En annan tröja jag målat på frihand.

What a little beauty! Meet Larch, a 4 week old Long-eared owl currently being hand reared at Kirkleatham Owl Centre in Redcar, Cleveland.

When I’m not painting, you’ll usually find me here. They’ve got a really active facebookpage (www.facebook.com/kirkowls) – I’d highly recommend taking a look if you like cute owls (and don’t we all!!)

by Kathy Davie

Night Veil by Yasmine Galenorn
Series: Indigo Court, 2
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Second in the Indigo Court urban fantasy series revolving around Cicely Waters as she and her friends scramble to protect themselves and the town.

My Take
Small bits of this are evolving into a story starting to resemble Galenorn’s Otherworld series in that Cicely is gathering her friends and allies together.

Ooh, this is kind of eerie and weird. I’m getting a very nasty impression of Geoffrey with some questions about Lannan. Then there’s Lainule’s actions… Yup, spooky enough that I’m starting to wonder who are the good guys in this tight little group. And don’t get me started about Leo!

Nice bit of Cicely’s backstory with Grieve and Kyrstal. Don’t know what Grieve’s hurry was. He’s fae. He’s got forever.

Galenorn is a bit too much tell with a clumsy approach to introducing one of the dramas of Night Veil: Kaylin’s evolution and if they can beg the help he’ll need. It’s like this throughout the Night Veil with great dramas that, well, fizzle, and others that do provide tension. Maybe I’m asking too much.

Then there’s Cicely. Supposedly an intelligent woman—no, I’m not assuming she’s brilliant. But she is supposed to be street smart, and she has Ulean to help her escape trouble. So why does this “intelligent” person do so many stupid things? There are the vampires and that dumb contract that irritates me so. There’s the tragedy of Grieve and Cicely and the lack of thought put into their interactions. It’s too dangerous for her to be around Grieve now, and of course, she does want to be with him. Fair enough. But, do her thoughts have to be so idiotic? This goes back to my personal prejudice against those clichéd fallbacks.

And then the house. Veil House. Galenorn makes a big deal of how the house is sitting on a powerful crossing of ley lines. And they can’t hole up in the house? What? They’ll get an apartment and that’ll work so much better?? Gimme a break.

I understand Galenorn using the vampires to instill fear, terror, and utter humiliation. It just irritates me that Galenorn set up that contract in Night Myst, 1, as she did, and then contradicted everything in it. It’s stupid, I know, to harp on that one point. But it bugs me. That’s another thing. If Cicely is so valuable to the vampires, why are they so willing to degrade and hurt her? Galenorn does not allow Cicely many choices. Not that she has this not-too-bright girl thinking very hard or doing any research to find out what she needs to be wary of.

Color me stunned. And confused. I do not understand Anadey’s reasoning in this. How is this supposed to help their situation? How can she betray Cicely like this?

Whoa. Even though Galenorn was trampling a path to this ending, it was not what I expected. In some ways, it was too easy. That little speech of Kaylin’s, true as it may be, could have used some finessing.

The Story
While isn’t that just lovely?! Geoffrey and Regina taking over and implementing their own plan without thinking. Almost like Geoffrey when he first turned Myst all those centuries ago.

The results of that latest stupid plan have merely ramped up the attacks and the deaths on the inhabitants of New Forest.

Results that force the wicked three into revealing their plans early. It almost makes Kaylin’s oops to the Consortium seem benign and their demands a walk in the woods.

The Characters
Cicely Waters is a witch who learns in Night Veil that she is soulmates with Grieve—and of the importance of the heartstone. Ulean, Cicely’s Air Elemental, bound to her service by Lainule, protects and warns Cicely. Aunt Heather was taken and turned in Night Myst; all that’s left of the family is Cicely’s cousin Rhiannon Roland. Leo Bryne is Geoffrey’s day runner and Rhiannon’s fiancé with a fascination for vampire culture.

