Stonechat and a Herdy

After finishing my series of garden birds I decided I would gradually start painting the birds that I see when out and about and the beautiful stonechat is one of them.  We sometimes see one or two when we're out walking - they're gorgeous, love the way they perch right on top of the heather and love the noise they make, like two stones being bashed together. Unfortunately, they've been hit by harsh winter weather which has seen a decline in their numbers over the last couple of years. Gary rarely carries his big lens when we're out on a long walk and so he doesn't have any close up photos of the stonechat (yet) so I've pinched my reference photo from Brian Rafferty's blog (I know you don't mind Brian!)

By the way if anyone reading this actually sees a stonechat in this country I know a man who'd be very interested to hear about it Pete Woodruff of Birds2Blog is recording all the sightings he can, to try and discover if their numbers are on the increase again.

Something else which we never fail to see when out walking the hills is sheep of course and the Herdwick breed fondly known as 'Herdy's, native to the Lake District in Cumbria are my favourites. They are such characters and I've got a mountain of photos to choose from as he can rarely walk past one without stopping to take a photo!

I'm trying to get a bit of painting done before I go back to work tomorrow after the Christmas break - I shouldn't complain as I've had two weeks off but I'd rather be out walking or painting than going to work, sigh, keep buying those lottery tickets!

Thank you to those of you who have checked out my daughter's new blog Wildlife with Whitley  and left such encouraging comments - she was thrilled!

First painting of 2013!

I've always loved Gary's photo which I used as a reference for this painting - I love the composition of it with just the eye showing so I've been wanting to have a go at painting it for a while now - but all those stripes!!!!  Arrrgh!!!  And I have to say they did drive me a bit nuts but I'm glad I persevered  - so here it is my first painting of hopefully many more to come this year.  We've also had our first walk of the year, on New Year's Day up onto Conwy Mountain, a really great start to the year.......

for more piccies from the walk, hop over to Two Pairs of Boots where you'll see the smallest house in Britain (it's tiny!), Holly in her element swimming in the Conwy Estuary and some gorgeous wild ponies which we often see in this area  - we could do with a few more followers over there as well if you like!  We're off to South Lakes Animal Park tomorrow, looking forward to that and then Friday another walk - I hope the year has started full of excitement for the year ahead -  til next time bloggers!

Castell y Gwynt (Castle of the Winds)

Our first proper winter walk of the year - loads of snow up on the Glyders in Snowdonia and even though I've been full of a horrible cold all week I was determined to get out there as the conditions were looking good .... and we weren't disappointed.  This is one of my favourite views, Castell y Gwynt (Castle of the Winds) up on Glyder Fach with the Snowdon Horseshoe looking glorious in the background.  It's a view that has been painted by many landscape artists - I've not yet tackled it but plan to one day - whether anyone will actually get to see my effort is another matter!

Here are some of my favourites from real artists!

© Louise Morgan
see more on her website HERE

© Alwyn Dempster Jones (pastel)

I've seen this one 'in the flesh' at the Helfa Gelf event (North Wales Open Studios) amazing detail and really nice to meet him, here is a link to his blog
LINK

© Dave Roberts (pastel)

I've been lucky enough to see this one up close as well at the Helfa Gelf when we visited Dave Robert's studio - a brilliant painting and a really lovely guy too

© Rob Piercy

 from the amazingly talented artist Rob Piercy painted this wonderful interpretation of Castell y Gwynt - fabulous isn't it....
here is a link to his website
LINK

Rob Piercy is previewing his Christmas exhibition at his Porthmadog gallery tomorrow and Gary's taking  me to see it - can't wait to meet the man himself!

Here is another of his paintings and another place where we walked yesterday - the beautiful Cwm Idwal,  what a fabulous painting and just how it looked yesterday with the snow topped Glyders behind

© Rob Piercy

 to see more photos from yesterday's walk,  pop over to our walking blog

 TWO PAIRS OF BOOTS, 

if you like winter mountain landscapes I promise you won't be disappointed!

Now for something completely different.....

After painting nothing but birds for the last few weeks I'm having a play around with other subjects - so as Autumn is well and truly with us I thought I'd start with a little study of conkers.

