Another weekend is over and the house is silent apart from the sound of me munching my way through a second batch of homemade Jammie Dodgers (even though I tried to trap them in this dome). Worryingly this picture got more attention on my Instagram and Facebook pages than any artwork I've posted recently, maybe I should start drawing biscuits? Or just go and work in a bakery and knock all this art nonsense on the head! Anyway, I even switched the radio off today and just opened up the sliding doors to enjoy the birdsong... sunshine at last.And so with the sunshine comes my annual attempt at consistent cyanotype print making. I'd already messed up on the one sunny day last week so I recoated the paper and tried to be more scientific ( setting my phone's stopwatch and then forgetting it was on silent). The results were fun; adding another layer to the pale. washed out print underneath. Then I coated some more paper and of course the sun went in; seems I will have to get a proper exposure unit set up if I want to keep doing this, it's just too hit and miss relying  on Northern sunlight.Still, in the moments when I'm not banging my head on the table in despair, I'm thinking about ideas for BCTF and wrestling with the sewing machine because I want to make silk things and the corners are impossible! This week I also discovered the Cumbrian Printmakers group who have a Kickstarter campaign to open a studio space not too far from here. They also do group exhibitions and events so I'm hoping they meet their target so maybe I can do some etching or screen printing in the future. At the moment they're looking for the person furthest away from Cumbria to back them ( just a pound ) ... could it be you?The landscape is changing colour almost daily and the little black Herdwick lambs now have white spectacles as they start to get their grown up coats, they look so funny and a little bit naughty. This weekend was spent well away from water and canoes... we climbed Robinson again and picnicked on homemade cheese and rocket bread, hot spicy apple drinks and those addictive Jammie Dodgers. The previous evening we'd had a bit of a horrific sheep incident when Rupert and his friend discovered a big fat Swaledale hanging at an improbable angle from its spindly leg, which was trapped in a tree root on the bank side. He got the saw and managed to cut it free ( the root not the sheep's leg!) but it was clearly snapped like a twig; poor thing (although it hobbled off when I lifted it to it's feet). A neighbour called the farmer but he didn't come that night...or the next. Now in the old days, when I was naive and trusted people I would have called again ... but my experience with aggressive farmers in Snilesworth, who hate you just for being there, have scarred me for life and I'm just hoping they've taken it today.In happier nature news Mrs Frazzle has two little chicks now ... one hatched so late that I almost threw the egg away thinking it was a dud but it turned out to be a really sweet black and white chick (and they both have smooth feathers thank goodness so fingers crossed they're not cockerels!)Other happy news is the fabulous graduation of my wonderfully amazing daughter who managed to get it all together for her final illustration project.It was nail biting at times as she perfected the techniques and ideas but I think the work is beautiful and thoughtful and the message behind it is really important. The exhibition is on at UWE, Bower Ashton, Bristol until June 11th and then at Free Range in London on the 25th. Well done Sara. 

Flaming June has arrived in Cumbria, complete with snow covered tents on Blencathra and me wearing three jumpers as I write. I'm looking out at the newly emerged greenery ... yellow Welsh poppies, soft, half spiraled ferns , nettles and bluebells leaning almost flat; as the wind races down the valley the end of the house is the first obstacle on its way down from the mountains. In a small shelter sits a mother hen and two tiny chicks... I've had to put them in isolation because there was some dispute about maternity rights with three dozy bantams sitting on the eggs until they hatched. Now it's fingers crossed that the stoat prefers eggs to chicks....I'm all alone again after a week of adventures; settling down to make a plan for next year's BCTF and working out if I can use any of the doodles and splodges I've been doing recently. If you follow me on Facebook you'll know that I had some silk printed and have been doing battle with a new rolled hemming foot to try and make silk scarves... much much more practice needed but what I'm hoping for is that eventually, 7 years after leaving college, I will be able to come up with a product that provides me with a methodical pattern to the day... something that is both financially worthwhile, creatively satisfying and stops me spending long parts of the day feeling directionless and self indulgent. Too much to ask?!I've been enjoying playing with watercolour, ink and a little digital magic and was so excited to receive a special parcel from my dad last week which contained a little tube of "Caput Mortuum Violet" watercolour... following our musings on the colour of the fells a few weeks ago... now I just have to learn how to use it. Every day here in the Lake District I'm bombarded with little moments of wonder... the perfect colour palette of moss, violet and rock next to a waterfall, the grey Herdwicks looking like swiss army blankets with their red dye markings. Who cares if it's a bit damp and chilly ( actually this waterfall picture was taken on a very sunny day last week and I'm still itching from the sunburn).Yesterday we walked around Rannerdale where we spotted many wild creatures amongst the bluebells  ( mostly photographers rolling around in the blue looking for the perfect "capture") The previous day I had re-enacted a scene from Rogue Herries