New arrivals in my shop!

How was your weekend? Mine was a full working one. Mike has also spent three days to move the greenhouse to a new site; he took Friday off for that. We have been busy as tender for our extension, which will be my studio, is close. He has been preparing lots of things for that, and I have been working hard in anticipation of disruption, especially firings.

I have listed lots of new works this month, and some of them have already gone. Please do check often, as I am adding almost daily.

Tapir greeting cards

The right one has gone. 

Mother and her cub -  Polar bear

All Pockets Friends -  The kitten has gone. 

The left one is just listed, and others will join soon! 

Owls! The right one has gone.

A pair of bunnies - Pocket Friends

And the last but not the least, A giant anteater! :D Have a great week!

Anteater

They are avaibale from my Etsy shop!
http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/midoritakaki

They have gone to loving homes!

Hello! Here are those found loving homes recently! .

The last three clear glaze whippets have gone to super homes. 

All kittens have also gone to lovely ladies here and also in the US.

Continuing cat theme,  Alice with Cheshire cat have gone to a lovely home in the US. I might make a Cheshire cat or two, as he was such a character!

 Also the large crow has gone. 

Frida the monkey on the left went to a lovely lady, who lives with several bunnies I made. The one on the right will be in my shop soon! 

And this lucky blackbird has landed at a loving home in the North.  I have two more blackbirds in my shop, if you are interested. 

I have listed some new greeting cards. Most of them are new designs. Several have already gone. Do have a look. Cherubs and Angels are great for Christmas cards. If you would like to have more than 2, please let me know before your purchase. I will give you a quote for shipping.

It has been grey here in Canterbury this week. I hope you are having brighter days there! : ) 

 

Durham, the medieval city

Mike and I visited Durham in late August. We went on a business trip, but decided to do some sightseeing on the way back. We had limited knowledge about the city. Mike told me it has a cathedral and an old university. Did I like it? I fell in love with it! 

It is a medieval city, full of gargoyles. I love them! I have even travelled to Northern France to see them on their churches and cathedrals. They take me to an another world. 

After seeing the city centre, we went to see the cathedral. We come from Canterbury famous for the cathedral. Did we get disappointed? No! On the contrary. I was blown away!

We have climbed the tallest tower. The staircase is old narrow stone spiral staircase. It has 325 steps. But what a view! 

I am not scared of height, yet I felt queasy when I looked down. 

Death seemed so close when I looked down from the top of the tower. 

Inside the cathedral, the priest talked to me. He was telling us about the earlier extension, but that didn't happen. He said 'It was subsudence.' I said ' It was the god's will'. He said 'Excuse me?' So I repeated 'It was the god's will. I have just read it in the extended part of the cathedral.' Then he told us about the miracles happening in the chapel. Off we went to see it. It is the chapel for St Cuthbert. The first thing I saw in it was a little rabbit carved on arm rest on a old oak bench. I sat there and held on it. It was the god's will. 

The door knocker  - Durham cathedral 

A storytelling of crows

Canterbury had been blessed with fine weather for a whole week, but now it's back to normal  Mike told me I must go to post office to send packets early if I would like to miss the oncoming rain. I did!

Lately I have made several crows. The first one has flown away to a lovely gentleman. Three different crows are in my Etsy shop now. I have been interested in crows since I read King Solomon's ring by Konrad Lorenz in my teens. When I visited Germany in my early twenties, I even looked for 'the crows', Jackdaws, which I had never seen in Japan. Now I see them several times a week here from my house.

Small crow - sold

As you know, they are intelligent and very social. I love watching them exploring large bins, attacking hawks or just poking grass. They are usually in pairs, but when they are on the ground they are never side by side. They keep a good distance from each other. As I am familiar with finch and parrot behaviours and calls, I often tried to understand the behaviours of crows based on that knowledge. But I can't get close enough. They simply walk away or fly away. They are wary of humans.

Large Crow

 One summer I saw three large crow fledgilings on the ground in a very quiet woods. Parents were calling them, but they were too young to fly. Then later that summer, in a different woods, I saw a cat size chick perching about 2m from the ground. It looked amazingly large. It was not at all bothered as Topaz and I walked underneath. After walk, I saw him again on the same branch. If it was not magical, I don't know what it was. These two incidents are my closest encounter.

Crowing - medium 

There is a green on the way to my post office. People use it for Sunday sports or picnics. It used to be for cattle in the Middle Ages. But it is now surrounded by houses. Anytime I walk there, I usually see a group of crows plodding the ground. I kept observing them. There are jackdaws, rooks and carrion crows. Finally their shapes and postures were etched in my brain. I made my first crows in a weekend, last month.

Shiny beak - small

They are in my Etsy shop

 I am very happy with how they look, so I made more. They come with their own mounts, or plinths. They pretend that they can't move, but I feel they might twitch once a while when nobody is looking. I wish they would tell me about their lives one day.