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LADY CAPTAIN’S DAY, BOURN GOLF CLUB – 30th July 2013

What a great day! The theme was the Queen’s Jubilee, and lots of ladies wore tiara’s and much bling! I was very honoured to sit at the ‘Queen’s’ Table (Lady Captain). The prizes for the day were box canvases of photographs I have taken of the course over the years. I printed out the pictures on Epson Premium satin canvas, and made-up the prize box canvases. See below:

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Golf and Roe Deer

Played in an AM-AM Golf competition at Richmond Park Golf Club, Watton, Norfolk. Our team made 100 points, but took second place on ‘countback’. But the real highlight of the day was that just below the 18th tee in the River Wissey which runs through the golf course, a mother Roe deer and her fawn were ‘messing about on the river’! They graced us with their presence for a good five minutes before deciding they should run and hide – but how beautiful was that!!

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The ‘Last Hunt’ is hanging in Australia

In the heat, not getting much work done – although I have played several golf competitions and tennis matches! Heard from Narara, South West Australia that the Last Hunt (The Three Horseshoes, Comberton, Cambridgeshire) (Oil painting – Artist Code 0014) which I sent over has been safely received, and is ‘nicely hanging on the wall above the telly!’ Great news.

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Garden Snails and Herbs

I am hopeless at gardening, so asked my lovely husband to kindly prune my herb garden as the plants were getting rather straggly and crowding each other in the tiny plot at the front of my house, beside the caravan! As I sat upstairs working in my office, with window open, suddenly I could smell all the aromatic herbs as they were being cut – wonderful! A big surprise, though, as these beautiful snails came to light, resting behind a large swathe of golden oregano. I do hope they can find another damp spot to be out of harms way. It is surprising that just a small thing like making life more comfortable for your herbs, results in another creature’s discomfort – sorry little snails. The good thing is that we do not have any songthrushes around to gulp them, and the blackbirds are too busy pinching the newts out of my pond in the back garden to take notice!

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Special Nature

My little wild garden seems to be good for visiting insects. We have a sparrow nest box (3 compartments) which has never been used by sparrows, but recently a swarm of bumble bees decided to move in to one of the holes (west facing), and are enjoying all the wild flowers in my garden, plus all the hybrids and other exciting species growing in Alan’s beautiful garden next door. And, this week, all the dragon fly larvae which have been living in the little pond the last few years decided to climb up the Kingcup (Marsh marigold, Caltha palustris) stalks and take flight. It was amazing to watch. One poor dragon fly did not quite make it because as it eased itself out of the larvae case it lost hold and fell into the water where it was immediately attacked by our myriad common newts – which took about half an hour to eat it all (except for the wings). Here are a few photographs I managed to take. Is not nature so amazing that it makes you feel something special when you see it!

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White Helleborines re-visited

Just spent a glorious hot, humid, sunny morning amongst White helleborine orchids, sketching and photographing these beautiful little flowers for a future artwork (I have already used sketches from a visit in 2010 to make a painting ‘White Helleborines and Chiffchaffs’ (Artist Code 1103). There are not so many this year, but they are still tantalizingly beautiful to look at. Here are a few photographs:

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Sketching white helleborine orchids

Just spent a glorious hot, humid, sunny morning amongst White helleborine orchids, sketching and photographing these beautiful little flowers for a future artwork (I have already used sketches from a visit in 2010 to make a painting, view here). There are not so many this year, but they are still tantalizingly beautiful to look at. Here are a few pics taken with the camera:

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