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

A card for a friend's birthday. Yes, I know birds can't swivel their eyes like that and, no, I don't care 😂 He's unmaterialistic so friends got together and sponsored a couple of nice pair of blue footed boobies for him. #boobies #birding #ornithology

After two months of sunshine and no rain at all, finally the weather turned at the end of May, bringing the hope of beautiful #sunsets and interesting clouds to break the boredom of endless blue skies. 😉

#Laburnum blossom at the weekend.

Trying to remember winter walks in crisp snow as I prepare for a BBQ with friends. This is not right. This is England. I should be huddled in a jumper with a thermos of tea! We haven't had and proper rain since March 22! #wintermemories

I went to a craft group last night. Just three hours of gentle doodling while meeting new people and shooting the breeze. I don't concentrate as well as I should while painting round other people but it wasn't a disaster and I added to my tiny postcards collection. #watercolour #gouache #tinynature

That's better. It's funny how precipitously sharing something on social media calls to mind improvements that can be made. 🤣 #oilpainting #sunnyDunny #Dunbar #

An amazing year for #Azeleas. Be more Azelea! #happyflowers #flowerphoto #uplifting

Remembering a perfect evening in #Dunbar in 2023, a beautiful 26 degrees as England swealtered in a heatwave. As I look at the grass crisping in the May sunshine, I wonder what this year will bring. If we get another heatwave, I'd recommend Dunbar. #oilpainting

#Rhododendron at #BurrellPark in Glasgow.

My favourite view of #tulips is always from flat on my belly.

In the course of a whole day at Dunure I found some largish agates but they are not the best, also, two little scraps that give a hint of what finds there were like in the Victorian era, with beautiful close banding.

Agate nodules from Dunure. I was hoping for some amazing finds but realised I might have to scale down my expectations. 😉

It's possible to still find agates at Dunure, but this was the result of an entire day of looking and none was as good as some I have found at Hornsea (with the caveat that my Hornsea finds have been years apart at times)

I should be doing some oils but I'm having so much fun with these little unplanned #gouache paintings of winter #woodland and #hedgerows. Should I do foxes, hedgehogs, beavers or bats next?

A couple of galleries here in Sheffield will soon do postcard sales so I thought I'd get on and do a few tiny gouache paintings. I just cut out a stack of water colour paper and work down the pile and if a few go in the bin, then, it's all part of the process. 😁

Having a play with gouache today on tiny postcard sized pieces of paper.

No one gives side eye like a dragon!

The latest of a series I'm thinking of as, "paths less travelled". It's based on #peakdistrict landscapes but with a hint of fantasy. It's 15 x15cm and is oil paint on wood.

I keep joking that we should make a book of photographs of the Peak District's disappointing stone circles. Some are so modest we haven't even been able to find them while practically standing on top of them. I took this picture of Froggat while on my belly. I think it gives it a certain presence.