where the old witch is drowned below Grange Bridge... Canoeing from Rosthwaite to Keswick I tipped our boat over while trying to avoid being smacked in the face by a branch just near the bridge. I've never fallen in a river before and I'm not the bravest of swimmers so I'm actually feeling quite surprised today that I'm still here ( I floated so what does that mean.... )Another adventure involved clambering ( my particular style of mountain activity... a cross between climbing, rambling and scrambling) up High Crag above Buttermere. Eating a sandwich perched high up in the rocks and emerging on to the summit like the first men on the moon. I'm throwing myself in to this new place while the daily battle against homesickness continues. In the end I didn't take part in Art In the Shed for the first time in 5 years because I couldn't face going back. Its easier to pretend this is an island and I'm not too great at water crossings!Now, I'm going to research mugs and cards and how to roll corners on silk with loads of thanks to Emma from Temporary Measure who is  a mine of information and helpfulness as usual. This bear and his friend appeared one day after watching the umbrellas in the street when I was at work in the gallery.Reading: I just finished " The Gracekeepers" by Kirsty Logan ... read it, its perfect. Currently indulging myself with my new copy of "Oh Comely" and the lovely box subscription which included the bottle of drizzle shown above"Listening to:  Elbow " Asleep in the Back" , Real World 25 and John Metcalf "Kites and Echoes" ( which has a William Tillyer etching on the cover)

Let me begin by apologising to all you lovely, loyal blog subscribers who got a wordless, randomly titled version last time ( I panicked and pressed the wrong button which is why I'm not in charge of anything important) . Anyway some recent events made me think wordless was the way forward ...but maybe more of that later.I uploaded the images for this post last Thursday just after I had been to vote in the most scenic polling station in the country; the sun was shining and it felt exciting and optimistic. The fact that it's rained ever since says it all really but I'm not going to rant on about politics because last week some lovely things happened too and they are things which make the world seem a kinder, more generous and caring place than the cold hearted, money orientated one we seem to be living in day to day.The first thing was a surprise parcel from my virtual friends in the Big Forest, Benjamin and Michael. I've never met them in the real world but I've loved their bears for a few years now and Benjamin has been so helpful with advice on Etsy selling, as well as being a great promoter of other people's work on his Facebook page. I had to drive in to Keswick to collect the mystery box which turned out to contain this little chap ( as well as a card and "woodsman " brooch which I have been wearing on my jumper) ...So after work and voting we skipped off up the hill to look at the view and chat to the sheep about EU farming policies and the joys of mountain landscapes. I'm not sure but I think the sheep was hoping for a different election result too.So the other good thing that happened was that the divine trinity of Facebook-Etsy-Twitter actually worked for me for the first time ever and a polar bear I'd been struggling to finish ( his feet just wouldn't behave) and eventually managed to list in my shop, sold before I could even close the page! I wish everything would work so smoothly as it would make the whole process of making so much more satisfying and meaningful...I mean, I love making things but when you have a cupboard full of unsold sheep and bears shouting to get out it can make you think it might be better and more useful to do the hoovering instead.Well its nearly time to go, I am preparing things for Art in The Shed again... Jane Thorniley-Walker's  annual fundraiser for Street Child Africa. It will be the first time back in North Yorkshire since the eviction and while I'm looking forward to the exhibition and seeing friends and family again I'm worried that it will be upsetting.I recently found out that my totally unfair eviction and my writing a blog post about it, had directly lead to a close family member being refused a tenancy by another landowner in the North York Moors ... because they didn't want "that type of person" living there. Excuse me? What type of person? A family who lived, worked and loved their home and did nothing wrong?At first I felt devastated by the news, delivered rather tactlessly, and questioned whether I should ever write from the heart again. I felt guilty and dismayed by the way my plight and my words about it had been misrepresented. After much soul searching my fury at fat cat landlords and bigotted cronyism amongst some very unpleasant people, won over and I will not be silenced like a guilty secret.I told this crowd and they totally agreed...never be afraid to speak out against meanness and unfairness wherever you find it.(These alpacas are part of Alpacaly ever after's "woolly army" and they are celebrating because they got their Kickstarter project funded, hurray! I was feeding them last week while their proper parents were away at a fair (selling stuff not going on the waltzers) and I want to thank them all for not savaging me and for helping me feel a bit more Cumbrian)Finally (because I haven't even got space to describe PrintFest, meeting more artists at the Northern Lights Gallery, battling with stoats or admiring bluebells)  if you're in London, my dad's exhibition continues until the end of the month at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery on Duke Street ( near Fortnums) Here is a Lake District watercolour from a few years back...Reading:- The Fortress by Hugh Walpole ( god its a long book!) Listening To:- London Grammar "Wasting My Young Years"