Peas survived the 1st night in the ground, hoping they will still be there tomorrow 🙏 🌿😍

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I have been playing with these colours again today...but I feel like they belong more to my autumn landscape than spring...i am not good with green paint though and the world is very green just now 😊

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I am now starting work on my May bird of the month... and also an introduction to the all new Desmond Diaries 😂The April bird of the month is not only about Easter, I gathered a few other bits and bobs about the Lapwing! If you would like to read it, its out now ...and its FREE! It comes as a link to a free download when you subscribe to studio insights via the link in my profile or using https://ift.tt/2OAUfYX and dont forget Next month I am going to add a bit about Desmond too...

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Sat on the garden for lunch surrounded by the flutter of sparrow wings and conversation...bliss.. Just as it was a Trelissick when I decided to include a sparrow in this lino cut to celebrate 125 years of the @nationaltrust exhibited at @nttrelissick with @cornwall_crafts but had to close due to the lockdown. . . .

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Today is #worldcurlewday i thought I would share this wonderful quote "never heard the solitary whistle of curlew on a summer noon without feeling the elevation of soul” Robert Burns. But also found this,😣 I know that so many of our birds are threatened and I look at this so often it is one of my main focuses but somehow this news passed me by ... Britain holds a quarter of the world’s curlew population and the @RSPB_love_nature report that the population has at least halved and in some places dropping by 81% raising awareness can help hopefully 🙏 but more can be read more at RSPB https://ift.tt/2xN7iSK or Wildfowl & wetland trust @wwt https://ift.tt/3eCshYV #curlewcrisis

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I heard a cuckoo today! Looking back over my records I heared one on the same day 2 years ago as well 😍 I know the @btobirds reported their return a few days ago...good to know that our local bird has made it back...

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Todays tea, nettle, dandelion, willow, ginger and turmeric...doesn't taste great (quite bitter) but I am doing a bit of a trial, yesterday u didn't put willow in and it wasn't as effective for my inflamed joint ...

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What can I do to help? I have a couple of paintings of grey seals this is one of them...i will be selling it to raise funds for the Cornish Seal Sanctuary. 100% of the proceeds with go to them (+£25 p & p uk) the current price of the painting is £345.00 it is 60 x 60 cm on canvas. Please make your best offer to me via dm or email and I will let it go to the highest bidder (whatever that might be) on Friday 24th . Please share if you can, the seal sanctuary do an amazing job of caring for and releasing many injured wild seals...as well as looking after some who can't be released. @thecornishsealsanctuary • • • • • • Cornish Seal Sanctuary We need your help. With the necessary updated extension of the Coronavirus lockdown, we are now deeply concerned about how we are going to continue to be able to cover the costs to feed and care for our animals. It costs us £23,000 a month for our dedicated animal care team to feed, provide daily care, vital medicines and equipment to the Sanctuary’s residents. . . To donate to our appeal, and help us please click the link to our Just Giving page in our bio. Even a small amount would go such a long way, and help to protect the animals at the Sanctuary that have been a huge part of Cornwall’s heritage for over 60 years

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Can you help? #Repost @thecornishsealsanctuary • • • • • • Cornish Seal Sanctuary We need your help. With the necessary updated extension of the Coronavirus lockdown, we are now deeply concerned about how we are going to continue to be able to cover the costs to feed and care for our animals. It costs us £23,000 a month for our dedicated animal care team to feed, provide daily care, vital medicines and equipment to the Sanctuary’s residents. . . To donate to our appeal, and help us please click the link to our Just Giving page in our bio. Even a small amount would go such a long way, and help to protect the animals at the Sanctuary that have been a huge part of Cornwall’s heritage for over 60 years.

