If you have ever seen my workroom when I am in the middle of making a bird you would know how messy I am – blaming it on only having a tiny space to make wool birds in. There are whisps of wool across my desk, half-full marmalade jars of cloudy water thick with paintbrushes, and sketchbooks, notebooks and bird books strewn across all the remaining space. So it should not surprise you to learn I am a bit of a messy thinker too. This has become much worse since I developed long

Making this rook marked the beginning of a long-term project ~ a collection of bird sculptures representing individual birds who have become famous for one reason or another. The particular individual rook who inspired this make has a fascinating story as an individual bird and he is a bird that you can still go and meet in person for yourself (albeit he is no longer alive). More on that in a later post. However, I have also wanted to specifically make myself a rook for a ve

The decorations are down and carefully packed, the tree has been mulched at the Whitstable lifeboat station and our visitors have returned home. My house is duller, colder, emptier. I am into my January wintering. I haven’t gone anywhere. My special place to winter is here at home, especially in-front of the log-burner. Wintery music, short story audiobooks and nature podcasts accompanied by steaming cups of earl grey tea are part of my hibernation, as are biscuits, crochet a