Here is a first look at the sculpture I started recently. It is to be a type of horse found here in Britain called a Heavyweight Show Cob. I just smile and smile every time I have seen one of these horses. I’m just plain drawn to their short-legged, fat-butted, roman-nosed sturdiness. Probably the kind I’d need if I ever were to take up riding. And I’m seeing them a lot over here, as they are quite a popular horse for all kinds of riding.

As a sculpture, it will have a nice element of versatility for me in the china finishing department. If I add feathering to the legs and sculpt in a mane on a greenware piece, it can then become a Gypsy Cob, which come in interesting pinto colors. This sculpture is “traditional” scale, in model horse collecting terms.

I have also given it what I think is the perfect name: ROUNDABOUT!
It ought to be my most precious souvenir/memento of my time here, appropriately “born and raised” in the UK!

It’s been far too long since I finished a sculpture and I am so hoping that “Roundabout” will be the vehicle to take me down my re-energized artistic road.

I’m coming down with a headcold this week, and at this point I don’t have energy for more than typing at the computer. Which makes it a good time to sort through our Scotland trip photos and write about it.

Overall impression: Scotland looks SOOO familiar!! If you have been to upstate New York/Adirondack mountains, northern Vermont, or New Hampshire, you will feel right at home in Scotland. We couldn’t get over the feeling we’d been there before, all week. Though the Scots have much better-looking and more interesting housing styles and architecture, ha ha!! Their stone cottages and ruined castles/abbeys/cathedrals are something we sure don’t have in New England.

I was delighted to see that as we drove north the hedgerows went away!! I noticed it right around Lancaster as we were passing by the Yorkshire Dales National Park area. The fields bordered by thick hedges gradually were replaced by drystone walls or just fences. Hooray! I think the hedgerows are definitive rural England but they are so annoying if you are trying to SEE things on the other side of them. You can’t! If the land is flat like around Maidenhead, there is no view. In the north of England and Scotland they had fabulous stone walls. (Again just like in New England!) I was very very happy to be able to enjoy the scenery hedge-free. Here’s a photo of a genuine Yorkshire Dale, with stone walls and sheep:

Thanks to the amazing worldwideweb, we found a dog-friendly apartment rental about 10 minutes from the center of Edinburgh. But the apartment’s site did NOT prepare us for how enchanting the place actually was! Here’s the description:

” “Peffermill House” dates from 1636 and has its own 4 acres of gardens at the end of a private drive. It is a Schedule ‘A’ Listed fortified tower-house, built solidly of stone, which was renovated and restored to its present outstanding condition some years ago, and it is as well-furnished and comfortable inside as its Virginia creeper-covered exterior is beautiful.”

Well, the photos only showed one (back) side, and when we got there we could NOT believe our eyes. An exquisite 3-storey stone building that had a turret stairwell and formal gardens. And we got the whole bottom floor! (The listing just said “garden apartment” so we assumed we’d be in a building attached to the property somewhere.) An “L” shape building with the tower (containing a stone spiral-stairwell) tucked into the inside of the “L”. It had two bedrooms which was more than we needed, but it made it all so spacious. One bedroom was made up all in tartan colors and the other, plus the living room, had barrel-vaulted (round) ceilings. The owners were both college professors and invited us up for drinks Sunday night. We had an enjoyable 2 hours talking with them about everything from history to politics! There was an impressive ruined castle (Craigmillar Castle) less than a mile from this house and the owners told us that originally the tower house was all part of the same estate.

Here are photos:

This photo was taken in the 1800’s:

We spent most of our time exploring all the riches Edinburgh had to offer. We were right on the bus line into the city center. Both of us were so impressed with Edinburgh and its city and suburbs. We both said we could easily imagine living there. The art museums and the architecture were great. We loved the way the whole city had preserved so many of its old buildings, rather than building new modern things, like sadly London has done so much of. It is built across several hills and that landscape makes the area so interesting! There’s a large park with a very high ex-volcano peak right in the middle of everything, called Holyrood Park. The highest point there is Arthur’s Seat, which we climbed with the Boyz. The views were wonderful across the city and we could see the Firth of Forth estuary easily, even though the weather was pretty misty and overcast.

