Bowes Moor

I took the dogs out today for a walk up onto the northern part of Bowes Moor. Part of the route was on the Pennine Way. Still pretty wintery up on the hills but good to see the re-appearance of the Golden Plovers and the resident Red Grouse are staking their claim to their territories.

Swaledales on the moor.

There are more photographs on the website, nothing spectacular due to the overcast conditions but hoopefully they will give a flavour of the walk. To see them click here.

Gallery Saturday.

I managed to get a walk in this morning before opening the gallery. It may only have been a short route through Flatts Wood here at "Barny" but it was good to spot my first Oystercatcher of the year. There are areas of the wood which are being cleared of scrub to re-open up ther views of this stretch of the Tees.

Barnard Castle.

There certainly seems to be more people around in the town, thankfully and the sale in the gallery of mirrors and frames is going well, ready to make way for this new stock.

Filling the shelves

  New stock continues to arrive on a regular basis and is always pretty exciting. Today it was the arrival of a re-supply of the popular little walking guides form Pocket Mountains. I suppose we do so well with these small books because they are a range of books which I use myself when out on the hills, especially up in Scotland. Now there a couple of new additions to the list with guides on the "Yorkshire Dales" and shorter walks in "The Northern Fells"

  Now of course we are mostly known for paintings and other "gallery" items but I suppose with the type of work which I am involved with we do seem to have a good customer base of "outdoor" types. I only stock a small selection of books and shortly these will also include the Wainwright Pictorial Guides as well.
Tomorrow I hope to get this range of books listed onto the website.

Good timing yesterday

Well the weathermen actually got it pretty spot on. Overnight we were treated to a layer of about 5 inches of fresh snow. Luckily I went ot the Lakes yesterday as today the A66 was closed from Bowes to Brough. After seeing Esther off to work safely in my car I walked back home with the dogs through the snow covered lanes. I diverted up through the woods and onto the moor where the call of the Red Grouse was about the only sound. By now it was quite misty and very atmospheric and some of the scenes were very inspirational for future paintings.

An almost monochrome scene through the trees.

Low level in the Lakes.

An early start this morning so that I could head over to the Lakes to obtain some more references for sketches. These days out are generally determined by the weather conditions and recently there has been a lot of snow on the higher central fells which would certainly provide a great challenge and photo opportunities. Unfortunately it also means that some of the features that I need in my sketches such as cairns, walls etc are hidden by drifts of snow. As I approached the fells from the A66 I could see that I would have to change my plans as almost all of the high ground was covered. Instead of a route into Coledale I continued on over the Whinlatter Pass. I did acomplish my aims even though I didn't get to the top of any fell.
It will take a day or two to get the photos online with a full explanation of my day but I was fortunate enough to get a good view and photos of this little chap.

He sat quietly as I stood a short distance away, thankfully the dogs by my side were calm.

The photos from the day are now online so to take a look click here.

A day in the studio

It was a day for producing more drawings for the Wainwrights in Colour project. I'm tending to sit and pencil draw a batch and the have a session filling them in with colour. Today I covered several hills which are near the top of the list for completion though some of the fells need the odd reference photograph to be obtained before I can hand the work over to the customer. As nice as all this snow is, it doesn't do me any favours for getting the required views of cairns, gullies, waterfalls etc.
I couldn't have gone over to the lakes today anyway as Esther needed my car to get to work due to the snow and ice on the road down to the village.
So today it was just a couple of short walks for the dogs in the snow. I was hoping to catch a great sunset but left it just a bit late to get to the best viewpoint. (must try harder!)
Still, I did come back with a decent enough photo which looks better in Black and white I think.

The forecast for tomorrow looks promising so I plan to set off early and get at least some references over in the Lakes as the prediction is that we are due another dumping of snow from Tuesday night onwards.

Guess what? It's snowing again!

Another day where we woke up to a white world. This time a covering of about 2 inches but it continued to snow lightly for most of the day. If the weather had been better we would have gone over to the lakes today but we made do with a shortish walk along the Tees Railway walk this time near Mickleton.

Kirkcarrion and Grassholme reservoir.

The reservoir is almost completely frozen over and has a covering of snow.

I do plan to have a day over on the fells this week though, I will use the snowy conditions to obtain any "seasonal" references which I require for the project.

Social Networking??

After a bit of consideration I took the plunge and joined "Facebook" today. Hardly a revelation I know but it will be interesting to see what benefits I can get from it, I have to find out how it works first! Don't worry, I have no plans to join Twitter.

