Blogs

My Paintings on Impulse Blog can be found here:
https://paintingsonimpulse.blogspot.fr/

Paintings on Impulse is my official art blog, updated at whim, where I show new work, highlight The Palette Knife Painters work, and talk about anything arty that takes my fancy.

 "Strawberry Sally"

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My Road Trips with Milly Blog can be found here:
http://roadtripswithmilly.blogspot.fr/

Road Trips with Milly is all about our travels. We live, a lot of the time, in our motorhome as we both love traveling, new vistas, and new stimulations. Bridie, our rather large, long-haired German Shepherd is our constant companion.

"Milly the Motorhome"

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My contributions to The Traveling Chicken Blog are below ...

Thursday, 2 March 2017

Responding to a sharp rapping on the window last week, we saw a very worried face appear on the other side of the glass. It was Post Lady Chantal gingerly holding a big brown-paper-wrapped parcel at arms length. "I think I heard this parcel clucking!" she stage whispered. "Quick, you take it." And she sped off, her spinning tyres flinging the mud from our recent heavy hail and rains back at us. We ducked and luckily it missed both us and the clucking parcel.

I knew exactly who was to blame for setting the Post Lady's nerves on edge ... and I was right. The clucking turned quickly to muttering as I opened the box to find The Traveling Chicken Team. "She packed our parcel at an angle for hours." Complained Senor Azul. "All our left legs are aching from being tilted for so long!"

Soothing sniffs came from a sympathetic nostril and Team Chicken were soon relaxed and posing, ready for their photographs to be taken. They're quite the prima donnas it would seem and know which side is their best side for photographs.

The sniffing nostrils belong to Bridie the German Shepherd ... and she loves chicken!

Luckily, on that day, she'd had a good breakfast and decided that the loving and caring Big Bear Bridie was the dog she wanted to be. She sniffed and nudged and blinked her big brown eyes, calming Team Chicken as they relaxed beneath the lilies and daffodils. (A little toweling off of the Chickens was needed after one rather enthusiastic sniff though).

The photo shoot went well .... or did it? Find out in the next blog how Team Chicken were invaded!

Lynda Cookson

Wednesday, 8 March 2017

"What is that incredible scratching and high-pitched sound which is coming nearer and nearer?" asked Senor Azul during their photoshoot, his eyes bulging from their sockets with fear. Team Chicken's visit was turning out to be a very noisy visit indeed. "I saw a flash of yellow! Very fast moving yellow!" he yelled.

"You're travel weary and just seeing the reflections from the Daffodils" his compatriots informed him. "Now sit still and stop rustling the flowers!"

Was it the yellow from these Daffodils he could see?

And then all hell broke loose.

In a strong whoosh! of a breeze, just like the recent weather we've been having, hundreds of fluffy yellow balls with orange bits landed on the photoshoot table, accompanied by the loudest tweeting noise you have ever, in your whole life, heard! Our photoshoot was being invaded by little yellow alien fluff balls!

The chaos of yellow and orange turned out to be loads of Easter chicks who had been packed away in a box for a few years, being moved that way from Ireland to France, and not having been unpacked since the move. And they were angry!

Easter chicks yelling their anger at Team Chicken

Team Chicken went quickly into action, squawking and flapping their wings and chasing yellow Easter chicks back into their box with the force of a sou' easter gale. However, a few of the brave chicks held their ground, refusing to budge until they were allowed to be part of the photoshoot.

"We have to be seen and get our voices heard out there in the Big Wide World. It's a disgrace that we have been packed away for so long, missing at least three Easter seasons!" their leader cheeped loudly. "And we'd like our leaders to accompany Team Chicken back to the States so that we can continue to reach more people."

Here's Team Chicken negotiating with the Easter Chick leaders

And so it happened that way. The photoshoot was wrapped up with the chicks keeping fairly quiet and behaving well, and their leaders joined Team Chicken in their box, now winging its way back to Pandalana in the States.

What a relief. That invasion could have turned out badly ... but how could it! It's totally impossible for Easter chicks to be nasty in any way whatsoever. They're cute and fluffy and smell of chocolate Easter Eggs.

Team Chicken should be given full credit for the diplomacy and wisdom they have learned on their travels around the world.

Lynda Cookson

Friday, 17 March 2017

After their exciting (and excitable!) visit to La Ville Oger, here in Morbihan (Brittany, France) Team Chicken needed a bit of light-hearted fun.

"Our left legs are still all creaky and stiff from hours in the Post Lady's van." they complained.

We had been packing up all our goods and chattels because we're selling almost everything and going traveling for a few years. Milly the Motorhome is waiting patiently outside, ready to roll when we say the word, but ... it meant that life was a little restricted during Team Chicken's visit and there was not much room for running around, getting exercise, and generally getting in trim for their long flight back to the States. There are way too many boxes and paintings and stuff littered around the floor space.

Mr Dog the Pilot had a brilliant idea. He doesn't get  much of a chance to show off his piloting skills, so he suggested he give everyone rides on the front of his plane, one by one. Because they had to use all their leg muscles to stay balanced while he flew around, those cramped left legs would soon loosen up.

"Flying Fun" oil on paper

Did I mention that this is a very noisy visit that Team Chicken are enjoying? Yeah, well, it never seems to stop!

The racket that little yellow airplane made as it whizzed through tunnels of boxes, narrowly missing getting the wings caught on the handles of bags holding books, and doing the loop-da-loop at break-neck speed between the huge, ancient beams on the ceiling ... was simply incredible! Not to mention the squeals of delight and screeches of terror which seemed to alternate as each member of Team Chicken enjoyed their turn and begged for more, scuffling and niggling in the queue.

"Me next!"

"No! You've just had a turn!"

"Didn't"

"Did. Saw you."

"Hey! Don't elbow me!"

I must say, Mr Dog is actually quite the pilot! He never lost control once, kept his passengers well balanced, and clung tightly to their legs during the upside-down bit of the loop-da-loops so they wouldn't fall off.  There was a huge round of applause for him when he called in tired and shoo-ed the fun-loving chickens out of their expectant queue.

Finally, there was quiet in the house and an exhausted Team Chicken had a good sleep before they caught their flight back home to Pandalana.

What an absolute delight it has been to host such a feisty and fun-loving crew.

Lynda Cookson