Parc and Cnicht - Chimneys, Gables and the Mountain

Four small paintings

Skyfall

'It was awesome! Terrifying and exhilarating in equal measure...   The freefall was fast [100mph approx], furious and thankfully brief [60 secs].  Then things slowed down, wonderfully, with the parachute. 

 

You are so small up there, looking out over three coastlines and and the fields and hills of Devon, Dorset and Somerset. But despite the terror of the heights I did it; helped on by over £1000 raised to help some of the poorest people in the world through the amazing work of Christian Aid. Thank you everyone.'

From Portmerion

From Bossington towards Porlock Weir and Forland Point

Changling images

Another painting, another view, another change... just, I guess, as the tides and sands and seas change.

 

Chaging images

 

What started life as this, has become this... any thoughts... not that it can go back; the undo button doesn't apply to oil paint...

Cul More

A study in blue and ochre... painted from a watercolour sketch of many years ago.  Cul More is a beautiful mountain in Sutherland in the North West Highlands of Scotland.  It is often forgotten amidst the celebrities of Suilven and Stac Pollaidh; perhaps in part because of this it is graced with solitude and space. 

 

 

Kingscliff in Autumn

 

A little painting

More sand and sea

 

Selworthy Sands, barely known and only accessable at low tide, and via a roped scramble down the scree; but beautiful and etherial, as such beaches so often are... 

 

Above Kingscliff Woods

Just to prove that I also paint closer to home.  This is the upper end of a regular run of mine; where the woods, once a royal forest managed by Geoffrey Chaucer, give way to the first hills of the Quantocks.  There was a hard frost this morning, but the sun was breaking through the mist; and, for the first time in months, I ran up the hills, as well as down them...

Coquet Island

The second attempt of 2012; not as good as the first painting, I think.

Coquet Island

Coquet Island, from Alnmouth, once again.  The Northumberland coast continues to fascinate and inspire me.

Keeping painting; another blue cross

Back to the hills

After nearly three months off the hills; a torn ligament in my knee, and more than enough work, in school and beyond; I am back running and painting.
The hills are hard work, and Exmoor is freezing!
I hope that this blog will get up and running properly and some pictures will be up here as soon as possible.

Misunderstanding the best of intentions

I walked into our bedroom at 7.00 with Jane's early morning cup of tea to find her just stirring, as I put down her tea I whispered 'stay asleep' [if you can't have a lie in on Mothering Sunday when can you?] and went downstairs to the children. They were all up for running downstairs and giving Mum her presents, alongside cold coffee soggy toast. But we all kept quiet. Then at 7.40 I went back upstairs, I needed church keys so I could go off and do the 8am Communion. Jane looked up and said, 'Can I get up now?' We ended up doing Mothering Sunday presents at lunch time. Even the best of intentions can go wrong...!

Spring

A woodpecker heard and seen
high up in Kingscliff,
the Parrott at flood-tide flowing upstream at Moorland
[15 miles inland],
glimpses of rising sun as a run;
blossom and daffs and forsythia.

An interview and an half job offer
[which I couldn't take up].
A lauren cut down
to extend the zip-wire;
man-hunting and bouncing and swinging.

Planning and training for school,
with the end at last in sight
and a scary amount to complete.
Church and Cubs, cleaning and cooking and baking;
and I find a moment to speak to Jane.

A time of change
growth
development.

A season of light
warmth,
sudden frost.

Spring.

Blue Suilven

It is the summit that I remember most clearly, close cropped green grass, of the kind that you only get on sandstone, above towering cliffs. But to get there there was a seriously long slog through the bog to the most amazing loch ringed with red sand, then the thousand foot of steep climbing and the ridge, which at times I traversed on my knees.

It is a small mountain, less than 2,500 feet, but it isn't a mountain which is easy to forget, and the more I write the more vivid it becomes. I have remembered my first ever view, from the Altnacealgach. I have remembered the view from Canisp and the view from the Devil's Elbow, upon which this painting is based.

Minehead

This is my attempt at what must be one of the most photographed and painted views in Somerset [Church Steps, Minehead, in case it's completely unrecognisable!]. I painted it over ten years ago and had almost forgotten it, until I saw it hung in a new house.

It was good to get away after Christmas, and to catch up on some sleep and running and some teaching tasks. I got lost up the Barle, and ran up North Hill, including the zig zags without even wanting to stop. Then on our return Jane got Wii fit and it said that I was a couch potato for it's jogging programme! And that morning I'd run up Wills Neck twice.

We set holidays for the rest of the year and I've managed to commit to three crazy runs over the next six months. The 15 3000ft peaks of Snowdonia, the Exmoor coastal marathon and the Classic Quarter - see http://www.endurancelife.com/ for the latter two.

I finally sorted a few cupboards [which have been on my to do list for the past six months] and cleared all the books on my side of the bed. When I asked Jane which ones she wanted to keep on her side I got the response 'What's wrong with all of them'. Jane was prooved right as I remembered why I had kept a Disney Princess musical book of Kathryn's off her bookshelf and deep under the matress!

It's been a good holiday and I'm just about ready to go back, or certainly to send the children back to school.

Moon, Sand and Snow

It's been a while, blogging has been one of the causalities of too many overlong days, working beyond midnight and then starting again before six. Even the running has suffered, although I have, just about, managed to get out a couple times a week. And there have been some amazing dawns, the moon on the high Quantocks on 25th October [pictured]. And just a month later, I wasn't the only idiot up on Wills Neck in shorts, despite temperatures of -6! Is there a special club for those who wear shorts in the snow, I was asked? I was the first human out after the snow and was following the deer, foxes and squirrels through the woods. This morning, even a week after the last snow fall, I found tracks that no human had ventured, the reason for one un-trod section became clear when my legs [still wearing shorts] vanished into a three foot drift, the first of many. There was then the most amazing steep run though deep snow back down woods.

The second half of the term has been almost overwhelming, incredibly hard work, stressful, great fun, and much more. Would that I had got more done when things were quieter in September and October, but I have managed a few key tasks in the run up to Christmas, and on 8th January have my English and ICT tests, which I need to pass to get Qualified Teacher Status. But despite all of that, I have continued painting, occasionally, always a very good sign, and the headline has been that I have really enjoyed it. And I have managed, just about to keep up cubs and church, time at home and all the rest. As we put in our Christmas Card, who needs to sleep! Next term I'm at Axbridge, which will be a completely different experience, and then back to Bridgwater for the summer.