I loved the combination of the mountains in view around the city, plus the seascape/port, plus all the history in evidence. Meets all my needs! They even have some ski areas in Scotland. Now, if it wasn’t always so cloudy, damp, and windy…! I suffered a bad hair day all week, that’s for sure.

That said, we were actually pretty fortunate with the weather. We only got rained on for a little bit on two days. The rest of the time we got at least partial sunshine. It wasn’t freezing cold. I am so glad we got to see the highland foothills in autumn with the trees turning color. How I wished the sun would come out and light up many a scene, though!! We explored all parts of the city, spending time in most of the museums and the castles. They even have a ruined abbey at Holyrood Palace (the official Royal Residence). We had to giggle by the end of the week because it seemed no matter which castle, church, abbey, or stately house we visited, Mary Queen of Scots had stayed there!! I’m sure it was all true but it began to seem like a bad tourist joke.

The view across Edinburgh from their castle. That’s the Forth estuary in the background:

This is the ruined abby on the grounds of Holyrood Palace:

One day we drove over to Stirling, to visit their castle and town. A compact town on its hill, impeccably kept! It sits in the middle of this broad valley with the river at its foot and long views from the castle. We had lunch at this pub. We were attracted to the name (Drouthy Neebors), but we can only guess what it means:

The view from Stirling Castle. That’s the William Wallace memorial tower in the distance:

Stirling Castle, from the back wall:

Speaking of guessing, sometimes the Scottish accent people had was so strong, we couldn’t understand them. For some reason, I thought everyone in Scotland would sound like Sean Connery, ha. Wrong!

After Stirling we drove about an hour northwest to Loch Lomond, our first real Loch. The Boyz waded and chased sticks in delight. Too bad it was so grey but the long view was stunning even in the mist.

On the way, we came past a field with real Highland Cattle, what joy!! There they were in their pretty green field framed by the Loch, just waiting for a painter to come along and turn them into a classical landscape:

Another day we took a drive across the Forth Bridge to Fife, a coastal county with a series of fishing villages like this one:

We ended up in St. Andrews, the famous golfing mecca. I was more interested in the ruined cathedral and castle, and it was also a lovely university town. The Boyz can now say they’ve been in castles AND cathedrals! Here they are checking out what’s on the other side of that arrow-slit in the wall:

St Andrews town is bordered by the ocean and the sea was amazingly rough, even though the weather in town was not bad at all. The storm must have been out at sea. No fishing boats were out that day!

We did not stop to see the golf links, not being interested in golf all that much!!

After St Andrews we drove back west and north, through Perth, on the way up for another peek at the Highlands. We drove up along the main rail route from Edinburgh to Inverness and stopped at roughly the halfway point. There was a vintage stone train trestle there at a place called Killiecrankie, complete with round stone turrets! I was thinking of my Dad the whole time, the family train watcher. It was such a gorgeous spot on a tributary of the Tay river, with the fall trees and the mountains rising above. I wished we could have kept going north!

We could have spent a month in Scotland. We didn’t even do any serious hiking, and only scratched the surface going no more than an hour from Edinburgh on any day. There are SO many castles and ruined abbeys, it was hard to choose. I’d like to go back and explore the western islands and get into the real highlands in the north. Maybe next spring! It only took us 7 hours (with a stop for lunch) drive from Maidenhead! The Boyz are always up for a ride:

On the way back we turned aside from the motorway at Carlisle, to see a part of the famous Roman Hadrian’s Wall. It was a rainy day but it let up enough for us to walk the fort remains at this particular site (among the grazing sheep), and try to imagine what the area looked like when the Romans were there. (Not easy!) The wall used to be higher than the height of a man, now it is about waist high at least where we were. Looking at all the stone walls in the area, you could tell where most of the stones went. Another Must-See place checked off the list, anyway!