Bonkers about Conkers

© Sharon Whitley

As some of you reading this will know from my last couple of  posts I've been away for a few days walking in the Lake District with Gary and despite it being rather a mixed bag weather wise we got some wonderful walks in, starting with the beautiful Cadair Idris on Saturday where we had great weather...

The glaciated bowl of Llyn Cau

Cadair Idris summit - Penygadair

We did a round of the Coniston Fells on Monday - 5 more Wainwrights completed and again, pretty good weather for most of the day...here I am on Grey Friar, with the mighty Scafells behind me.

Grey Friar with a Scafells backdrop

One of the things I always love seeing when walking in the Lake District are the local sheep, especially the tough Herdwicks or Herdys as they are more affectionately known......here is a particularly cute one....

 and I've also got a soft spot for Swaledales....how can you not love this face!

Both of these are contenders for future paintings, hopefully sooner rather than later so watch this space!

We ended our stay in the Lake District with a visit to Loweswater where we stayed with the lovely Ann and Roger Hiley of Loweswatercam  fame.  Here they are with a drawing I did of their dogs Harry and Bethan.  Take a look at their website to get to know them better and maybe buy one of their calenders (we did) in aid of Mountain Rescue.

The Hileys made us feel so welcome and really looked after us, freshly made bread, home made soup before a wet and windy walk up Low Fell (enabling me to tick off my 80th Wainwright fell) and a wonderful Greek themed supper - the first thing I did when I got home was get the bread maker out which has been hidden away in the cupboard for the last few years!

Holly enjoyed meeting Bethan and Harry, here they are on Low Fell looking down over Crummock Water

Thank you for reading and don't forget to leave a comment so I know you've popped by - have a wonderful day!

Kentmere Horseshoe

A walking blog post today folks!  I finally got to do a walk I've been wanting to do for quite a while, the Kentmere Horseshoe, taking in 8 Wainwright fells - I've mentioned before that a few friends of mine have completed or are planning to complete all 214 Lakeland fells that Wainwright documented in his Pictorial Guides - I don't know whether I'll ever climb them all but I'm keeping track of those that I do - just in case.....:-) - so it was quite nice to get 8 under my belt in one walk - and what a gorgeous walk it was....

Gary's done this walk many a time before - this shows most of the horseshoe, up the right hand side, to the head of the valley and down the ridge on the left back to the start, 20k (12.5 miles) and taking in 8 fells on the way, taking us 6 hours including a nice lunch stop on a rather breezy Nan Bield Pass -  a wonderful day out in the fells!

First peak Shipman Knotts 

 Holly and I on the 2nd peak of the day Kentmere Pike

Gary and I on Harter Fell

The beautiful Small Water with Haweswater beyond

Mardale Ill Bell

 The beautiful view from the Nan Bield Pass at the head of the valley down the Ill Bell Ridge 

Holly and I on Thornthwaite Crag

 Holly and I on Froswick

 A bit of cairn hugging on Ill Bell - I told my friend I'd give Ill Bell a hug! (it's her favourite fell)

and the final fell of the day - Yoke

I've not had time to do any more on the sparrowhawk over the weekend but did a little bit on him this evening so here's an update...

Hoping to get it finished in the next couple of days - and hoping for another sighting!

As always your comments are very welcome, have a wonderful day :-)

A good walk and a Wood Pigeon

On Saturday we got out for a good walk on the Aran Ridge in Southern Snowdonia - I've walked this ridge a few times before but always in miserable weather and have never got a proper view, just a couple of glimpses so I was hoping this time I'd get the view I'd always missed before.  Luck was with us and even though it was a bit cold and very windy, it didn't rain! and the clouds stayed high enough to give us a view!  All the following photos are taken by Gary.

 Looking back towards Aran Benllyn

 The lovely cairn on the ridge between Aran Benllyn and Aran Fawddwy with Creiglyn Dyfi below

 A very friendly sheep

Holly loves walking especially when there's lots of opportunities for swimming and fetching sticks from water - here she is diving into Llyn Pen Aran to fetch her stick 

I'm still painting the birds that visit the garden and the latest is a quick watercolour sketch of the all too familiar wood pigeon - they are common visitors and make me laugh perched on the top of the feeders while the smaller birds flit around them.  I love their repetitive soft cooing song  cooooo cooo cu cu coo coooooo cooo cu cu  - I know some people find it annoying, but I find it really soothing and often find myself cooing along with them!  Anyone else do that or is it just me?!  

