Ernie and his rubber ducky

8" x 8" Acrylic on canvas

Illustration Friday's topic this week is 'Memories'
Well I have very fond memories of watching Sesame Street and Ernie was definitely a favourite, actually he still is:)

Red Admiral Butterfly

Snapped this fellow a couple of days ago in the garden, isn't he a beauty!
Apparently they feed on nettles and buddleia and over ripe fruit.
I have all three, the fruit being blackberries!
It's nice to know somebody's benefiting from the abundance of nettles and brambles in my garden:)
I was surprised at the beauty of the design on the underside of his wings, his showy top side is almost boring in comparison.
He was quite friendly fellow too, he landed on my leg and stayed for a chat, not that he had much to say.
But in the words of Mr. Ronan Keating 'You say it best when you say nothing at all'
Lyrics, that I might add, I've always found annoying and offensive.
I mean, what, is she too stupid to express herself or too annoying when she does opens her mouth?
Anyway Mr. Red Admiral could have been telling me the answers to the universe and everything but I was far too busy oohing and ahhing at his gorgeousness!

Bats in the belfry

Ok I don't have a belfry but I did have a bat in the conservatory this morning.
He's a Pipistrelle, the most common bat found in Ireland.
Sorry about the poor quality of the photos but I was too excited by my guest to concentrate on the photo shoot!

He was tiny, about four cm, with his wings closed anyway.
But you should have seen his fangs, a mouth full of tiny sharp needle points that he kept bearing every time I went near, just as well he was a pipsqueak!
I found him just sitting on the floor and he made no attempt to spread his wings when I picked him up.
I put him into a box to keep him safe from Ms.Tippytoes the cat.
Gave him a drink of water with the head of a cotton bud, which he thoroughly enjoyed and put us on a far more friendly footing!

The water must have revived him, a few minutes later he crawled out of the box, sort of half flew, half fell to the floor, which seemed to remind him that he had wings and then he flew a little groggily out the door.

I hope he's ok, I was rather bereft to see him go, I had grown quite fond of his furry face:)

The Owl and the Pussycat

Illustration Friday's topic this week is 'Sail'

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

First verse of the poem by Edward Lear
I had to look it up as I could only remember as far as '...a five pound note'
So I didn't realise there were stars involved!
Oh well they have actually sailed right through the night into the dawn and Mr.Owl has put his guitar away and they've eaten all the honey:)

Submarines in heaven!

Love this song and the video is my idea of heaven!
I have just started surfing again after a six year lapse and now I can't believe I've left it for so long.
It's fantastic.
Although I do have to say it's Irish surf, that means I'm covered from head to toe in neoprene.

Dandelion clocks

Illustration Fridays topic this week is 'Poof'

One dandelion clock, one big puff and poof it's gone with the wind to create lots more dandelions.
Great, just what the garden needs!
But still I can't resist.
Poof, there goes anther one!

Rain Angel

Rain Angel


String of Pearl


Handful



Just a few more raindrops.

Purple Rain

There's been a lot of rain here recently and consistently.
So the minute we got a bit of sunshine I was out the door with my camera to collect some raindrops!
I don't know the name of this amazing purple plant, so if anybody out there has a clue I'd love to hear it:)