Grieve was a prince in the Court of Rivers and Rushes, nephew to Lainule, the Queen of Summer, and born of the Cambyra Fae, a Shifting One. Then Myst attacked, and he is the focus of her plot for vengeance. Chatter, while not noble, is his best friend and cousin, but Cicely rescued him in Night Myst. Turns out that a Fae named Wrath is her father, the Lord of Summer and Lainule’s consort—the owl who has been training her to shift. And there’s a purpose to her birth…

Anadey runs the town diner and is a shamanic witch who can work with all four elements. Peyton Moon Runner is her daughter as well as the temporary short order cook. She’s half-werepuma and half-magic, and she’s setting up Magical Investigations alongside Cicely. Only, the father, Rex, who ran off, is trying to wriggle back into the picture.

Kaylin Chen is a 101-year-old martial arts sensei and dreamwalker possessed by a night-veil demon. The King of Dreams and his shaman have been watching his progress. Luna is a bard with issues.

Geoffrey the Great is the Northwest Regent for the Vampire Nation, turned when he was a warlord during the Xiongnu period. Regina Altos is the Emissary to the Crimson Court; her brother, Lannan, is a professor at the Conservatory, and a sadistic, cruel vampire who delights in the humiliation of others. Crawl is the Blood Oracle, a thing twisted and corrupt, a vampire who gave it up to become seer to the Queen. He sired Regina and Lannan.

Tim Wylde, Alder, and Snell are all weres reined in by Ben Sagata, the alpha of the Lupa Clan.

Ysandra Petros is from the Consortium; she was a close friend of Marta’s.

Myst, Queen of the Indigo Court, was fae before Geoffrey turned her, and she intends to destroy Cicely while her Shadow Hunters destroy the world starting with New Forest.

Shy and Cherish (she was Myst’s daughter) are Grieve and Cicely in a long ago time. When both betrayed their own races.

The Vein Lords, a.k.a., the Crimson Court, a.k.a., the Vampire Nation, are the vampires. Yummanii are the fully human. The Consortium is a worldwide organization of supernaturals, who, along with the Vein Lords and certain officials, run the world. The Court of Dreams, a.k.a., the realm of the Bat People who are the children of demons, can be too real as a place of both dreams and nightmares come to life for the eaters of hope, love, and dreams. Akazzani are a group of historians—yummanii and magic-born. Guardians. The Moon Spinners are the new society in New Forest.

The Cover
The cover is cold with a slightly whacked-looking Cicely standing in the snowy woods in her skintight, white lycra pants, her white leather vest, zipped open to show off her cropped burgundy top, and holding her bloody knife while the gray-and-white wolf that is Grieve lurks in the background. The colors are perfect: the cold chill of white and the Indigo Court with the red of blood.

The title is all about Kaylin and his own heritage, the Night Veil. ]]> http://thehouseofjones.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/52-weeks-of-happy-1652/ Mon, 13 May 2013 20:21:00 +0000 thehouseofjones http://thehouseofjones.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/52-weeks-of-happy-1652/ Ahoy there!

I hope you’ve had a good week. It’s been busy here – week 3 on renovations, we’re getting there! I’m getting quite impatient to have it finished now…

Anyway, on with this week’s happies::

1. Daffodils

I really do just adore them! I’ve not counted up how many times daffodils have appeared in my happy list, but I bet it is a lot! I promised The Bert that this would be my last pot of tete-a-tetes but given how cute they are, I feel that may have been a little foolish! There are actually quite a few happies in this picture – the big daffs next to them are in the gorgeous vase my sister gave me for my birthday. This is the 5th item I’ve got from this pottery lady, Sarah Billingham, I just love her work. On the shelf above are another birthday present – three adorable tins from The Bert. Love the design and the colours and having space to store bits and bobs – he knows me well! And those that have been reading my happies since the beginning will spot my cake stand (week 5) and my lovely mugs (week 9) – oh and there’s my amigurumi Simon Owl there next to the tins too!

