hand.

(I am sure there are people like me who click on photos to have a closer look at titles)

And I even had enough space over to hang one of my own artworks up - now that IS a novelty!

Out, about & inside

I love this time of year - everything goes back to normal and my world can putter on, but with a whole shiny new year to get things done in. We don't really go in for Christmas - Andy has to work (even on Boxing Day this year) and I prefer to work - but we took a couple of days off at New Year and drove out and about in the comfort of The Wheels. Had a quiet lunch at the Farmer's Arms, a great family pub in Guiting Power.

It is a rare thing in the upmarket Cotswolds - a normal, nice pub with a comfy atmosphere. No posh gastro-anything, no minor celeb chef serving pickled pheasant with pineapple. We like it. And it serves great local Donnington beer - for me the passenger that is, the driver had a nice ginger beer. (A tip for tourists in the Cotswolds looking for a traditional pub - find a Donnington Brewery one, all the ones we have been to are excellent)

It's all a bit dull, blustery and rainy here at the moment, so I have been driven around and parked about, so that I could do some (very) rubbishy landscape sketching. Snowshill is a favourite area for big fields and lowering skies.

Despite the gloom, the landscape is still stunning, especially over the Wiltshire Pewsey Downs. Sweeping and mystically atmospheric in all weathers, even on a murky day.

My favourite clump of trees; I can see it from all angles on our summer circular walk.

Spot the Wiltshire White Horse winter sleeping on the hillside.

Silbury Hill manages to camouflage itself very snugly into the surrounding countryside. To get an idea of how big this amazing prehistoric man-made mound is, the tiny little light to the middle left is a car headlight, on the road which runs past it.

As is tradition, I had a big studio tidy, ready for the new year. I have another full order sheet and am ploughing my way through a big list which includes some very remorseful and late emails to friends around the world and explaining why I didn't do a Christmas card this year. I don't deserve you, I really don't.

Updating my website is proving to be several days worth of work in itself; I'd rather be needle felting, but I can't punt for new illustration work without a decent website. Oh dear me, it is a very dull job indeed. By the way, a little tip; if you are like me and have several piles of *stuff* taking up floor space, simply amalgamate them into taller piles! I am quietly proud of this flash of genius.

What isn't dull at all is organising my first needle felting workshop which is happening later this month - two days of private tuition down in Bath with nine people. I have never been to Bath before, so it will be a very big adventure.