A couple weeks ago I read in the paper that the Queen was hosting the President of India in a state visit at Windsor Castle, which is a pretty rare occasion. (They usually do it at Bickingham Palace in London.) They were holding the official welcome and then a procession right in the streets of Windsor, and I simply had to go today!! Probably would never get another chance to see the Queen up close like this.

I was able to stand right on the side of the street less than 10 feet from the parade and carriages, what fun. We were right under the castle wall which was a great backdrop. I was waving and cheering right along with the Brits. The Queen and the President of India (a woman, whose name I ought to look up but am too lazy…) were in the first closed carriage, followed by Prince Phillip and (I assume) the President’s spouse. Then Prince Charles and Camilla were in an open carriage so I got a good look at him, and he looked right at me. I’m thinking, “o my gawd, that’s Prince Charles!” because I didn’t know he’d be there too, and I almost forgot to take the photo! It all went by so fast because the horses were trotting. I’ll have to look in the newspaper tomorrow to read exactly who all was there; I’m thinking Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, might have been in one of the carriages, too.

The Household Guards and Cavalry were wonderful; everyone was mounted so what a treat for a horse lover. There was also their mounted band with a stunning drum horse, and a troupe of Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead mounted police. I was standing with a group who had a family member riding in the Household Guards and another with a husband serving in Afghanistan. I don’t know how she could tell which cavalryman was hers, among all those black horses and identical uniforms!

Here’s the Queen and Prince Phillip riding down the road in the car to the ceremony:

Then coming back up in the carriage with the President of India:

I only got a photo of the back of Prince Charles’s head:

And here’s me trying to look like a British Subject!

I think Obama needs a State Carriage and a mounted Household Guard.

Oh happy happy day, the sculpture of the Cleveland Bay horse I created for the Breyer® Animal Creations company is going to appear in their line for 2010, in a new color. Light dappled grey, loose mane version, #1277 named O’Leary’s Irish Diamond! I’m guessing this will be designated as an Irish Draught or Irish Hunter, as that would be a good breed fit for that mold. They almost always release their models based on a real horse so maybe someday I’ll meet O’Leary’s Irish Diamond in person.

I am told there is a photo of it in Breyer’s collector magazine, Just About Horses, but mine hasn’t made it across the Pond yet. I am so delighted that I’ll be able to see my work on the store shelves again! Now I will have the fun of tracking them down here in the UK. I noticed last summer that the famous Hamley’s Toys on Oxford Street in London had a large Breyer department, so I may try there first when we know for sure they are out.

We just got back from a great week in Scotland! We decided at the very last minute to Think Bigger and go there instead of to the Peak District. It took about 7 hours to drive up to Edinburgh. I plan to write a longer post about it, but here’s a little teaser. Just LOOK at the place we (and the Boyz) stayed…

I finally got around to sorting through out photos from the Malta trip. It was a good thing we mainly were seeking a lot of time reading by a pool, because Malta and its companion island Gozo are really small! A week was just enough to see everything.

I have to say that Malta is not beautiful. Not like many of the other Mediterranean places we have been, that are so achingly gorgeous. Sadly, I’m guessing that Malta got caught up in the real estate bubble of the last 10 years and then got crashed when it burst. There are so many unfinished construction projects on the islands, terrible infrastructure and streets, rubble everywhere. Granted, it has such a frightful history of being occupied, despoiled, enslaved, overrun, and bombed (right up through World War II), you can’t be surprised that it looks kind of beat up. It’s amazing anything from ancient history survived! The Med just came off a super-hot summer and all the fields on Malta were completely brown and dry, which didn’t help. Perhaps it looks better in a green springtime.

The historic heritage city centers of Valetta and Mdina were great, the more rural little villages on Gozo, and the sea of course was beautiful. But the areas where the tourists were concentrated in the bays and coves around the main urban areas of Valetta were overrun with ugly high-rises and ugly bars and ugly newer malls, and again a lot of places looking like they were abandoned half-finished.