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A bit of excitement in my @btobirds garden birdwatch this week Robin 2 Black bird 2 Great tit 2 Blue tit 2 Goldfinch 2 Chaffinch 2 Dunnock 2 Sparrow 3 Rook 4 Pheasant 1 Jackdaw 8 Magpie Wood pigeon Herring gull 2 Buzzard And last bu not least a Sparrow hawk swooped in first thing this morning and sat on the gate for a minute, I always find sparrow hawks completely disregard humans, I have felt one fly past my ear on a couple of occasions...we are too slow to be a threat I think 😍 #btogardenbirdwatch

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I thought I would share this picture of Firefly today, I was lookkng through some older photos and found it, it's not just the sheep you see, all my creatures are very expressive 🤣

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Thank you for sharing 😍#Repost @nsanewlyn • • • • • • Penwith Keeping in touch with our members during this period of lockdown, here are some paintings and drawings by Suzy Sharpe. Suzy shares her positive approach to being an artist in lockdown: “Someone suggested thinking about this confinement as a residency... I have just started with this, I have no idea where this will lead but I have enjoyed gathering some images, drawing things i would not normally draw...my "stay at home artist residency" ... I am finding that my greenhouse offers me a positive and useful 15 minutes or so each day ... I am struggling with finding the purpose for doing things most challenging, as all my exhibitions have been postponed, however i am beginning to realise that i have been social isolated for as long as i can remember! I have also been drawing my sheep Desmond et al (I only have 6) who seem to have a bit of a following... they seem to raise people’s spirits at this time... I have attached a few of those images also... I personally find time spent with my sheep, drawing them (mindfully so not too much pressure!) is very beneficial if I start to catastrophise which I am a little prone to from time to time.” @suzysharpeart @nsanewlyn #mixedmedia #watercolour #cornishlandscape #rurallife #sheepfarmerartist #contemporarycornishart #sheep #drawingsheep #artistresidency #artistsinlockdown #artistsoninstgram #newlynsocietyofartists

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Well that's a bit cheeky Desmond 😋🤣😂🐑😂🤣

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The excitement of a greenhouse!

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Last night there was a Blackbird singing in the dark... I know from researching my September bird of the month they will sometimes do this but it seemed very unusual and reminded me again for the song by the Beatles - Blackbird Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these sunken eyes and learn to see All your life You were only waiting for this moment to be free Blackbird fly, blackbird fly Into the light of a dark black night Blackbird fly, blackbird fly Into the light of a dark black night Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

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A bit of gorgeous giddiness from the boys a year ago ... bless their little cotton socks ❤🐑❤🐏❤

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And here is a few more made with weeds and ink 🌿😊🌿

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I have been playing with the idea of absence and presence, negative shapes etc just to create some pages to play with maybe collage... ideas from around my home for my #stayathome artist residency 😊 it's kind of nice to allow the process to unfold at the moment without worrying about where it is going ...

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This collage isn't in my bird of the month...but I wanted to continue the theme a little longer 😍

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First feeds Desmond with my littlest daughter @elliegregor one year ago 😍🐏🐑😍

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I love those instagram pics where everything is in its place and there is a crisp graphic feel and a beautifully designed quality to it... unfortunately I just seem to make a mess, but having fun if I can just find my bush under all these papers 😂😂😂 #inthestudio

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For this weekday @btobirds garden bird watch I recorded the following Robin 2 Black bird m + f Great tit 2 Blue tit 2 Goldfinch 4 Chaffinch 2 Dunnock 2 Sparrow 4 Rook 2 Pheasant 2 heard Jackdaw 10 Magpie 2 Wood pigeon 2 Ma.y of whom are enjoying a lovely food mix from the @gardencrowd 😍. . you can get a 10% discount from garden crowd using suzysharpe_gc10

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The April bird of the month is not only about Easter, I managed to gather a few other bits and bobs about the Lapwing! If you would like to read it, its out now ...and its FREE! It comes as a link to a free download when you subscribe to studio insights via the link in my profile or using https://ift.tt/2OAUfYX Next month I am going to add a bit about Desmond too...

