Witley Court

I am slacking at doing this blog, I feel very uninspired at the moment so not really done much lately. This week we went to Witley Court in Worcestershire, it's very peaceful and beautiful there. I didn't really take many pictures as I was just enjoying the countryside, I liked the area more than the house. I liked the way the sunlight hit the building though.

There was one little building I did fall in love with there, it looks so Romantic, I love how this photograph shows the fields in the background.

And no trip to Witley would be complete without getting a shot of the fountain.

And lastly I found a fairy tale mushroom.

So yea, I highly recommend Witley Court, it's around 45 minute drive from Birmingham, it's not vegan friendly though, so if you want to visit the tea rooms as a vegan bring your own food and milk as they have nothing. 

Some Drawings and Paintings and Books.

Finally got round to taking those pictures of my pictures.

Excuse the 'curling' I've not got frames for them yet and guess it just happens with painting huh? Anyway, this is one I made for Wib's room he loves yellow and I thought the symbols suit him, altohugh I think I got wisdom a little bit wrong, the two boxes should be under the sticky out bit, grr.

Acrylic and Felt Tip

This next one I have made for my Bedroom, May paints are running really low and I'm almost out of all the colours so I tried to use up bits. I may make this one again when I get some more paints as the orange bit and dark green seemed a really good idea at the time but I'm not so sure now. This is my hippy sun.

Acrylics

I had to go to the library today to take some books back, but ended up bringing a load home with me and as the Co-Op is just over the road I had to go in to get some vegan doughnuts.... mmm Custard vegan doughnuts, sweet awesomeness with custard treasure, oooh with coffee and dunking and.....sorry I digress. Where was I? Yes, I got a loads of cool looking books out (and doughnuts) and I will try to do a drawing a day.

The Books I took Out

Hey, no such thing as reading too many vegan cookery books. the rest are all art, they had crafting ones too, but I think seven books is enough for now. I started on the Fantasy Art book right away, I've not even got to the instructional bits yet and felt a bit of creativity come over me, so here is my charcoal wizard. He doesn't look very happy but I'm kinda pleased with him.

Charcoal and pencil

I've never really drawn people before in my life, except piss take pictures on the guild website so this is my first real attempt, and boy how hard are eyes and noses to draw?

I'm going to Merry Hill tomorrow and will hopefully get some more acrylics AND finally get some glass paints, can't wait to try glass painting, I've been saving up coffee and jam jars to practice with.

Bit of a Break.

It has been a over a week since my last post, I've been suffering from 'man-flu' which has now turned into a chest infection, so I've been feeling like death. The five a day challenge is on hold and now Wib has picked up my bug too *sigh*.

I have however been up to stuff. Last week was non league football day and we went to see Halesowen Town play Workington. It was a really good match, Workington were quite a dirty team though and we (Halesowen) lost 1-0. It was a great day out (despite losing my voice through man-flu and feeling urrghh) and I'll defiantly be going again.

I spent the rest of the week sleeping mostly and making nice homemade soups, but Wednesday I went to Edgebaston to see The Bears play Northampton. What an amazing day out. Saw Trott and Hain get a century each, had a look around the museum  and generally relaxed for hours and hours of wonderful cricket in the sunshine. I got some nice pictures of Trott and I'm gutted in a way that he has not made the England team but that has to be good news for the Bears as he is immense.

I have also been doing some painting I'd post them but I have no idea where Wib has put them, so I'll post them later when he gets back from the shop. But I think I've flooded this blog post with pictures already.

5 A Day- Stourbridge

For today's 5 a weekday challenge Wib and I went to Stourbridge. The town with no sign posts, at all. The pedometer recorded just under 7 miles so we smashed the challenge yet again.

We went to the Glass Quarter today via the canal towpath, it was rather beautiful and quiet along the canal, I recommend it for a nice walk out, saw some beautiful dogs too.

We went to Stourbridge to visit the Ruskin Glass Centre I wanted to visit the Red House Glass Cone too, but Wib took so long getting ready we just didn't have time, sadly we missed a lot of the shops at the Ruskin too as it was late when we arrived. They do however have a cafe which serves locally sourced orgainc food, they also do vegan! However I brought some pasta and pesto with leek and mushroom I made in the morning as I'm used to not being able to eat out any more.

So with most of the studios closed, we didn't get the full experience but we did see an awesome guy who engraved and embossed bottles and glasses. You take in a bottle of champagne or a bottle of J.D or Beer or whatever and he would write on it and draw stuff on it, it was so cool, he was working on a wedding bottle when we went in. I wish I had the courage to ask him if me would mind me taking some pictures but I didn't feel it was appropriate. We also saw a guy blowing and molding glass with his hands, in was very hot in that room but what am amazing skill I would LOVE to learn how to do that.  We saw a woman painting an enamel bowl thing which was so intricate and beautiful. But my favourite studio there was Kairos Sculpture http://www.kairos-sculpture.com/  check out his website and go visit, such an interesting guy who is really passionate about stone carving and is also really knowledgeable about the stone he uses and it's source and very interesting. You can see on his website many of the sculptures we saw today.

All in all we had a really lovely time today, and I can't wait until my next trip to Stourbridge. Tomorrow is non league day supporting grass roots football so Wib and I will be doing our bit and going to see Halesowen Town play for the first time.

The Hels 5 A (week)Day Challenge and the Zoo

Without the Spoon Challenge and stuff, I've not really had anything to post. Unlike a Certain Gwen I suck at finding stuff like that. So I'm making my own challenge. The 5 a (weekday) challenge. That is, I am going to try to walk at least five miles every weekday (because there are too many people about on weekends and people freak me out).

Today Wib and I walked 7 and a half miles around Dudley Zoo and had an awesome picnic of Hummus and Sweet Potato Pakora.

 Sadly I didn't get any pictures of Daseep today but I got one I'm really happy with of Benji the orangutan.

And for the first time in almost a year we saw Inca the bear actually awake!

Not sure where we are going on our adventures tomorrow, but I'll add a photo and stuff when I get home.