Category: Photography

View of the Woodland River {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my Friends!

Can you believe it, we’re already at the first Friday in April!? This week I thought I’d post a One Frame and it feels like an age since I posted a proper landscape shot.

This is the view as I cross over a rickety old wooden bridge into one of my favourite hiking spots called Pendrift Bottom, its basically a series of steep ups and downs with some wide-open fields, a little marsh and so many types of animals and insects. Last year I even heard my first cuckoo when I was there in the summer, and theres always slow worms and fleeting glimpses of deer in the distance.

Also the name is pretty humorous. 

It actually took this photograph last May and literally can’t wait to spend more sunny days wandering there this year.

Standing on this bridge I pretty much feel like I’m crossing the river into a magic nature filed world, like Middle Earth but with no orcs, I like to believe that if you follow this river long enough you might find Rivendell.

I hope you like this little slice of natury goodness as much as I do because it fills me a great amount of positivity and happiness. Is there anything you feel particularly blessed to be part of? 

Thank you so much for reading this post, and have a lovely, peace filled week!

Brimstone {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography4 Comments

Hey friends! 

I’ve got a little one frame to share with you this week, over winter I’ve had a whole bunch of butterflies overwintering in my butterfly house (my fun and fancy shed!) which has been awesome, spookily they timed their wake up alarms to coincide with good weather and I’ve been able to release them all back into the big wide world post-hibernation (yay!!).

Including this little fella, he’s a male Brimstone butterfly who moved into my shed in December – I’ve literally no idea how he got in, but thats not the point…isn’t he pretty!

Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) have angular wings so that when they sit amongst the foliage they resemble leaves and hide from predators.

Folklore suggests we may have actually got the word ‘butterfly’ from these guys as the males wings are fluorescent butter yellow!

While we get loads of Brimstone’s in the garden I’ve never had the chance to raise them, so finding one in my butterfly house was amazing. I like to think that bug-kind knows my shed is a safe space for them (although hopefully not too many spiders have moved in over winter!)

For next week I think I’m gonna try and create a needlework Brimstone.

As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

Floral folklore

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography3 Comments

Hello my friends! 

I don’t know about you but I love discovering the quirky myths and folklore about the plants I’m growing in my garden (I’m a total plant-nerd) I’m fascinated by plant-lore and how they effect the way we interact with different plants. Surprisingly we’ve had a few days of dry and sunny weather and since the very first signs of spring are starting to appear outside I thought I’d write down the folklore relating to three plants currently flowering in my wildspace. (Its a complete coincidence that they’re all the same colour!!)

I grew these lovely white violets in a pot inside and they didn’t do anything for like a year and a half so I hastily shoved them in the ground last November and lo and behold they’ve flowered!

Violets are such a pretty little flower that is often overlooked, apparently wearing a wreath of them was thought to prevent dizziness and finding only a single flower was said to be a bad omen, while violets flowering in the autumn was the sign an epidemic was on the way.

Theres a wonderful greek myth about violets, which is associated with the story of Io, a nymph who was having an affair with the god Zeus in an attempt to hide her from his wife he turned Io into a cow (so kind of him). It was said that Io was unhappy at the taste of grass to the extent it made her cry and Zeus supposedly created violets from her tears so that she’d have something sweet to eat. 

In the language of flowers white violets symbolise innocence and purity.

Continue reading “Floral folklore” →

Mini Mushroom Landscape {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my Friends!

I’ve got a new One Frame to share with you this week, my first one of 2025!!

Something I really love doing when I’m out hiking is to not only look up and enjoy the beauty of the trees and the sky (and of course butterflies in the summer) but I also like floor-watching when I’m in places like a woodland.

This rather lovely little mushroom is one I found during a trip to Cabilla and Reprice woods in Bodmin, which is touted as one of the finest ancient woodland in Cornwall. Its known for having many ancient (aka over 400 years old) oak trees and is home to many, many types of animals including but not limited to, six types of bat, deer, a variety of birds and even otters. As well as butterflies and dragonflies in the summer.

It also has mushrooms!

I love getting down to the level of fungi, it’s like a miniaturised world. I like to imagine that where mushrooms pop up fairies have previously landed.

Cabilla is a pretty magical place to wander although every time I go there I end up with at least three ticks on me – even though I’m drenched in anti-bug spray.

Also did you know a really handy way to remove ticks from your clothing is with a lint roller (for pets you need a special remover tool).

So yeah, that’s it for this week, do you ever floor-watch when hiking? Hopefully next weeks post is gonna be something artsy. 

Thank you so much for reading this post, and I wish you a prosperous week ahead!

Connecting with nature in winter

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello my friends! 

I don’t know about you but I often find winter a tough time of year to connect with. Christmas is always amazing as well as celebrating the solstice in December but it generally just rains a lot and is rather dull and grey in this part of the UK.

Of course there are still plenty of things to do, I’ve got bird feeders in both the front and back gardens and love watching all the little birdies (and the squirrels!) but nature is generally in hibernation and you can’t really play outside in it. 

I suppose staying upbeat this winter has been helped by the fact we’ve had more snow! It wasn’t quite as good as the snow we had back in late November but it gave me a chance to get out and about with my camera and I wanted to take you with me so you can enjoy the pretty countryside too! I hope these photos bring as much joy to your week as they did mine.