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I just have to post this lovely picture of our lovely Desmond & Walter with my daughter ❤🐑🐏❤

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Lapwings and links to Easter Which starts with the historical tradition for Plover Egg hunts. Plover’s eggs were an expensive delicacy in Victorian Europe, Queen Victoria favoured her plover eggs cooked in aspic and Mrs Beaton supplied several recipes. They may in fact be the original Easter Eggs, Egg pickers, desimated the populations of Lapwings and in 20 years they had stripped the whole of southern England as far up as Lincolnshire. In the later 1880’s plover eggs had to be gathered from the Scottish highlands and Holland. In 1926 the Lapwing Act (Wild Bird Protection Bill) officially stopped the practice and prohibited anyone to take, use, have possession of or consume the eggs or birds and also protected their nests. Historians believe the origins of Easter eggs are derived from custom of the egg hunt. As Lapwing eggs hidden in the long grasses the would be fairly difficult to find it was possible that the garden and chocolate Egg became a good substitute. Also there is a link to the easter Hare (previous post) Hares, (unlike rabbits who have burrows) hide from predators by making a shallow indentation in the soil known as a form. Lapwings often inhabit the same territories as hares and make a scrape of a nest on the ground. Lapwings were known to use a hare’s form as a nest and so eggs where often found in a form and therefore assumed to have been laid by the Hare. If you would like to read my whole Lapwing bird of the month you can find a link in my profile... is all free 😊

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If you have read my Bird of the month for April you will already know this but is it an Easter Hare or a Bunny? It is thought that the Easter bunny was originally a Hare but it was so steeped in Pagan folklore that it was deemed ‘unfitting’ for Christian purposes. The Hare is also at its most visible at this time of year in Norther Europe, they become more social as part of their mating behaviour. Hares can be seen in the fields boxing. The sight of groups of hares in the fields would have been a sign of the onset of spring (and therefore Easter) probably then connected with the German and Dutch tradition of the Easter Hare Link to a Lapwing I feel we have now come full circle back to the Lapwing. Which given the historical tradition for Plover Egg hunts this part seems to be closest to a possible truth. This Hare original was painted in acrylic on canvas sold sometime ago and she now a greetings card 😊. Link to studio insights and bird if the month is in my profile if you would like to read it in full (free pdf download) .https://ift.tt/2OAUfYX . . . . . . .

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Today is a very important day! 🎉🥳🎂🐑🐏🥳🎂🎉 It is the day we first met Desmond & Walter ❤ they were not born on this day but were no more than 3 days old when we collected them so today is their official birthday...ots of people have been telling me to write a book about them but that seems a bit daunting so I am going to start to tell the story of their 1st 12 months with us in my newsletter (as a free pdf ebook) so if you would like to read it there is a link in my profile, the first edition will be out in May 😊

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A few sketches of reclining sheep from today #stayathome art residency 😊

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Here is your daily Desmond... in the role of gate keeper. Actually he is being very intelligent, as are the others sat in the shade in a breezy part of the field keeping cool and away from the flies which seem to be bothering them at the moment. Of all the places they have access to this field is the windiest...its too hot if you have a big fleece on so they have all been sitting in the shade in the day and active in the evening when it cools down. 🌞⛱😎🐏🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑😍

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A other #Stayathome artist residency drawing, there is a bird building a nest in this box a great tit I think 😊

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One of my "stay at home residency" drawings from yesterday... I am finding that my greenhouse offers me a positive and useful 15 minutes or so each day ... I am struggling with finding the purpose for doing things at the moment most challenging, as i am beginning to realise that i have been social isolated for as long as i can remember

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Tonight if you can see it the moon will still be fullish... it is spectacular here so red and so big with a slight sliver missing at the top. I am not sure how but I managed to miss that it is also called the Hare Moon...! Alos know as the Pink Moon by the native Americans because of the spring flowers, but also called the the sprouting grass, egg or fish moon. April’s full Moon is the first to occur after the March equinox, which makes it the first full Moon of spring and the Paschal Full Moon. Which is the full Moon that determines the date of Easter.