A gallery day

Thursdays see me spending the day in the gallery. It gives me a chance to sort out stock and get some of the admin done. Before we open at 10am I take the opportunity to give the dogs a walk so that they settle down in front of the fire in the gallery all day. Fortunately there are some great walks which can start and finish in "Barny" so this morning I wandered through the mixed woodland of Flatts Wood which lies to the west of the town and runs alongside the River Tees. Always plenty of signs of wildlife here and today we were treated to a great view of this Roe Deer Buck.

Not the best photo I admit but it was still before 8am and the sun wasnt exactly shining. His antlers are still "in velvet" and he is quite muted in winter colour. He stood for about three minutes just watching us, as Bailey did with him. The Woodpeckers were also present, drumming on the trees, is this another sign of Spring?

Another film??

Not really... this time I was helping a friend out as part of her Journalism and Media degree. Fatma needed to do a short interview as part of her module for her studies and needed "personality" to film, she couldn't find one so she asked me! (lol). Using the Wainwright's in Colour as a topic we spent about an hour and a half filming what will be a short three minute clip, it should be interesting to see how it turns out. I think Fatma will post it on her Facebook account, she was trying to pursuade me to post my jottings on Facebook too so I will look into it.

Fatma behind the camera.

Fortunately the gallery is now organised and is back to all four rooms being open with one dedicated to the Wainwright's project. I can't wait to get the new stock in so that it all looks at it's best for the Spring.

Too early for a "Spring clean?"

It's taken a while to get the top two rooms of the gallery re-organised after the exhibition but today was the day to get stuck into the task. With  new stock arriving shortly I needed a wel laid out space to display the goods. At the gallery I am lucky enough to have four seperate exhibition rooms so now I have  made the largest one upstairs into the "Wainwrights in Colour room" this has space to show the remaining works which are un-sold at this time of which there are only 18 with another one sold just last week.

Meantime back at the studio I continue to work through the sketches required to complete the sold fells from the project.

A dull Sunday in the Lakes

We were fooled by the fairly decent weather at home to take a drive over to the west. By the time we reached the Stainmore Pass we could see hardly a thing as the whole area was shrouded in a mist. A bit of plan change was called for, any days for me out on the fells require me to get references for the Wainwrights in Colour project and low cloud or mist doesn't help. After stopping off at Rheged for a coffe and a bit of retail inspiration we then drove down to Grasmere where I was able to replenish some painting stock at the Heaton Cooper Studio. Later we gave the dogs a bit of a leg stretch around the shore of Derwentwater, it was only a short stroll but with all the people and other dogs about it gave bailey a chance to socilaise a bit. I wonder what people think when they see such a skinny dog? (We are awaiting a call from the RSPCA!)

Derwentwater shore.

We then had the idea of heading into Keswick for afternoon tea but the traffic was dire, they are digging up part of the mian street which is probably something to do with the flood damage. So, not to be outdone a short drive saw us at the tearoom at Mirehouse Sawmill near Dodd. It's a small world, as we walked in there to greet us as Derek and Alison from the Wainwright Society- he didn't even offer to buy the tea for us! Next time perhaps.

This was not a wasted day as we were able to chat about ideas for the gallery etc some of which we plan to put into operation soon.

Spring stock arrives

Even though January and February are reknowned for being quiet times in shops such as the gallery, especially in the current times, it's always good to take delivery of new stock as it then seems as if the new season is not far off. Today we received some of that new stock, our recent trip to Scotland's Trade Fair gave me some fresh ideas but todays delivery was from one of our popular artists, Dave McKeen. Dave produces really high quality wooden boxes made from locally sourced timber, each item is unique and they are always good sellers.

All I have to do now is photograph them and get the website uploaded with these new items. Roll on Spring!

Bailey's training update

After a good day out on the hills on Wednesday it was back to a bit of basic training for Bailey today. He doesn't pull on the lead as much and certainly is picking up the idea of coming to me when called. Of course this is still on the extending lead at this time as I think its too early and risky to let him off his lead on his own. A method which I put to the test today was to attach a "joining" lead between Zeta and Bailey for part of the time today. This meant that he would not stray too far as he was actualy being held back by Zeta. The idea seems to work as you can see from the photo, they both "sat and stayed" at some distance to me and they came when called. Progress I think.

