Welcome to Melanie’s September Monthly News! We start off this month in a similar way to last month and talk about the Race For Life. I wanted to thank everyone for donating to my Race for Life donation page. Amazingly I raised a very healthy £820 for a worthy cause.
I ran for a wonderful lady called Anne who you can see pictured below. If you look below I printed the image and pinned it to my back. I wanted to do the race in under 30 minutes and I managed to do it in 29.56… a close one! It was a hot humid day and when I was passing the duck pond, all I wanted to do was plunge my hands in to cool down. Luckily for the ducks it was tapped off!!
We were in heats so that we were not running together. I came second in my heat which I was pleased with. You can just pick me out with my two friends in the middle of the photo below. I believe I did Anne and her family proud.
My friend Jo and her daughter made some amazing cakes for after the run – the were delicious!! Everything was pink of course… from the cakes and their decorations to our outfits and pink nails!
Poorly Lily and Gentle Walks…
Lily has been poorly this month, we aren’t certain what she did however she was in pain and was unable to climb the stairs properly or jump onto the sofa and had winced when we picked her up. We were obviously very worried about her. The photo below was when she was having a cuddle when she didn’t feel well.
There does seem to be a shortage of vets which is either due to Brexit or Covid, or a bit of both, so they seem to be extremely busy. It was Monday morning and then first appointment was late afternoon on a Wednesday, or we could take her to the out of hours surgery that evening. When you are worried your dog is in pain and aren’t sure what they have done, i’m sure you will agree our choice to opt for the evening appointment was the right option.
The vet checked her over and believed that she could have either hurt her neck, which can give her back and leg pain or hurt her back or left hind quarter. So she gave us meds and off we went. She had the meds for 3 days however they sadly didn’t agree with her. So on the vets advice we stopped the meds and just took it very easy over the following days, no walking to start with. It took her a good couple of weeks to get back to normal and we started on some very short walks. Thankfully at that time the weather was still good. As you can see form the photo below along the lane…
We even took a slow walk and picked some blackberries along the little track. Many dogs eat blackberries and will pick them from the plant themselves. lily has no interest! I think she wondered what we were doing!
The Rowan berries are beautiful at this time of year… but not to be picked and eaten raw! You can eat them, but you must cook them. We don’t eat them…. we photograph them instead! Aren’t they an amazing colour red!
Autumn is Here!
The weather has started to get a lot more rainy here, we are truly into Autumn now. We have rain forecast every day for the foreseeable in our weather app and so this scene below is a common occurrence at the moment! We are just thrilled she is back to her old self again.
Swansea 10k
A week after the Race For Life, we did the Swansea 10k race, the first event back since covid started. We had signed up for it in the summer and hadn’t realised it was creeping up on us so quickly. We were given bright pink t-shirts, as you can see I’m wearing mine below. The event was celebrating 40 years since it started. So the theme was Back to the 80’s and the entertainment reflected that. 80’s music, live bands and people dressed up – it was incredible. The A Team van was even there!
We all ran amazing times! I came in at 1hr 5 and was absolutely thrilled. We were all given a banana, water and the medal at the end, the food and drink extremely welcome, as it was fairly hot being a warm sunny day. As you can see from the photo below we were all elated!
The medal below show the fun 80’s theme with bring neon colours celebrating the 40 years. A fantastic media, a fantastic day and we will do it all again next year!
Dads Pumpkin Patch
We visited my parents recently at their little small holding. Dads pumpkins have grown so well this year. As you can see in the photo below with dad Nicholas and Lily in, they have taken over a whole area below his polytunnel. So much so, you cant even get into the end of the tunnel very well due to all the huge leaves and pumpkins! Isn’t the view incredible though. I grew up with that view and probably all the years never really appreciated it when I was there. You can see right up to Snowdonia on a clear day.
