Hello and a late welcome to 2021,

Looking back 12 months, it has been a strange year for both humans and pets alike. Hopefully better times are on the horizon.

The Fisher household has been kept busy with various jobs and here are a few of the achievements from the last year.

A new bespoke shed, handmade by the master, using recycled palettes and it stands where the old oil tank stood. I must admit it was a little worrying as it was being constructed, as it was starting to resemble a kennel! No, not possible I thought, surely they would not consider such a thing. Happily all manner of garden implements were installed and worries were over.

My master has been commissioned by Search Press to write book number 4 and paws crossed, hoping that maybe there will be room for me to appear. You may remember that the section in the oil pastel book features me for the animal portrait chapter. That painting is now proudly hung in the lounge so I can look at it whilst relaxing by the fire.

Much household decorating has been carried out by my mistress during the past year, the house is looking splendid.

Unfortunately our caravan has been sitting on the drive unused for the past 18 months. I am so looking forward to going away in it again. There nothing better than positioning yourself on the cushion at the front window, watching the world go by.

We have been getting out for a lot of walks from our village and finding footpaths that we did not know existed. It's amazing how much exploration can be done from your own doorstep.
I will be very pleased when the endless mud finally starts to dry up, the owners seem to find it very amusing to watch me negotiating muddy puddles. Well, its no fun when you are close to the ground !

Looking ahead to the future, I am looking forward to accompanying my owners to the Broadway Festival in June and returning to the White House, Norfolk for another Big Sky painting holiday in September.
It was really good fun in Norfolk last October, keeping my mistress company on long coastal walks during the day, whilst the master was teaching.

Finally there's a certain Parson Jack Russell (mentioning no names) who is feeling really pleased with herself.
A recent newspaper article stated that TALENTED dogs are able to learn the name of a new toy, after hearing it only a few times.
I cannot tell you how good that made me feel, here are the names of my cuddly toys, that I can be summoned to fetch on request. Now I know the list is rather large, but having a kind human family I am a bit spoilt…. are you ready ?

Sheepie ( must admit its now Sheep version number 3 after puppy destruction some years back)
Dennis
George
Snap
Lion
Katie the carrot (sorry Aldi)
Billy
Cat
Santa (sorry again !!)
Piggy
Tango
Gingerman
Nemo
Monkey
Goosey
Eyeore (sorry Winnie !)
Duck
Squirrel
Croccy

There were originally more, but during my puppy days some got destroyed and had to have a Valhalla burial.


Take care, stay safe all of you,
Freyja xx

Hello and welcome to my doggy, bloggy blog,

Apawlogies for it being so long since I last put paw to keyboard. Since my last post the software for this website has been unable to update any changes my mistress has made. It's been a very frustrating year for her, month after month, email after email to the host and software designer.
I really feel sorry for her and I have heard a few choice words being uttered and I am too much of a lady to repeat them here !!

Hopefully some computer magic will happen one day and you will be able to read once again of my expeditions as the artist dog.

During lockdown I have been kept busy by the ongoing pigeon saga, they are still swooping down to drink and tease me. There is also a cheeky squirrel that keeps walking along the fence pinching the hazel nuts from next doors tree and throwing the shells on our patio.
At our field just outside the village around 40 ewes and lambs have arrived to keep the grass cut, unfortunately this means I cannot be off my lead to explore.
So, all in all the animal world seems to be beating me at present.

However I was cheered up by an old newspaper article that headlined "And the Oscar for Hollywood`s top earning dog goes to …….Jack Russell
A barking study of blockbuster movies over the past 50 years revealed Jack Russells earned £700 million in box office success.

One of my favourites was The Secret Life of Pets, with an adorable terrier called Max. Not forgetting the black and white movie The Artist, featuring Uggie the Parson Jack Russell.

Maybe there's a role coming up for me soon, I heard the owners discussing the next project, filming 10 short videos for the Painters Online website. I am sure there's a part for me somewhere… holding a brush ? posing for a painting ? must be a role somewhere.

Anyway I will sign off now, paws crossed this update will go "Live" otherwise you may be reading this in the future and who knows what life will be like by then.

Love and wags,
Freyja x

Dear Readers,

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year 2020 and yet again apawlogies are due for not posting since September.

I cannot believe where time goes, so once again I will try to tardis like condense all the happenings over the last few months.
Christmas in the Fisher household was a bit of a disaster, we saw no-one for the whole of the festive season due to my mistress being really poorly with the flu. The master wasn't so bad, he managed to keep things running and had a one man BBQ on Christmas Day with me on duty… just in case any stray chicken should happen to fall !

October was spent with art demonstrations and workshops, I was made very welcome at several venues thank you.
Our village had a couple of days of torrential rain resulting in flooding to parts of our village. This also unfortunately meant that the dog walks got very muddy and anyone that knows me well, is that I am a bit of a princess regarding mud and rain. Its a bit of a disgrace to my breed. I have heard many tales of the previous family dog Purdey, a dog who never minded being dirty and at her very happiest covered in thick black mud, especially when digging in the river bank.

November saw my chance to redeem myself when we drove up the A1 to stay for a week at Budle Bay in Northumberland. The previous week had seen rain but we were very lucky to have a dry week with glorious blue skies. The fields were still muddy so I gritted my teeth, determined to no longer being a princess. The humans had planned a circular walk from the village of Belford to St Cuthberts cave. There is a lot of history in this part of the UK. The master sketched and collected lots of photos to paint from
Things were going well till reaching a gateway with an ENORMOUS expanse of mud, steeling myself I decided a massive leap was the way forward and made it across relatively mud free.