High Crag and Haystacks

At last! Today was the day that I returned to the Lake District Fells after an absence of about 5 weeks due to the weather and pressure of work. The forecast looked promising for one of those bright but cold winter's days but as I headed west on the A66 low cloud could be seen hanging of the the high tops.  still, I pressed on and after an unplanned business call I headed towards Buttermere. Thankfully by this time the cloud was breaking and the sun made an appearance. It turned out that we had a great walk over High Crag and Haystacks, so bailey has now completed his first two Wainwright Fells, only another 212 to go!

To see the rest of the photos from today then click here

The waterfalls of Teesdale

 It's not often that I get out walking with a group of other walkers but today was different. The impressive waterfalls here such as High Force, Low Force and Cauldron Snout often feature on the Wainwright Society Forum mostly posted by myself and Gary Richardson on his website mywainwrights. Consequently a few fellow members of the forum organised to come over to Teesdale and see some of these sights for themselves. We only did a couple of short walks but the weather was very favourable with some bright sunshine in between snow showers. We paid visits to Gibson's Cave, Low Force and of course High Force.
I think we may get to see return visits from some of these visitors.

More photos of the day are now on my website- click here.

and more snow!

The wintery weather continues and today we had another light dusting of snow with the forecast of more to come this week. There was no point in travelling far today for a walk so it was mainly a day in the studio with a short local walk to give the dogs some fresh air.

The sheep are testing their hardy reputation.

Dog training: tonight was Bailey's first evening at dog training classes. Of about 9 dogs there he was probably the one who needs the training most but we were really pleased with him. We learnt the basics and now all we need to do is keep practising the right "moves", let see how he gets on!

Hamsterley Forest

The low mist and damp weather continues so today we took a short walk in Hamsterley Forest which lies just to the north of Barnard Castle. This is a great place to walk on some well made tracks through dense forest and as there were no views elsewhere then this was as good a place as any. Some snow and ice still remains on the trails which made it quite a challenge when trying to keep Bailey under control.

Still, tomorrow sees Bailey's first obedience lesson so lets see what happens there! Don't get me wrong, he's not a bad dog, just very strong minded!

A day for staying local.

A second day of milder weather which meant that the mist of yesterday still hung around. This gave me a very productive day in the studio working on The Wainwrights in Colour paintings. This is still a really enjoyable undertaking but frustratingly due to the recent snowy weather my days over to the lake District to gather references have been restricted, in fact the last walk over there was on Christmas day. I plan to put this to rights in the coming week.
Todays walk was only along the quiet country lanes near the house but it did give me a chance to give Bailey a bit more training.

Here Bailey and Zeta practice a bit of "sit and stay", he seems to be a clever dog but as you can see from the lead between me and him I don't risk letting him off the lead yet!

Mist in Flatts Wood

Before opening the gallery for the day I like to give the dogs a decent walk. The weather however was pretty poor with fairly thick mist so I opted for the simple wander through Flatts Wood which lies adjacent to the town of Barnard Castle and runs on the banks of the River Tees. The light dusting of snow proved interesting as I was able to identify the tracks of Rabbits, Stoat, Badgers and Roe Deer. There was hardly an opportunity to get the camera out but I did rather like these oak trees in the mist.

Cotherstone Railway Walk

Yet again we had more snow this morning so I left it until this afternoon to take the dogs out for a walk. For a change we headed over to the pleasant Teesdale village of Cotherstone to do a simple and fairly level route. This gives me an opportunity to give Bailey a bit of "on the lead" training over some new ground.

This is a great walk if you are visitng Teesdale, the bonus being that it can end at the local pub, the Fox and Hounds!

To see the photographs from the walk: Cotherstone Railway Walk

Doug Scott & Chris Bonnington at Rheged

We were fortunate enough to attend a great event at Rheged near Penrith this evening. Organised by the Wainwright Society, this unique ocassion was a "chat show" with the famous climbers Doug Scott and Chris Bonnington. In front of a packed house they recalled there climbing backgrounds and adventures.

This was a one off event to raise money for the rescue services involved in the recent floods in Cumbria, over £4,000 was raised during the evening.
Here are just a couple of photos from the event.

Doug Scott chats and signs prints and books. (The lady on the left had been on Mont Blanc with Doug some years ago.)

Chris Bonnington chats to some of the audience.

Peter Linney of the Wainwright Society thanks the guests.

Presentations to Doug Scott and Chris Bonnington.

If you would like to find out more about this event or the Wainwright Society click here.