Gone Camping!

I’m off to the Orkney Folk Festival with my big sis and some friends.  Road trip!! We’ll be gone till Monday night.  Expect some photo blogging next week!

I’ve been pinning lovely road trip images on my Pinterest board

Hannah Curio x

May Wildlife

I like the speed at which the natural world changes at this time of year.  Its all go go go.  And there are some newcomers in the garden – like the swallows and swifts and martins, and there are more bullfinches about too, which is nice.  And the slugs are nice and big and juicy.  We need some nice weather so there will be lots of insects for the swallows to eat.

And the grass is growing super fast, and the trees are finally greening up, and there is blossom out.  It seems like things are suddenly happening, but the plants and animals have been preparing for this energy surge all winter, like performers practicing a play.

I’ve seen pipistrelle bats at dusk in the garden too.  My dad used to sit out late in the garden over the summer months, watching the bats in the dimming light.  When I was a little girl I could hear them make their strange high pitched noise but I think my ears are too old now…

Bat Linocut Print by Three Bears Paws

I saw a yellowhammer in the hedgerows this week, too, the first for a long time.  They are one of my favourites.  Their song goes ‘Little Bit of Bread and NO Cheese!’.  I drew him, he’s here.

Hannah Curio x

The Book of Animals

I got this well-loved old book at a secondhand book fair this week.  It’s called ‘Book of Animals’.

The inscription says it was given as a gift to Charles for Christmas in 1928.

“Young hares are called Leverets, and are the dearest little things, with their big golden eyes and pretty ways.”

I’ve just recently draw a Little Leveret (see her here) so I liked that quote.

I like the Brown Bear entry too:

The book tells us that

“many years ago there did live bears in Great Britain… but now, if we want to see a Bear, we must go to the Zoological Gardens.

… Bears are not at all particular about their food, and will eat almost anything.  In captivity they enjoy buns or a leg of mutton, while a jar of treacle makes them grunt with delight.”

It’s lovely, eh?

Hannah Curio x

time for a catch up

I’ve been a busy little bee over the past couple of weeks.  I’ve been working on lots of new drawings, which is exciting.   I exhibited some of them at Art at Ancrum, a mini arts festival in the little village of Ancrum in the Scottish Borders, and lots of them are now in my Etsy shop as cards and prints.

Its been a dramatic time for the pets of our household.  The sad news is that the goldfish died, although the period of mourning is relatively short because he was so old we’d forgotten his name.  In the same weekend, Chirpy the Budgie defied the odds and turned 17, which must be about 150 in human years.  And finally, Buddy Bear had a little op to put an end to hump o’clock, and is now feeling very sorry for himself:

Have you been busy, nice readers?

Hannah Curio x

At The Donkeys Pt.2 – The Drawings

As promised, here are the first of my drawings from my trip to the Scottish Borders Donkey Sanctuary:

Two Donkeys by Hannah Longmuir

My Neighbour The Donkey

Like them?

Hannah Curio x

Rainbow!

lovely weekend.

Hannah Curio x

no one told the trees

I felt summery today! I went out without a coat (teeth gritted), wore a t-shirt I associate with nice weather,  sat on a bench… SUMMER!  Hello!  Its funny how you feel the difference all of a sudden.

Apparently no one told the trees though.  They are still leafless and bare, skeletal against the sky.

photographs taken up Duns Law, the highest point of the town (but still not very high) looking down to the Cheviot Hills.

And here’s a picture of my big fluff ball of a bear-dog, all four paws off the ground:

Hannah Curio x