Flies & time

THIS MORNING on tottering downstairs towards the morning cup of tea, I found a drowning fly flapping for his upside-down little life in the dregs of last night's hot chocolate cup. So I scooped him out on a fingertip and sat with him on my hand for some time watching his perfect little fly-drying routine. He would wipe his big little eyes with his front legs like a cat over and over again, and then swap to his back legs which he hooked over his wings to wipe off the tiny remnants of chocolate, scraping them slowly over and under each wing... and then he'd flutter a little and begin all over again. Here he is sitting atop the gnarled mountain rage that is in fact my knuckles under a macro lens!


Outside the wind and cold rain showers are unrelenting and we keep peeping out the door to see if the sun might allow us to trundle off and sell our pictures any time soon.
Meanwhile the second clock has begun! I was jumping about the kitchen the morning the first clock sold (it is happily winging its way now to new owner Tara). Thank you everyone for such a wonderful, encouraging response to this new venture, and for all your thoughtful words on the matter of pricing. I am still feeling my way, but it seems the general consensus is that I could eke my prices up a smidgen. I have received a number of custom orders for clocks too so I think that I have settled upon having two prices, one for the clocks I make and just put in the shop, and the other (slightly higher) for custom orders. I still want these to be affordable, so the prices will be both not ridiculous for the buyers and not ridiculous for me.
Here's a sneak preview of the second clock, which is green where the first one was red, and is a custom order for a perfumier!



And while I paint, we repeatedly check on the BBC weather like anxious mothers or perfectionist chefs, and our lovely Bedford sits there waiting patiently to be taken on an adventure...