One World-One Heart

Hi I'm Linda, and welcome to our Blog...Please come in and stay a while.

One World – One Heart, a global giveaway that has been running annually for the past4 years! It’s a giveaway that was originally created in 2007 by Lisa, author of the blog 'A Whimsical Bohemian', to bring together bloggers from around the World, the event runs from January 25th through February 15th.
All you have to do to be a part of it and eligible for the giveaways is to visit the particpating Blogs, and leave a comment in their OHOW, One Heart One World Post, leaving a Blog address or email so we can contact you if you win our giveaways.

I do Wish you all the very Best of Luck, and
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit us here at The Briar Rose Gate.♥♥♥

Our Briar Rose giveaway is a Print of an Original Miniature watercolour; The Foxcub waiting at The Briar Rose Gate portal,that enters into the magical realms of Avalon. His mother is just about to catch up with him, and he is surrounded and protected by Elevish fireflies.
As There are Lots of comments already,I've added another 2 prints, this print of 'Solomon ' a little Prince is born, the storyline:
' Solomon' has just been born a few hours ago, his long awaited birth has caused great excitement throughout the woodland animals, as his mother 'Golden Dawn' has been sheltering, in the last few weeks under a young Redwood Tree. 'Chatter' the Chipmunk, is especially proud, as the Redwood is his home, and he is the first to bring a gift for the little Prince. He holds in his paws a tiny rare blue starflower, renown for their hypnotic fragrance, that causes only the Sweetest of Dreams. He has arrived just in time, as little Solomon, is falling asleep.


and The Nobel Gwynan, Raven Queen of The Dark Woods Clan, ACEO

I've been having such a treat visiting all these creative OWOH blogs, and I am very grateful to all those wonderful artists who found their way here, so as a big thank you Here is another giveaway I will be adding.,(4 Winners each will get a choice).
Angel Feathers..This Little Kitten has just become an Angel, and doesn't know he can Fly yet. He senses there is something different and fluttery on his back, but isn't sure what it is. The other Angels are calling to him and playing, by dropping feathers down on him, to try encourage him to reach up, and fly.


I Like to Believe all our beloved animals, when they past from this Earthly realm are rewarded for their life and kind service, by being gifted with their Angel Wings. Angels come in many Guises. LMW.

St. Mildred's Church, Whippingham

Whippingham Church with its Royal connections to Queen Victoria, and her family has always been a pretty church, full of beautiful stained glass windows and gothic revival treats like its turrets and gargoyle waterspouts.

Other little treats are its lovely details in iron and wood, and old postal boxes ,still in use set into neighbouring stone walls, The botton row of red brick buildings opposite and just across the road from the church, were originally alms houses for the poor.

Sadly only pictures of the outside as our churches now have to be kept locked unless hosting a service.

To see more info on St.Mildreds Church, click on this link.
http://www.iow.uk.com/whippingham-church/contents.htm

Etsy Finds Capricorn vs Sagitarius

I was lucky enough to be featured in the New Etsy Finds 7th Jan, Gifts for Capricorns vs Sagitaruius, as my birthday is tomorrow 8th Jan,( Yes,Capricorn) its an early birthday treat, Thank you Etsy
Click on The link to read the article The Arab Painting is under Decor and Sagitarius.
http://www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/etsy-finds-sagittarius-vs-capricorn-6680/

Vintage Gate Houses

These two Gate houses I thought looked very picturesque this afternoon.
The one that looks very much like a little cottage, was the gatehouse or lodge to the now non existant East Cowes Castle Estate, built and designed by John Nash and a later residence of Lord and Lady Gort.
The Tower Gatehouse one of the original gatehouse lodges on the bondery exit/entry roads to the Norris Castle Estate, which still exists. Both Lodges are within half a mile of each other.

click on the picstures for a detailed view.

Feeding all the Birds..

After the chores were completed, I ventured out to feed the wild things, put out fresh water,refilled the bird feeders with seeds and peanuts, put down small wildbird mix for the ground feeding birds, and jumbo sized treats for the larger seagulls and crows. So many hungry beaks turned up, that I eventually put 4 huge bowls out for them.

Then Prince and I had a quick play in the garden , before back indoors to dry off, and a cup of tea.

loads more Lab pictures on Poppys Blog.

Snowy Night

The Poor Bamboo in the garden was bent double, but after a quick shake, shot right back up to normal, hardy stuff. The half a pound of snow that went down my neck, did wonders to wake me up too.

We took Prince along to the Green, and he ran everywhere at top speed, having a great time, as this is the first snow, he has ever seen.

Frosty Morning

Cowes Harbour Early Morning, before the Moon departed from view.

Woozle enjoying the Sunshine, but probably not the frosted grass.

Christmas Eve

What do you do to cheer your lounge up when its ready to decorate, but still has only its bare plaster walls.
Well you get out the scrap paper, and start snipping, cover the walls in Paper snowflakes.


Count your blessings




Dress the tree, and remember what a joy those handmade decorations were to make

When its all finished, turn off the main lights and admire the twinkling tree,

whilst sipping your glass of sloe gin.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmastide, Happy Holidays, Yule, Winter Solstice, or for the tardy Scots Hogmany.