To start my icy adventure I headed to one of my favourite spots near home, because of the surrounding views I like to imagine that this is a gateway into Middle Earth.

Continue reading “Connecting with nature in winter” →

Looking back on 2024 {reviewing the year!}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography3 Comments

Hey friends!

Happy New Year!!

This is only my second ever New Year’s post and I thought that instead of just doing a photography review of my favourite snaps, I would review my year as a whole and look back over the last twelve months. I actually meant to post something like this last year but the end of 2023 and early ’24 were too hectic, starting a new household in a place were I didn’t know anyone has been an adventure that at times has been really tough, but definitely worth it… so here’s my look back on 2024!

Ready? Lets go…

The biggest highlight of the year, has been properly settling into my new home, living in the countryside is so different to living in a city – my new neighbours are amazing! They’re all old school hippies and its lovely to be part of an old-fashioned community, where people actively want to be friends.

I’ve hiked through old mining sites, explored rock polls and woodlands, and even visited the odd standing stone, but I’ve found I genuinely enjoy just being at home, decorating, gardening…even cleaning (I love that everything has a place!), being in such a remote place I’m doing a lot more cooking and have been told I’m becoming somewhat of a domestic goddess! I realised that I now have a chance to live the Cottagecore lifestyle (basically having the time to bake/garden/craft) as much as possible in modern life and everything that entails.

Continue reading “Looking back on 2024 {reviewing the year!}” →

Fleeting thought #8 {Festive traditions and time well spent}

On By ArtyMissKIn Fleeting thoughts, Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends! I hope the festive season is filling you with excitement and wonder!! 

Before we start this post I just wanted to say that I did truly believe I was going to post this last week and do something cute and artsy this week but my life kinda imploded. I’m not a superstitious person, but I’m a great believer that things come in threes so when I awoke last Friday (the 13th) I found that my heating system had completely broken down and won’t be fixed until after the New Year (it is soooo cold right now!) Later in the day I fell down the stairs – my own fault I wasn’t paying attention, but I was so very very sore and by the time I was able to sit and prep my post I just thought ‘ya know what its not worth it, it might be the third thing!’ It wasn’t but I was glad I didn’t tempt Fate!

But I’ve decided that I’m a big girl and I’m not going to let the fact I’ve got no heating ruin Christmas as I’ve already got everything more or less sorted, so onto a more festive up beat thing…

Continue reading “Fleeting thought #8 {Festive traditions and time well spent}” →

DIY Snowflake Gift Wrap Ideas!

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello my friends! 

Happy December!

As we’re finally into the twelfth month I though I’d really get into the festive season with a post on gift wrap and a couple of d.i.y gift tag ideas. 

I am unashamedly one of those Christmas freaks who not only tries to get the wrapping done early but likes to have a gentle theme to my gift wrap – be it nature, or glitter, gingerbread men or fairies I like my gifts to look good, this year I decided on snowflakes because a couple of weeks ago we had five inches of snow even if it only lasted a day…we genuinely don’t get enough of the real stuff in winter here and although its so cold its also really pretty.

Continue reading “DIY Snowflake Gift Wrap Ideas!” →

A Wintery Walk

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography5 Comments

Hello my friends! 

Before I start, I totally meant to post this last week but due to storm Bert I had no power (the perils of living in the countryside!!).

I am so unbelievably excited about this post as before the storm properly hit I woke up to five whole inches of snow!

Snow is one of those things that I will never get tired of and usually when we do get it here its only a light dusting, so the fact it was so deep was amazing (I literally haven’t seen so much snow since I was a kid when we lived in Scotland).

Obviously I just had to go walking in it and wanted to take you with me so you can enjoy the pretty winter atmosphere and stroll through the countryside too! I hope these photos bring as much happiness to your day as much as they did mine.

Starting off our wintery walk, I headed to one of the local fields to snap a quick landscape shot, all the fields looked so serene, every one could’ve been a scene on a Christmas card.

Continue reading “A Wintery Walk” →

Grayling {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hey friends! 

A while back I got the chance to see a new butterfly and spent the best part of a day wandering around a place called Wheal Fortune – which is an old mining site and great hiking spot, with some awesome views! I even got to see a new type of butterfly!!

So the main focus of this One Frame is the elusive Grayling (Hipparchia semele) – it camouflages so unbelievably well with rocks and gravel that they almost disappear!

This little guy (or girl) was sunbathing in the gravel enjoying the last of the autumn sunshine, they always rest with their wings together and do this weird thing where they lean to whichever side will get more sun. Basically turning themselves into the Wally (or Waldo) of the butterfly world.

It was fascinating, I felt that if I blinked I’d lose it! I took about 50 photos of which about three actually included the fluttery fella!!

Sadly Graylings are listed in the UK as a priority species for conservation so it was awesome to not only see a few in the native habitat but snap an okay photo as well.

I really hope you like this nature filled post and that it spreads a little bit of happiness. Do you have a favourite bug? They are magical creatures and I love watching them. 

Ps. If you wanna see the landscape of Wheal Fortune I posted a One Frame HERE!