A day on the sands

He loves to comb the sand looking for sea treasure which he places in a brown grass basket his Mother wove for him when he was small.

Pip's family have lived here for several generations and have passed down the story of how they first arrived, a story that I would like to share.

The tale of Brave Grandpa Emmet and the wooden crate.

Many years ago, in a time that is thankfully mostly past, fashionable ladies of a certain set coveted fur to adorn their clothes. Some even wore the entire pelt of a poor creature around their necks, its little legs dangling down over each shoulder like some beloved pet (why they didn't find it grotesque I cannot say).

White fur became the most coveted of all and the Hudsons Bay Company dispatched a boat to find the finest examples of arctic foxes. Pip's Grandpa Emmit and his family were kidnapped from their home on the Aleutian islands, where they had lived happily on the tundra near the wild rocky shore, and wrestled into a rusty cage that was left on the deck of the ship.

During the long and agonizing voyage, Emmet noticed that though the cage was made of iron, it was held shut by a rope, which he carefully, gnawed at until only a slim strand remained. That night the boat encountered a terrible storm and the captain instructed his crew to take shelter in Smugglers Cove, but the seas overcame the vessel and it ran aground and began to sink.

During the ensuing commotion, Emmet chewed through the final twist of rope and the foxes wriggled free, making their way off the boat before it was lost to the wild and foaming waves and found their way by moonlight to the wide grass planes that reminded them of home.
And so they have lived here for many years. They used the old ship boards to line the floors of their new burrow and a round front door is made from a plank from the old captain's table.

On moonlit nights, when they gather around the fire, they talk about the tundra and the rocky shore and imagine how it might feel to stand in a world of white under the glowing moon, and those thoughts fill their hearts with a happiness they cannot describe, and they are gratefull to be all together.

Here is a little sketch of Pip with his friends, Eddie and Elliot making a sandcastle on the beach.

My new brushes are finally here and I've begun my painting of Stan and thought you might like to see how he is progressing. I've been adding some washes of color, working in my favorite palette of iron oxide and turquoise. This step takes some time as this is when I work out the volume of his face and pay special attention trying to capture the right look I remember seeing in his eye.

He is a canny otter, a little slower in his movements now as he is in his middle age, but someone with plenty of knowledge and a sharp mind.

Well, hello, My dears, and welcome!
It's been a bit of a fortnight I can tell you! The raspberries are ripe and Jayne has been collecting them from the garden and bringing them into the house ready to make into jam. It's a full-time job keeping Robin from eating them all, he's always slipping out of the study to "take a look and sort through them, to make sure they are not spoiling" (Of course he insists on eating any that he deems "on the turn").

I prefer to wait until they have been made into jam because that means cake and scones and loaves of bread will all need to be baked, and of course then eaten. I have offered to be chief taste tester once it is made, nothing like a little treat or three to help ease the day along. Until then I will stay out of the way in the safety of the study where I am working on my calligraphy skills.

Robin and I were spending our evenings on the patio but I'm afraid he has grown very fearful of the bats that swoop about in the twilight. He firmly believes they are young dragons and there is no reasoning with him so we have had to retire to the study and watch the sunset from behind glass.

I hope you enjoyed visiting.

Until next time take care and enjoy the summer!

~Jayne