Garden update!

Looks horrendous but Pedro dug out a new flower bed today and I need to get some more plants in! I've some Larkspur at the back and already there at the back are my two roses and honeysuckle and bordering the edge my lettuces! 

Not the greatest pic, but the rose has so many buds! And it the background (and not really our garden but upstairs that they never use!) my struggling sweet peas.

Fuchsia's are budding up...

...and the insects love the Alliums!

Lots of bees come to visit :)

Back in stock!

Back in stock over at www.etsy.com/shop/chloeillustrates

Wimbledon Stadium car boot!

How sweet are these two!? And so very nearly bought the surprised lion :)

A few more drawings from my parents loft!

Character designs for a fairytale...

If you know me well you'll know what my favourite fairytale is! Here are some initial character designs...

More finds in my parents lofts...old drawings of mine!

As I rummaged through a bin liner of mine and my brothers drawings, a theme emerged.
Cats.
It seems I've always been a crazy cat lady.

(not sure why I gave my Mam blonde hair. Back then it was jet black!)

This made me laugh, the second Disney film I watched was the Little Mermaid. As documented by my five year old self... *can't help feeling a little bit proud of the early praise from Mrs. Finley about my drawings! Hee!* 

Old picture books found at my folks! Paddington Bear

So whilst at my parents house in Hereford last week, I had a rummage in the loft and found a few of mine and my brothers picture books. His favourite was Paddington Bear, and I found three different illustrated types!

I particularly love the end papers in this one, illustrated by Barry Wilkinson. 

I found this one and another titled Paddington Goes to the Seaside and these have lovely illustrations inside, by Fred Banbery. We're all so familiar with Paddington wearing a duffel coat, it's quite sweet seeing him as more of a bear (Just like the statue in Paddington Station) Same story as above, but completely different feel!

And lastly this ex-library book (we had a lot of ex-library books!) illustrated by David McKee. The overriding thought I've had since I was a child about this particular book is that his hat is all wrong! I grew up on the tv stop frame animation series, and to me Paddington has a black hat and no wellies! :)

I've taken a couple of my old picture books back, and I'm planning over the next few weeks to get some pictures up! :) It's been wonderful reminiscing. 

Back to London and my garden!

 A week away and the garden has gone crazy! My rose has finally blossomed and here's the first rose of summer (sung in the tune of the Irish last rose of summer!) It's HUGE and smells divine.
My Rhododendron looks like it's had it though, but the Lupin that was on it's death bed has battled through the plague of aphids my gardens under and has buds. My Fuschia's budding up and the Geraniums out the front are in flower.

Ranunculus from the other week forgot to post it! 

Even my xmas tree is getting in on the flowering front.

I've had these come up which I've completely forgotten the name of! I think they might be a type of Allium perhaps?

And my two types of Wild Sorrel in bloom, so cheery!

And lo and behold! Strawberries! Won't be ready in time for Wimbledon, but looks like I'm going to have a bumper crop from my pot this year!

Hay Festival continued!...

So another huge highlight at Hay was listening to Michael Morpurgo talk to Judith Kerr about her life and how she became an illustrator/author (And learning her husband wrote Quatermass!) I could have stayed and listened to them chatting all day. They both read The Tiger That Came to Tea and some Mog. Just truly inspiring stuff. Afterwards, I walked past Mr. Morpurgo and shook his hand and passed on a tweet from the one and only Babette Cole in which she said "ask him if he'll sing a song!" To which I asked, which one, and she said "The one from Tom Stand's party at the South Bank Centre, the Devon Agricultural Workers song" He replied saying how singing can be a lot easier than talking all the time! He had another talk that afternoon, which sadly had sold out and I couldn't get a ticket, so I'll never know if he did!

Friday I went with my nephews to listen to Ian Whybrow read his Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs, which was tremendous fun! Lots of actions and noises :) 

Also managed a spot of clay model making at the National Trust tent! 

But for the majority of the week (which was dismally wet and cold!) I helped out with the music workshops ran by Cool Fossil Music and Roland. Pedro my boyfriend running the bass ones.

Lots of Dad's stayed to watch and a few Mam's :)

We also got in some talks about Music Therapy, Neuroscience and Music Education and even saw Dara O'Brien! Bumped into a few faces I know and Friday ended on gloriously sunny day! What a perfect week.