Garden

Afternoon folks.

I hope you are all safe and well after the second bite of the Beast from the East!

We didn't have that much snow but the wind was cutting. This morning the sun was out and it made things a little better but we are still waiting for spring to arrive, as are this month's lambs who have suffered these last few days. Many have succumbed to the cold, we managed to rescue two at the weekend but lost two more, another two were found curled up in the field this morning never to awake. It's hard when you look after stock and not a lot you can do when the weather hits. 

I do hope spring is not far off as the garden looks so bare, there are a few early daffs in pots by the back door but the rest are keeping their heads down. 

Over at CAS Watercolour Challenge their theme is garden and as it was so cold this weekend I stayed indoors and had a bit of a paint and this is the result.

I've had this stamp for awhile but not used it, so the theme gave me the push to ink it up!

I decided to stamp it onto a die cut panel of white card with Memento Tuxedo Black, then heat embossed it with a clear dull EP so that I could add my watercolour within the detailed lines a little more easily. As it is such a detailed stamp, I used my Zig watercolor brushes rather than paint or DI.

I love iris, but I don't have a sunny enough garden for them, I may just have to dig another bed in a sunny spot just so that I can add some. I do grow alliums, I grow them in pots and add them where I want them, they have the flowers after the foliage so it can look a little unsightly if there is no foliage to hide the leaves as they die back. The flowers on the other hand are stunning and I must have at least 5 or 6 different varieties, from the very large specimen varieties to the little bobble headed ones. They look great in the wild flower meadow I'm trying to make from what was a field. 

A simple greeting from Marianne was stamped and embossed to match the flowers.

On the bright side of lamb rescue the OH took a picture of our dog Max doing his nursemaid act with one of the rescued lambs.

The wonders of a hot water bottle, honey and a warm range ended up with this lovely pic.

Red 43 and Max paraded around the kitchen before being reunited with her ma, the lamb taking great interest in my oven gloves and curtains. Luckily she didn't leave any nasty surprises! Getting her back to mum was a different matter and involved me getting mobbed by the rest of the ewes as we tempted her back into the field closer to the house with a bucket of feed. 

Max is an odd dog, he is very protective of his charges but has a sixth sense when the lambs are not going to make it and came to tell us of their demise. The other rescued lamb ended up with a waterproof jacket and was put back with it's mum and sibling in the small paddock at the back of the shed. It looked quite happy to have it on and Mum accepted it back without a problem.

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