Wood Pigeon call

Wood Pigeon

© Sharon Whitley

I had a real thrill tonight when I went over to the kitchen sink to wash a couple of cups - I looked out of the window towards the bird feeders and there was a Sparrowhawk sitting on the fence - then it flew straight past the window in front of me - will have to keep my camera on the windowsill ready in case I see it again - so now the Sparrowhawk is on my painting list too!

Hope you're all having a wonderful day/night!

Art in the Landscape

Cairns of all shapes and sizes have graced the Earth since prehistoric times and can be found all over the world in uplands, moorlands, deserts, sea cliffs, acting as waymarkers and indicating mountain summits.....not everyone likes cairns and feel that they ruin the natural landscape but I love them - they can certainly be a very comforting site when the clag comes in and you suddenly can't see more than 10 ft in front of you ! ...... a cairn ahead reassures you that you're on the right path ..... and oh what a welcome sight a summit cairn can  be when you've had a long,  hard slog up a particularly steep slope!!  It's common for walkers to add a stone to the top of a cairn as they pass - I like to add a stone to summit cairns, it feels like I've left a little piece of myself at the top!

These summit cairns vary in size from small stone markers to huge piles that are like a hill in themselves and they also vary in their complexity - from loose, untidy piles of stones to elaborate works of art!  Andy Goldsworthy, the Scottish landscape artist has certainly recognised the art in the humble cairn and is known for creating them in his work. Give him a google!

The watercolour sketch above is of the trig point cairn at the summit of Red Screes in the Lake District and was painted as a gift for another friend who completed her final Wainwright there.  It was painting this that made me think of all the different varieties of cairns there are and how they are actually works of art in themselves in our landscapes.  Here are a few more of these artworks from photographs I've taken on my walks

I love this cairn on Blea Crag overlooking Derwentwater

and this one on High Spy - complete with cairn huggers!

This is one of my favourites, at the summit of Dale Head looking down over the Newlands Valley in the Lake District

One of the summit cairns on Pike O Blisco in the Lake District

now to Snowdonia - this is another of my favourites - it doesn't sit on a summit but on the Aran ridge between Aran Benllyn and Aran Fawddwy

and the huge obelisk that sits on the Nantlle Ridge in Snowdonia to mark the summit of Mynydd Tal y Mignedd

I'd like to say my favourite fell in the Lake District had a cairn as grand as the above but unfortunately, poor old Blencathra's beautiful summit is marked by a rather scraggy pile of stones although I've added a few more in the times I've been up there, not that it has made a lot of difference!

Would love to hear of favourite cairns that any walking blogger chums may have and as always I love reading all your comments. Til next time ............

214!

Yesterday was a very special day for a friend of mine - she was completing her Wainwright round by climbing her final two Wainwrights, Fleetwith Pike and Haystacks, therefore completing all the 214 fells Alfred Wainwright climbed and featured in his pictorial guides.  It was an early start - 5.15 alarm call then in the car to drive to the Lake District to meet Shirley and some other walking friends at Buttermere and it certainly was a day to remember!

Haystacks - a watercolour I painted for Shirley as a memento of her special day

The weather at the beginning of the day when we all set off was grim to say the least!

On the summit of Fleetwith Pike - it rained all the way up - no view!
photo taken by Shirley

Walmscale Beck swollen so it was boots and socks off to wade across - a first for me!!
photo taken by Shirley

On the summit of Haystacks - and a new member of the Wainwright completion club!!!

While celebrating on the summit the clouds cleared and we enjoyed sunshine and blue skies for the rest of the day !

The route up Fleetwith Pike which we climbed in the pouring rain earlier!

Haystacks looking gorgeous

A great end to the day!!

Climbing all 214 Wainwrights is some challenge to take on especially when you live a fair way from the Lake District but it's something I quite fancy doing in the future - at the moment I'm just happy to be in the mountains, but there is always something special about climbing something you've not done before and I'm keeping note of any new Wainwright fells that I do - and if I ever find I'm within reach of that momentous 214 then I might just go for it!   after yesterday I'm up to 63 so I've got a long way to go yet !