I took a photo of one of the pumpkins and put my hand on it to give some scale. Nails still had the back to the 80’s vibe from the Swansea 10k run!! We hope to collect a few pumpkins in a couple of weeks so we can do them for Halloween. The next blog post will hopefully show our results!!
Lily obviously had to get into the photos and this was an outtake which we loved with one of the little pumpkins we took home to eat.
Tregaron Bog Boardwalk
A few days ago we took some time out on the weekend to head to Tregaron to the boardwalk with Lily. It’s quite a drive but a lovely place to spend some time wandering along the boards looking at the birds and wildlife. It’s mostly dog friendly which is fantastic and Nicholas took this photo of Lily and I having a little sit down on a bench there.
This photo gives a better view of the bog is and how lovely it is to walk on the boards. You can read more about Tregaron Boardwalk on their website – Cors Caron
We met a number of pals along the way including this Grasshopper who sat on my hand for a while. He posed well for photos too! Grasshoppers have to be one of my favourite critters.
The scenery is amazing there. It’s hard to imagine that the whole areas was once ice and then over the years melting into a huge lake surrounded by dense woodlands gradually forming into a bog.
There were a number of different types of dragonfly there, this was the smaller of the varieties and luckily sat for a photo. They don’t sit still for long!
There are many ponds across the bog, one shown below. There is always plenty of bird life to see too.
If you are squeamish… you might want to whizz on by! This is a Four Spotted Orb Weaver Spider. isn’t it amazing! The camera picked its markings up really well considering I had zoomed in on the iPhone. It was pretty big, not something you would like to pick up….!
The final photo shows the dramatic sky we had that day, the clouds were high and moving fairly fast, it didn’t rain luckily! We hope you have enjoyed the bog walk photos and if you get a chance to stay in the area, it is well worth visiting.
Christines Sunflowers
One of our lovely neighbours this year gave us two of her sunflowers to grow up our new fencing in the garden. When they arrived they were in two little pots not even a foot tall. We planted them against our fence and all summer they ahve been climbing and climbing. We cant believe how tall they grew! Just as they were flowering I took a photo with me standing next to them for scale.
The heads were beautiful and they definitely opened up and followed the sun as it moved around the sky each day.
Early Morning Studio View
I was up early one morning as the sun was rising, and the light on the trees was beautiful. The photo below is an updated one with the new fencing, I need to update them on the website too.
The New Log Shed
We have had a few trees down this year and some were dry enough to stack. So we converted an old shed next to our woodsheds into an adjoining woodshed. It was hard work bringing all the logs up from the garden. I think I must have done around 45 to 50 wheel barrow trips over three days getting it all finished.
They all stacked well though. Nicholas had split them with his log splitter earlier in the year so hopefully they will be ready to use next year.
I didn’t manage to fill the shed with the logs but there is room for the next load when its drier next spring.
Pencil Drawing
This is my most recent drawing which is going to be given as a surprise gift this Christmas! My client was thrilled and its on its way to them as I type!
Oh it’s so beautiful!! I love love love it!! THANK YOU so so much!
Oil Painting of Tobias
The painting below is of the most beautiful dog called Tobias for a client in Mexico.
I hope that you have enjoyed viewing our photos and reading Melanie’s September Monthly News. If you missed last months blog post, why not visit our Melanie’s August Monthly News and catch up! we hope to see you here next month – keep well and safe everyone!
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I do so love your Blog – and of course the rest! I’ve been in the painting doldrums lately, and you serve to remind me that that isn’t a luxury you can afford when you have a living to earn! I always remember your kindness in giving me tips on a horse painting some years ago, since which time I’ve painted lots and had a number of commissions! So thank you!!
Hi Hilary, So lovely to hear from you and I am thrilled that you have enjoyed my blog this month. I’m also glad to hear that you have been painting and doing lots of commissions too. Yes sometimes its not easy but we take plenty of days off and time out fixing up the cottage and garden and so that helps to focus us when we are in the studio. I hope that you have a good month of painting, enjoy it! 🙂 Melanie xx