TRIP TO ENGLAND 2016 PART 1

 

We're back home now from our latest trip to England where we stayed on our favourite camp site, Alderstead Heath, which is very close to the M23 and M25 motorways.  We managed to get onto the best pitch, no 13, with it's lovely view of the trees and fields.

 

The weather was far too cold to sit outdoors to draw so I had the windscreen as a frame for my sketches.  The sun set behind the trees in the distance here tinting the sky pale pinks and oranges after I had finished this sketch.

 

We visited Mum most days to cook her lunch and spend some time together.  One afternoon she went to her community tea party to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday, something Mum herself will be doing later in the year.

 

The afternoons were quiet and relaxed, Bob snoozed while Mum read the paper and I sketched them both!

 

Back at the campsite I collected a bunch of wild flowers to draw in my Museum watercolour pencils.

 

There were lots of cowslips under the silver birches between the pitches as well as wood anenomes in the woods but I ran out of time to draw them.

 

 

This silver birch was just next to our parking place and I spent a couple of hours one evening drawing it while the squirrels foraged for food in the grass.

I'll be back in a couple of days with our visit to Jo and James, à bientot!

 

10 YEARS OF CAMPING CAR HOLIDAYS

 

We have had our camping car for 10 years now and are still in love with the freedom it gives us to travel and have all our home comforts with us, not to mention all the space to carry our bikes and bring home plenty of wine from the vineyards we visit!  I've searched my sketchbooks and only found a few drawings of our extra home so I thought I would put them together in this post. 

This first picture was drawn on the Mediterranean coast a few kilometres west of Sète.  The main road had been diverted from the coast so the old road became a camping car park where you could spend a night or three as long as you were self sufficient in electricity and water etc. as there were no facilities.

 

On our journey to the south of France we usually stop in the geographical centre of the country at St Amand Montrand, where Bob used to work as a repair engineer about 40 plus years ago.  There is a camp site but it's not always open and the camping car aire is very convenient being just off the road into town and next to an attractive canal.

 

We park at the water's edge for the night to recover from the 8 hours of driving it takes to get there and walk into the town for a meal in La Rotonde, the bar bistro where Bob and his colleagues used to gather all those years ago.

 

I've drawn Bob here in the morning studying his Kindle while I sit in bed with my cup of tea.  There is only room for one of us at a time to move about in the camper so in the morning I stay put until he goes off to shower, then I get up to make the breakfast.  It's a nice life being relaxed and not in a hurry and I had plenty of time to draw.

 

This is copied from a photo taken from a bridge over the river Tarn at Millau, another of our favourite stopovers on the route south.  The campsite is right next to the river and if we arrive early enough we get this lovely pitch on the bank.

 

 

This little sketch is in the trip to Sweden book and drawn on one of the rainy days when we were stuck inside on the camp unable to do anything but relax and drink a glass or two of wine!

 

 

When we go to England to visit Mum we always stay at Alderstead Heath caravan club site and here we also have a preferred pitch next to the bluebell woods.  I've drawn these silver birches several times now as you can see in this view through the windscreen.

 

In May the bluebells are fabulous with their scent and the colour, irrestible to try and capture in watercolour.

 

There are rabbits too who pop up here and there but I've only managed to draw them once.

We are off again to England again next week so hopefully I'll be back with more sketches of Alderstead as well as some of the family. 

AUTUMN 2015 UK TRIP PART 4

 

For the last blog in this travel series I'm concentrating on the pages in my lovely coloured paper sketchbook I've been working in since the beginning of the year.  I'm still using the Museum watersoluble pencils from Caran d'Ache as they really are the very best I've ever used.

 

While we were at Alderstead Heath we found a new walk across the downs to Coulsdon Common which took us through fields of maize, woods, past a lovely old church and ploughed fields full of these lumps of chalk and flint.  When I picked up this piece it fitted perfectly in my hand and as I walked I started to get a vision of a stone age person using it to scrape the skin off a rabbit before preparing it for a meal. I wonder.......

 

Our pitch at the campsite was next to a pretty green area with trees and plenty of mushrooms hiding in the grass and it was quite difficult to tell the difference with the fallen leaves when I sat in the sun to draw these from life.

 

I have drawn these trees before and I make no excuses for drawing them again, they are always in front of the camper window and look so different at various times of the year and day.

 

This clump is a bit further away across the grass and the setting sun was brilliant, sparkling through the branches and catching the top of the hedge.

 

The last sketch is a melange of mushrooms and the twigs of clary sage I picked at Ightham Mote when I visited with Janet.

I hope you've enjoyed our latest trip, the next one will probably be in the new year to Tenerife again.  I'm going to have to think of something different to draw there  as I've done all the gardens now!

AUTUMN 2015 TRIP PART 1

 

The day had barely dawned and we were getting ready to leave to catch the ferry at St Malo.  I looked out through the bathroom window and was rewarded with this lovely view of the moon and Venus in the paling sky.  This is the first page in a small moleskine sketchbook I took with me in my handbag to record our latest visit to the family in England.

 

 

The channel crossing was calm and uneventful and I just did a little sketch of the view as we sat in the reclining seats after lunch.

 

 

We landed at 6pm and made our way to Cranleigh in Surrey to spend the night with our friends Dick and Camilla.  They live in a lovely part of the country and in the morning as we walked around the garden we came across Stripey the cat sunning herself in the summerhouse.

 

 

Their adjoining field is surrounded with oak trees and I picked up a few leaves and feathers to draw later.

 

We went on the our campsite at Alderstead Heath and settled in to recover from our journey.  In the afternoon the sun was warm so I sat and drew the view from our favourite pitch, no 15, which luckily was available. 

 

On Saturday morning we set off to Mum's with some shopping for our dinner together, she was so pleased to see us as she hasn't been very well lately.

 

I cooked the dinner and then as Bob and Mum relaxed with the papers I took the opportunity to do a bit of drawing.