Vines turn to Art

In the past I painted a lot of ceramics in ' Clarice Cliff' style, I couldn't help but think that these vines as they gradually shed their leaves, were very reminiscent of the Art Deco stylised trees of that era, more often depicted on china wares.

Cowes Revisted

Sunday last we thought we would take a little jaunt over to Cowes, the other side of the river medina we have to take the 'Bridge', as we locals call it, which is confusing to non locals as its actually a chain ferry that draws itself across the river on very heavy chains with much clanking and grinding noises. We thought the trip would be a good education for our young labrador 'Prince'.

The base of the bridge is now all metal but when it was tarred wood we would ride our ponies on the ferry to cross over the river. I have done the crossing twice with my mare, on the newer version. She is rock steady, but I made slip on overshoes in a rubberised fabric, as the metal on metal would have been dangerous.

As you can see there have been earlier versions crossing with horse and carriages, The wooden bridge crossings were much less noisey, the chains made an almost pleasant clinking compared to the modern version.

Prince took the chain ferry in his stride, the noise must be quite horrendous for a dog's ears.

Cowes and East Cowes being hubs of marine building and Ports of call and industry were literally full of public Houses, many have closed nowadays, but many of the old favourites survive, The Anchor being one of them.

The church is one of many nested between all the buildings, I thought it a shame all the windows on churches have to be covered in mesh to prevent vandals smasing the windows and in many cases priceless stained glass.

There is a nice little view looking back to East Cowes through a gap in the buildings, by one of the many sailing Clubs. At the top of the picture you can see the fields those green spaces between the tree lines where my horse is kept.

Click on the pictures for a better look.. :)

Saving Wildlife Habitats

World Land Trust are the inspiration behind perserving habitats and living space for endangered species, perserving rare ecological habitats and putting the land forever beyond the reach of potential developers.
I was first alerted to this wonderful project , supported by their patron David Attenborough, through a group of artists in an Ebay Aceo art group, they banded together and raised enough to buy over 50 acres.
As I wasnt selling on Ebay, I bought One acre for our family,which is proudly displayed in the kitchen. Drinking my Tea and gazing up at the certificate, I wondered how the fund was progressing.
Good News; Since its foundation in 1989 supporters of the World Land Trust (WLT) have helped fund the purchase and protection of over 400,000 acres of threatened wildlife habitats, working through their overseas project partners.

But as you can imagine there is still so much more to try and Save.

You can help Save even more by supporting World Land Trusts further land purchase & protection projects.
http://www.worldlandtrust.org/projects/index.htm
You can make a donation or Purchase a half an acre for £25 or one acre for £50

Our London Ice Bear

See The magnificent life-size Ice Bear in Trafalgar Square.
It’ll be there from Today Friday 11th December, gradually melting as a symbol of the threat of climate change and the plight of the Arctic in particular.
slowly melting over that time to reveal a bronze skeleton.
Inspired by the Arctic landscape, it’s a life-sized ice sculpture of a male polar bear in hunting pose.
The public will be invited to touch the ice sculpture. Artist Mark Coreth hopes that by touching this sculpture audiences can become sculptors themselves and make a direct connection with the bear and its icy Arctic kingdom, now under threat from man-made climate change.

to see videos,how it was made, more info, check out, and see the finished Bear in the Square
http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/tackling_climate_change/the_london_ice_bear.cfm

Ice Bear Project Fundraiser

Ice Bear Spirit"
11 x 7 1/2 inches
Original Watercolour painting
A Posting from Artists Danielle Barlows Blog, 'Notes From The Rookery' http://daniellebarlowart.blogspot.com/
Here is Danielle Barlow's finished painting, completed today. Its Framed and goes up for auction at the Fire and Ice fundraiser at Castle Drogo. This is in aid of the Ice Bear Project, UPDATE>>>The night, and the auction, was a resounding success. The 'Spirit of the Ice Bear' print went to Cat of Darkling Woods.

Decant your Sloe Gin....

Update; 7th November, I strained my two bottles through the coffee filters which removes any residue of fruit pulp, and results in a lovely clear Sloe Gin. After a bottle slipping out of my hands and covering me, and the kitchen floor, in pink sticky gin, I still managed to have 1 .1/3 litres of Sloe gin decanted and safe( probably would have been 1 .1/2) if all had gone to plan. During the filtering I went through about 5 coffee filters in the process, wet them with water before pouring the gin through. By pouring out the gin slowly, most of the sloes will stay behind, jammed in the bottles, you can then shake them out 'childs money box style' to clear the bottles. Once washed you can pour the decanted gin back into the bottles. I have it on good authority this year's Sloe Gin is definately up to standard, so I had better hide the full bottle, for Christmas.
A word of caution, if you have never partaken of homemade Sloe Gin before, it is nothing like Sloe Wine or Sloe Gin you can buy,..in strength or taste.
Its really just neat fruit flavoured Gin, so small tot glasses is the order of the day for drinking.

Folk Art Hangers

I couldn't believe how much time this little hangers took in painting and sanding, but it was a pleasant change to do some different work.

There are Three, all made of birchwood, and painted in white and black with gold accents.

Songbird, Mistle Thrush and Raven/Crow. (see Etsy)