Owls and Rabbits

I'm going to get my studio space! Thanks for all the supportive comments and e-mails encouraging me. I feel quite excited, but we will have to wait a couple of weeks, as I'm away travelling with work again next week. On the plus side, I am accumulating lots of excess hours working, which I can then take off when the weather gets better.

We're still sofa less and "camping" in the living room, and the kitchen floor isn't done, but, an old friend of Andy's came to see us this week, who hasn't seen the place since he was here on his own. She was amazed by what we'd done so far and was very complimentary, so that made me feel quite good about how the renovations are going. Sometimes I forget just how much we have accomplished so far.

I must tell about the surprise gift I have bought for my friend Helen. I was racking my brains for weeks and then, suddenly, received inspiration. I had seen a beautiful amethyst bracelet with an owl charm in Joanne May's Etsy shop. Helen adores owls and hand crafted items. It's due to arrive next week, and it was such a pleasure buying it from Jo. I'm almost as excited as if it was for me! If you don't know Jo's work, please visit her blog, she is a wonderfully talented illustrator and jewellery maker - and a lovely lady!

Oh, and if you are wondering how I can happily blog about the surprise without my friend knowing - well, she does not own a computer, the Internet is a complete mystery to her, and she thinks Blogging is some kind of disease, bless her! Hard for those of us who are so immersed in the virtual world to understand, I know.

I will post a picture of the bracelet soon.

This week we were browsing for old books in one of the local charity (thrift) shops, and I spied the title "Pookie and the Swallows" and pounced! Now I would love to know if anyone out there knows about the Pookie books? I understand they were very popular in Australia as well as the UK? I had never heard of Pookie until I met Andy, but when he was tiny, Pookie was his favourite bedtime story.



























For those who are unfamiliar with him, Pookie is a little white rabbit who had tiny wings, and he was sad because he wasn't like the other rabbits. So he set off to seek his fortune, and met Nommy Nee the elf, who became his best friend, and who introduced him to Belinda, the woodcutter's little girl, who kissed his wings. Pookie's wings grew and he could fly!

The books were written and illustrated by a lady called Ivy L Wallace, and she invented him when she was working on a switchboard in WW2. She had a fascinating life story herself. Pookie was to be a fairy, but she decided there were too many fairies, so she rubbed it out and drew a little rabbit with wings instead. The stories and illustrations are charming, and she drew all the flowers in the books from life. We were delighted to be able to get the book and have set ourselves a challenge to collect the rest. The originals cost an absolute fortune, but were republished in the 1990s.

I thought I was going to be able to finish another piece of my embroidery today, but writing for 2 blogs has proved too much for me this weekend. Instead of rushing to complete it, and as the sun has been shining, and it's only been reasonably cold today - I managed to drag himself out for a walk this afternoon.

Here's my beloved Kingsweston House from across the park with the River Severn and Wales in the distance.

On the other side of the hill was a very different looking sky........

And I finally found some snowdrops!