2. Big BBQ weather

The weather on bank holiday Monday was amazing! We had set aside the day to paint, but the new plaster still wasn’t quite dry, so instead we constructed the BBQ my uni friends had given us for our wedding. We didn’t get round to it last autumn, but with the good weather upon us we thought it was time to give it a test run. Wow, it is a B E A S T ! and worked like a dream. Perhaps designed for slightly more food than we put on it though, hehe! (who knew gas canisters and gas were so expensive though?!).

3. Crochet bunting

With the baby blanket finished, I returned to my crochet bunting this week. All the flags are made now, and I thought I’d be good and proper and attempt to block them into shape. This is the first thing I’ve blocked. I bought a foam seat pad from Dunelm Mill (£2.99) to pin them into but then realised that I didn’t have a spritz bottle to give them their spa treatment spray of water. So instead… try not to laugh… I took them out into the rain for 10mins! The rain seemed to fall everywhere except on the pad – I was considerably wetter than the crochet. Who knows if it will have worked or not.. I tried at least!

4. My clever sister

This has made me so, so happy this week. This beautiful blanket has been made by my clever sister. She started knitting again at the end of last year, and so for part of her Christmas present I bought her a book of baby blanket patterns. This one is called Baby Blocks and the alternation of knit then purl stitches creates a lovely woven effect. Isn’t it brilliant? And so neat! I am not a knitter, and can’t comprehend making something so big, with so much counting!

She is on a bit of a roll, as she also made this amazing owl…

…and five hats for the charity Christmas shoe boxes.

I hope you’re having a very happy week,

Jones x

link to more of my art online
My love for the animal world in synchronicity with the human world is a motif you will find throughout my work. Some say visionary art is a departure from the ordinary world, art as a tool for transformation. For me art is an opportunity to turn dreams into reality and to leave behind a document of what was and what might be. When the ‘might be’ comes into fruition, potential energy goes kinetic, raising vibrations, and is a catalyst to healing a disenfranchised spirit.
wolfman painting

Wolfman acrylic and birch bark on canvas (private collection.)

They are the most incredibly beautiful birds. Graceful and menacing. Delicate and fierce. Seemingly huge talons for their size and weight.

Historically, they’ve had contrasting reputations. In this and may other parts of the world they used to be given names like “Death Owl”. Their eldritch screeching made people nervous, and their totally silent flight (specially adapted feathers, which in the evolutionary trade-off means a disadvantage of not being waterproof) conjures up ghostly souls flitting through the trees. More recently their usefulness in getting rid of rats and surplus rodent populations has come more to the fore, and there’s great work being done to encourage farmers and locals to look after them, put up nest boxes, provide the right habitat. (We live in between a couple of farms, and occasionally get invaded by rats, hence the initial push for a nest box – actually I guess most genuine farmers have always recognized their value, hence their name; having a barn owl roosting over winter would help keep predations of the grain down).

Even so, there are only two to three thousand breeding pairs in the UK, now, down from ten times that a few decades ago. Traffic, pesticides, loss of habitat, all take their toll. If owls could think like we do, I guess they’ld see these respectively as death alley drones, chemical warfare and scorched-earth policies.

I sometimes think the best thing I’ve done in recent years was putting that barn owl nest box up. They need help more than authors do. The point about publishing books you believe in is that maybe you can persuade a handful of others around to a particular way of thinking. Hence, in this case, Earth books and the most recent title, This is Hope.

Here is one of four stamps that I have been working on, the Barn Owl.  Done completely in photoshop.  I didn’t know painting an owl was going to be so fun!

I’m not in the mood for anything. I just want to take a long nap.

We arrived 7.30am in London and hopped a train to Hove station where we’re staying with my sister. We didn’t have long to settle in because the main task for the day was finding an arm chair for Owl. We visited six second-hand furniture stores in the morning. It was proving difficult, there were many small details about the chair that I hadn’t realised were important: the angle of the back, the width of the arms, the depth of the upholstery. Fortunately there are a lot of second-hand stores here selling good quality stuff much cheaper than in Cape Town.