We were so happy that we had chosen a hotel in the center of Malta near Mdina rather than where most of the hotels were, on the ocean. It was originally a palace and had an old world faded yet stately grandeur. And a fantastic pool area. It also had a sister property on the ocean in one of the main hotel zones, so we went there two days to lounge on their “beach”. There aren’t many sand beaches, and any place that has a metal ladder or stairs cut into a rock platform or rocky cliff to the sea, is called a “beach” or “lido”. Even the 5-star hotel we had access to just had a rocky slab on the water and that was their celebrated beach! But we enjoyed watching all the ship and boat traffic, and swimming, anyway.

It was so so nice to be in warm weather for a week before the long slog of wet winter gets going, back in the UK. (Though I’m delighted to say we’ve had such a dry and warm September and October here so far! What a treat!) We drove our teensy little rental car everywhere, on some pretty scary roads. We took the car ferry over to Gozo, Malta’s smaller and more rural neighbor. We were in search of our first-ever swim in the Mediterranean, and we did get our chance to do that. Plus toured their little Citadel town, Victoria, in the center of the island. The day we went was a national holiday Monday, and it took a 3 hour wait to get the ferry back at the end of the day! I think everyone on Malta with the day off went to Gozo!

Here are a few photos from Gozo:

The above photo of the walled Citadel at Victoria on Gozo illustrates the way the historic stuff was surrounded by the abandoned-looking ugly new building works.

Valetta’s Grand Harbor:

Practically all the streets in Valetta had a statue of a saint on the corner, like above. I don’t know who this one was, but the dog at his feet with the biscuit (?) in its mouth particularly caught my eye.

The ancient walled city of Mdina was the hands-down best place on the islands. It had never been destroyed or taken, over all the years, perfect in its timeless preservation. It was tiny with an incredible Knight’s cathedral, and enchanting little streets. We went back in the evening the next day, just to see it by golden lamp light, exquisite! My artist’s eye was drawn over and over to compositions like these:

We had lunches in little homey places like this pizzeria in Rabat, the interesting town outside Mdina, below. We laughed and laughed after we left because the owner had a voice and mannerisms exactly like the character “Watto” from Star Wars Episode I (the winged junkshop/slave owner of the child Anakin Skywalker):

The attractive carriage horses in Mdina all had a jaunty feather like this in their headstalls:

And now as promised, a little tiny bit of art news.
The Caprice china horse that I was molding and cleaning up, never survived. I had knocked a leg off early in the process, and even after trying to attach it 3 times, I just couldn’t get it to stay on. I should have stopped work on it after I knocked the same leg off the 2nd time. But I thought I could just do all the clean-up on the piece and then stick it on at the end. Wrong! Sooo, just like a real horse, if it can’t stand on its legs it can’t live. All that remains is the pretty head:

I’ll get it fired to bisque one of these days! I learned a heck of a lot from that failure—isn’t that always the way??

This week I finally got around to putting together that Optime that I showed photos of the casting of the pieces, here on this blog. I am even more in Awe of Mark and Donna who had cast this horse for me in the past. I can’t believe they got any copies of this sculpture, with that tail, in the kiln. The tail only attaches in 2 very thin places and mine was wobbling all over the place, awwk! I ended up adding several supporting struts of new tail to mine:

I’m going to carve most of the tail down so it will be unique. And I glopped on a new mane, which I will also carve into new shapes. I am determined not to bump off a leg or something, on this one!!

I also started a new clay sculpture. I’m not ready to talk about it, and I have another one in my mind I want to get onto an armature, too, but I don’t have a spare at the moment. Fortunately we’ve just booked a trip back to Boulder around Thanksgiving, and I plan to bring back another of my armatures with me. Plus I’ve got a little list of Things We Can’t Get In England!

I hope you’re having a great autumn!
Oh, and: GO DENVER BRONCOS!! 5-0!! (I’m so frustrated that the year I go away to a place where I can’t see their games, they go 5 games undefeated!!!)