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I did also manage a quick sketch of Desmond...back in my studio, as there was no chance out on the field ❤🐑❤

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Just because I want to celebrate a full moon! Tjis is my second moon image...Tonight we will see a full moon, a supermoon and the second and brightest in a series of 3...April’s full Moon is the first to occur after the March equinox, which makes it the first full Moon of spring and the Paschal Full Moon. Which is the full Moon that determines the date of Easter. Know as the Pink Moon by the native Americans because of the spring flowers, but also called the the sprouting grass, egg or fish moon

via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/B-r3-bMHO1H/

Tonight we will see a full moon, a supermoon and the second and brightest in a series of 3...April’s full Moon is the first to occur after the March equinox, which makes it the first full Moon of spring and the Paschal Full Moon. Which is the full Moon that determines the date of Easter. Know as the Pink Moon by the native Americans because of the spring flowers, but also called the the sprouting grass, egg or fish moon... my Raven felt it appropriate to be precariously balanced on this patterned moon... linocut with monoprint

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Another garden bird in my @btobirds #gradenbirdwatch count last week, I am fairly sure there is more than one but as they come to.my bird table separately i can only count 1. They are much braver than many of the others they dont seem to be concerned with the hierarchies that exist around my feeders they just do their own thing 😍

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The @rspb_love_nature are doing a lovely 14 day photo challenge, they shared a photo of a Robin today, as I am not a good photographer i have not been taking part so here is a drawn one from me... 😊

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Goldfinches are another very welcome and fairly new bird in my garden often upside down on the seed feeder...

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Garden Bird Watch week 1 last week These are the birds I had in my garden... Robin 2 Blackbird m + f Great tit Blue tit 2 Goldfinch Chaffinch 2 Dunnock Sparrow 4 Rook Pheasant Jackdaw Magpie Wood pigeon 2 There is a link in the @btobirds Bio if you want to join in.

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Lots of people have been doing more gardening g lately and some may be tempted to cut back hedges etc. It is actually an offence at this time of year because we can disturb nesting birds... if a nest is found it should be left compleyely alone...but this may help if a young bird is found... if anyone has any better ones to share I would be grateful.if you could tag me 😊

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Got all my friends round for a birthday party😂🎉🥳🎊🎂

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Normally I would celebrate my birthday like this... I would hug my lovely girls, my mum night be over for the night... on a really good year our whole family are together plus a few friends, maybe out for a meal to the local pub, lots of people playing music, eating, sitting close and being social...this year will be different... just me, Phil and cheese on toast 😂 but I feel blessed, very lucky we are all well... and so that next year can be like last year, I hope everyone is staying at home and staying safe! ❤❤❤

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One of the birds who visited my garden today 😍 @btobirds Garden bird watch . . . . . . #gardenbirdwatch #garden #lockdownbirding #gardenbirds #birdwatchingathime #stayhome #stayathome #mindfulness #btogardenbirdwatch #rspb

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Who else is taking part? #Repost @btobirds • • • • • • Love watching your garden birds? Join the BTO Garden BirdWatch community for free and tell us which species visit your garden each week. Your sightings will help us to understand how and why populations of garden birds and other wildlife are changing, and how we can all help them. Link in bio. 🐦🐣🏡 . . . #gardenbirdwatch #garden #lockdown #birds #birdwatching #stayhome #citizenscience #mindfulness

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Great things happening in the greenhouse 🌿🌞😍

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As the days all melt together and they all feel the same it's hard to leap into the weekend with the same enthusiasm as usual...strange isn't it! I just feel like I am waiting for something... I think it's because of the lack of certainty... at the moment we know nothing of the world beyond this time... but maybe we never do really... but i know that every day I feel blessed. Stay safe!

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When he was released from his bramble cage he went a little further up the wall and started eating the new shoots off the brambles...he obviously just loves brambles. This probably means that he will continue to get stuck again and again... he just needs to learn to reverse I think... any ideas on sheep training methods?

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I thought it was too good to be true... we have been a few weeks without being stuck but here the is again! Another week another bramble trap...not even many brambles in this field he must have gone looking for them!

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At 12 o'clock my new bird of the month will take the place of this one so if you would like to read about Crows my march bird of the month is here for a few more hours. If you would like to read it, it comes as a link to a free download when you subscribe to studio insights via the link in my profile or using https://ift.tt/2OAUfYX. Just a monthly newsletter and (this month a 20 page) ebooklet pdf download no catches.

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Lovely and quiet in my garden this morning very few cars going by and lots of bird song, a chafing and dunnock sharing the table and a @gardencrowd feast 😊

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