At midday we popped in at the Nightingale Theatre, the space to be our home for the next couple of weeks. It’s a lot like Alexander Upstairs – a smallish room above a pub with a capacity of around 40 -50. It’s got a couple of advantages… better lights and more stage space; just as we have ours. Both of us share the problems of being a small space, the biggest being bad sightlines from the operating desk.

The Nightingale team is led by Steve, a trim bearded dancer who occasionally does kicks. He makes us feels very welcome and the office is very friendly. That’s generally the feeling of the Brighton Fringe – friendly and welcoming. The locals are far more mixed, ranging from the scarily grumpy to the scarily cheerful.

Thursday has me working on the armchair’s spinning mechanism and then watching as Briony subjects it to the blocking; spinning, jumping on it, tipping it and then deciding it was too nice. So we scratched it, tore it, kicked it and stained it in to a more suitably disreputable state.

In the afternoon we went to a Participant Mixer hosted by the Fringe and featuring free pizza and wine. We set out to enjoy ourselves first. A lot of people see these sorts of events as opportunities to meet important people and make them come to your show. It’s not. It’s an opportunity to meet interesting people, have some free wine and have fun. Maybe you’ll meet important people too, and that interaction will be more rewarding because it doesn’t follow from an agenda. I met a Master synchronised swimmer, a part-time actor and air-steward, a former prostitute, a sartorial comedian, and a Welsh cake. Our new fest friends We Are Goose are doing a musical on the life and work of John Hunter. We had pints!

We opened with 2 shows on Saturday and one Sunday. The audiences were small but very attentive and there have been some great tweets about the show and Briony’s performance. So far we’re feeling confident that the run will be worthwhile. It’s also great to be out of Cape Town for a bit and some perspective on our little theatre world.

When quartered moons pale in the sky,
and neons glow along the dark
like deadly nightshade on a briar;
Above the muffled traffic then
I hear the owl, and at his note
I shudder in my private chair.

For like an auger he has come
to roost among our crumbling walls,
his blooded talons sheathed in fur.

Some secret lure of time it seems
has called him from his country wastes
to hunt a newer wasteland here.
And where the candlabra swung
bright with the dancers’ thousand eyes,
now his black, hooded pupils stare,
And where the silk-shoed lovers ran
with dust of diamonds in their hair,
he opens now his silent wing,

And, like a stroke of doom, drops down,
and swoops across the empty hall,
and plucks a quick mouse off the stair…

Ducky by Phil Burns

AnElephantCant understand duckies
Though he thinks they’re remarkable birds
A cute lady duck
With aplomb and with pluck
Shakes her tail and says much more than words

Where there is a pair there is always a third duck
Who is starting to look and to wonder
He thinks she looks neat
With her little webbed feet
He has more on his mind than a gander

So the hubby gets always irater
He will flap and he’ll squawk and he’ll frown
But she’s the real boss
She does not lack sauce
It’s enough to get an eider down

He knows she is cute as a Daisy
He would be unhappy to lose her
So he keeps his eyes open
He is wishin’ and hopin’
No other chap will manage to goose her

But this menage a trois is going nowhere
She knows her partner is still a good guy
It’s not really on
To have a quick swan
Wow that would cause the feathers to fly

Frank the Drake is indifferent to eagles
He doesn’t worry she’ll become owl prey
But when she takes a walk
He watches her like a hawk
To make sure there’s no chance of fowl play

Owls are fascinating creatures because of their elusiveness, a trait that always piques our interest. And due to the unlikelihood of most of us coming eyeball to eyeball with an owl, which on a snowy owl is almost the same size as our eyeball, here are some interesting fact about these intriguing feathered creatures.

What more do you know about Owls ?

• Owls are active at night (nocturnal).
• Most owls hunt insects, small mammals and other birds.
• Owls have powerful talons (claws) which help them catch and kill prey.
• Owls can turn their heads as much as 270 degrees.

But do you know …??

A group of owls is called a parliament.

The prints will be soon available for sale on Sketchii Studio’s etsy shop.

A Bengal Eagle Owl swoops in during a falconry display at a wildlife centre. English Lake District