Sunshine and blue skies for Christmas. If you can't have snow, then that's the next best thing. #woodland #christmaswalk

Found it. The sun burned through the morning mist on Boxing Day last year as I walked down through the local woods to watch the sword dancing. I love the dog. Have you spotted him? #woodlandbeauty #naturephotography

I was looking for a beautiful picture to share when I found this one of a miniature I made of a museum basement. I love making miniatures because you can just take a scrap of leather and a single a4 sheet and make a book or a pebble from the garden can be made into a tiny cycladic sculpture or venus

It's getting cooler now after a patch of very unsettled and wet weather, raising my hopes of snow in January, if not over Christmas. This was taken last year on one of the most beautiful days I have ever experienced. #peaksnow #frost

Nature is my happy place but I have a soft spot for Whitby so here's a rare pic without crowds of tourists. #whitbyharbour #Yorkshirephotos

The reservoirs of the Peak District are overflowing again following the summer's drought. #winterwalks #winterscene

Metal bashing is good for the soul, if not neighbourly relations. I have been making lichen and brackets and am wondering if I can remain enthusiastic long enough to decorate a load of books, decorate an entire book case or create a jewellery collection. #fungilove #fungiart #coppersmithing

It's been raining for what feels like weeks and even when the sun does come out, there is mud everywhere. January however brings the possibility of beautiful, clean snow. Nothing cleans muddy boots like stomping through snowdrifts!

Oyster mushrooms have nothing you can mistake them for, making them a safe bet when it comes to picking. I prefer to leave them though because they are so beautiful. #fungifriends #fungilovers #fungifoto

I'm done with the grey days and mud of early winter! I hope we get some snow in January like we did last year when it lingered in the Peak District for over a week. The memory of this day bouyed me up for weeks.

Yesterday I taught a friend to make a spinner ring. She did a beautiful job, as you can see, and it was so much fun.

I do believe I might be Sheffield's leading maker of copper jellyfish bookmarks. 🤣 I can't compete against factory made goods so all I can do is relax into my weird space and hope I can find other strange people. #findyourniche #coppersmithing

It feels like cheating, to use a photo from October, but on a grey stormy day, it's good to remember a beautiful season and to hope that the winter will also bring its own beauties.

As we go into another incredibly soggy winter, here's your reminder that beaches are magical at any time of the year!

And who doesn't love a Sulphur tuft? They glow, you know? Under UV. Honey fungus and candle wicks do as well.

And amanitas as far as the eye could see!

The colours were amazing this year.

My favourite fungi to photograph are the ones that look like band pics, you know the ones, a lead singer at the front with the rest slightly in the background looking bored? This one looks like a choir though.

I forgot my log in and so have no record here of a glorious autumn of the best fungi I have ever seen. Here are some cute wood ears. I feel like they should have some folklore attached to them, something like whispering in your troubles which then magically vanish. Does anyone know of any?

It's raining and dull outside but inside, my ginger lily is flowering. I have had it nearly 10 years and it breaks all my rules for a good plant by sending up modest leaf spikes and then, and only if I have looked after it well! , produces a single flower head. It smells heavenly though!

Behold the rolling fields of the Damflask Reservoir and take your showers and baths accordingly. 😬 I suspect de silting is another area neglected by the UKs privatised water industry. #hosepipeban #emptyreservoirs #savewater

Enjoy every bit of sun as summer slips into autumn.

We didn't walk today as the met office predicted rain at 1pm. At 1pm they predicted it at 3. At 3pm, they said it would come at 5pm. It never came. I gave up at 4pm and went to the botanic garden anyway and found autumn crocuses popping up in the rose beds. #flowerphotography

And it's done. Barely a smidgen of green to be seen. #oilpainting #langsetreservoir #shefgieldart

Green all eliminated now. Just decided my little pine tree looks like it's going, "ta-dah!" I may have to have a think before I continue this one.

I'm glad I abandoned the green but now I'm worrying it looks like it was done with, "paint by numbers" 🤣

I started a painting a while back and then it just sat there..... I have decided the problem is the colour. It was just really dull so I'm now taking it in a totally different direction and I'm feeling happier about it already.

A moment of quiet at the end of a busy day.

We're moving house and everything in life is now jobs and worry. Dopamine is in perilously short supply so even five minutes in the Hillsborough memorial garden yesterday really helped. Nature is the best medicine.

This last week I was dog sitting so I achieved nothing but endless walks, cuddles and cleaning up after them. Here is a flower to remind you that no matter how chaotic your life is, somewhere nature is just getting on with things in peace. #dahlia #flowersofpinksky

Hhhm. Not sure... Possibly it would work better if on a bigger scale? Or perhaps it would just take up more room. 😁

Misspelt shopping lists, a hound of bananas. #illustration

I misspelled a shopping list the other day but my partner managed to find some fairly cheery tomatoes. #puns #sillyillustration

Last one, I promise. It was just so lovely to see rain drops on flowers after such a long, dry spring and summer.

A single hydrangea flower peeks out amidst the showy bracts, like a metaphor for something or other. 😉 #hydrangea

Hydrangea bracts at a slightly damp #Wentworthwoodhouse today

Bananas, biro and a penny for scale! I have added a tiny lantern, palette knife, easel and stool to my miniature medieval painter's set up. Unfortunately it's now too big to fit under a dome.

Today I added a tiny muller and porphyry slab for my miniature miniaturists to grind their paints. My muller is a conveniently shaped piece of belemnite fossil from the East Coast and is modelled on the one at the Rembrandt House museum in Amsterdam. #miniatureart #makingminiatures

Forgive me but 'm obsessed by my hollyhocks this year. #flowerphotography #englishgarden

Years ago I collected all the bits I needed to do real medieval painting at reenactments before realising a windy, soggy castle field is not the best place for that kind of activity. Grateful for my pack rat tendencies now though as it means I can start a new miniature.

I make miniatures. My first was a museum of artefacts supposedly excavated from a fairy burial mound. My second was a medieval apothecary and this is an archeologist's store room. It's 1/8th scale because I can't make real things much smaller than that. #miniatureart #dollshouses #artforweirdos

My hollyhocks caught me by surprise, blooming dakly below the black elder. #flowerphotography #hollyhocks #englishgarden

The weather is crazy. We have had barely a drop of rain for three months but my roses are loving it and just flowering their hearts out. #englishrose

No inspiration so just doodling. Last week I made a handbag shaped like a leaf and earlier this week I made a green summer hoodie tunic. Clearly I'm having a green phase.

Heartsease growing wild North of Sheffield. It's supposedly common but this is the only spot I have seen it.

I nearly missed my stinking iris (it really doesn't!) blooming discretely under the last of the honeysuckle bracts. It's a real but understated beauty and in autumn and winter it's bright orange berries bring a pop of colour to the garden.

Found this while deleting old pictures from my gallery.

Sharing unwisely early as usual and this way I can spot what's gone wrong. 🤣

First bouquet from the garden this year. Pink and peach roses, honeysuckle, wallflower and lady's mantle, all smelling delicious. In June I'm like a bee, just prowling the garden, sniffing each plant in turn. Dave thinks I might actually be developing a role in pollination. 🤣

I have been piercing out pieces of unwanted old Sheffield plate trays into earrings and hair clips. I feel a bit bad about this and then remember the hours it took, helping my mother polish the plate when I was a child. Hopefully these will go to good homes and be used and appreciated. #recycling