We visited lots of castles, Holy Island was very nice and we found a lovely dog friendly pub and the National Trust shop lady even gave me a dog biscuit. The last day of the holiday we visited Craster, famous for its smokehouse and we walked to the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle.
Afterwards we were given a super doggie welcome at a lovely teashop in the Shoreline Cafe at Craster.

January is the month to celebrate the masters birthday so to make up for Christmas we stayed at Club Cottage in Derbyshire for a short break. Its our third visit and home from home, it ticks all the doggy boxes, central heating and a lovely cosy log burner. There are loads of walks from the cottage and a super dog friendly pub just down the road.
Unfortunately the night before the holiday I had some sort of allergic reaction, just like 18 months ago and turned into a doggy version of Frankenstein !!
My owners knew what to do on this occasion as its happened before, so after their care and attention and me patiently sitting with a cold compress on my face I looked loads better.

The holiday went well and we had some super walks and more photographic opportunities for painting subjects.

I promise not to leave it so long to post my adventures and below is a selection of photos from the past few months… including Frankenterrier .. not a pretty sight.

Don't forget to check out the tutoring pages if you want to book an art course or holiday, something to look forward to on these short winter days.

Love Freyja.

Dear Readers, huge apawlogies for the long delay since my last blog,

I cannot believe that it is June since my last blog was written, tardis like, time has moved from high summer, to the beginnings of autumn here at Fisher HQ.

The easiest way to travel through time and update you, is to condense all the happenings that have occurred since June.

• The pigeons (now a gang of three) continue to make fun of me in the garden, swooping down just close enough to avoid contact and then sitting on the fence in defiance.
• A pair of squirrels have made dawn raids on next doors hazel tree, taking all the nuts and throwing the shells on to our pond patio.
• My Master had a cunning plan with our hazel nut trees down the field this year, he picked them early and ripened them off in the conservatory ! Master 1 Squirrels 0
• June saw us take a last minute caravan break to Longnor in Derbyshire. It was lovely doing some great walks in the countryside and chilling out in the caravan later.Wildlife seems intent on following me around, as each night around dusk the most enormous rabbits use to come on to one of the nearby caravan pitches for a grass supper. My owners thought this was hilarious and named it bunny TV, with me, nose glued to the window watching. This site also had a boule I had to learn not to chase the boules.
• July was the annual Patchings Festival and I spent a very relaxing few days at my second home being thoroughly spoilt.
• The end of July we once again hitched up the caravan and headed for Greetham, this was a lovely break away and I tried my very first doggy ice cream ….. delicious
• August arrived and we hitched up again and took the caravan to North Piddle in Worcestershire. This was a lovely small campsite, pitch black at night, so you could see the stars.With the wildlife theme quite prevalent for this blog, I saw my first muntjac and quite a few squirrels.The purpose of this August visit was for my Master to take part in the Great Broadway Paint Off. As you can see from the photo below the weather was good and many artists set up easels around the village of Broadway.
• The photos also show that the caravan break was an excellent chance to learn the art of backgammon !
• I also got the chance to catch up for a walk with my Schnauzer friend Yoshi.
• The vegetable garden has done well again this year, sadly the sweetcorn is now all finished, but on a happier note there are still loads of carrots. We have had a good crop of fruit and you can see that has been put to good use as jam
• I think we have caught up and I promise not to leave it as long before the next instalment of Freyjas Tails is published.

Hello and welcome to the June doggie blog,

Apologies for not blogging in May, its been really busy here at Fisher HQ and my assistant editor for my blog has been occupied with other jobs !

The vegetable garden is coming along nicely, both at the front garden potager, designed in the Piet Mondrian style (well it had to have an art theme) and the plot down our field.
Our conservatory became a large greenhouse for a few months, as the Master was waiting for the weather to warm up so all his plants, nurtured from seed could be planted out.
The heavy rain today should help the vegetables grow, especially looking forward to the sweetcorn crop in a few months time and lots of carrots have been sown too, so I am a lucky pup.

We have had a couple of incidents down the field where the mischievous lambs have managed to get through the fence twice and pulled up the rhubarb and trampled the carrot seedlings !!
They tend to get into little gangs and see how much mischief they can get up to, it sometimes involves trying to get through to the adjoining cricket field.

The pigeon saga continues, they now sit on the fence and have the cheek to do low passes across the lawn…just out of reach.
The Fishers have been very lucky this year in the garden, the new bird box built my Master last year has successfully had a brood of Great Tits. A pair of wrens are eyeing up another box on the fence and the house martins have once again returned to nest at the front and back of our house.

It is once again the build up and preparation for the annual Patchings Art, Craft and Design Festival, I am hoping for excellent sales of the Masters Oil Pastel book, especially as I feature on the Patchings T-shirts and a whole chapter in the book.

Now to explain the title of this months blog, to regular readers you will know that I am a girl who really appreciates the home comforts and extra specially the LOG BURNER.
A few weeks ago, we spent a few days down the field doing some chainsaw work to some rotten branches of a huge willow, that grows on the bank of the river running through the field.
It was all going well until a huge piece rolled into the river, now that was not going to be taken off to float away.
Quickly a plan was formulated involving a tow rope and the car, it was pulled up the bank and our firewood safe and sound.

I will sign off now, it's raining cats and dogs again and my warm, snuggly extra large blanket is calling me for forty winks.
Below are a few photos of the garden and field, spot my extra cute begging pose for a biscuit !

See you next month,
Freyja x