Life drawing, 2019. Arriving late at the Oxton life drawing group, the only seat left to me was squashed into a corner. This  offered a severe sideways-on view of the model, Eve. Initially I assumed this would result in a poor pose, but then I realised I could actually turn it to some advantage by using negative space - and so composed the model to fill the lower triangular half of the paper. The end result is perhaps a bit unconventional, but I'm quite pleased with it. What do you think of the drawing? This next life drawing presented a few challenges also. This time I was sitting directly opposite the model, Rob, which meant I had to do a fair amount of fore-shortening on both legs. The hands could be improved, but I'm satisfied with that thigh-knee-foot and raised arm-shoulder. I have maintained a site on Hubpages for some years now, and there you will find a whole series of non-fiction articles written by me. The subjects range from How to Make a Frog Pond , to ...

    Is there anyone who fails to smile when watching newly hatched chicks? They're so fragile, so tiny, yet bravely scoot across dark lakes swarming with huge fish, or waddle determinedly after their parents through long grasses threaded with fox runs and rat holes. Or, like the little gosling in the photo above, amble contentedly on the mossy bank in full view of a murderous heron.   The two parent geese were keeping a sharp eye out, helped by a large white goose which seemed to be behaving like a visiting aunt who, not entirely approving of the parents' skills, did her best to shepherd the two little goslings closer to safety. (You can only see one gosling in this photo, and the parent birds were quacking at the other youngster which had wandered too far. Aunt Goose was having none of it, and was photographed mid-march in readiness to gently usher it closer once more).   If you peer through the tangled branches in the photo above, ...

Heath in Summer; Adele Cosgrove-Bray, 2017. I have now bought kitchen paint.  I have yet to paint the kitchen.  Other things have been taking my time, such as writing Morgan: An Artisan-Sorcerer Story, and beavering away in my art studio. On the easel, with only its sky painted so far, is Liverpool Waterfront #5 , which is in oils.  But I'm already moving away from painting the iconic view of the city as seen from the River Mersey, and have been looking elsewhere along the river for material.  Oglet Shore, Speke is a watercolour of an often-overlooked little beach and meadow area close to the John Lennon Airport.  Local legend has it that George Harrison and the two McCartney brothers used to play here as small children, but then so did countless other kids and this isn't why I painted it.  I chose the area as it offers a contrast to other, more obvious sections of the Mersey.  At Oglet, you could almost be in the countryside - if it wasn't for...

Boathouse, Birkenhead Park. Saturday, 19th November will find me at Bebington Library, Wirral, when along with other writers I'll be reading one of my short stories.  The event starts at 2pm, so if you're in the area do come along. It's absolutely ages since I took part in a similar event, and I've yet to decide which story I'll be reading.  I've so many to choose from! I had my hair trimmed on Saturday, then decided to go for a walk round Birkenhead while I was there, reasoning that I'd be able to have a look for some new jumpers for the coming winter without hubby helping - which translates as him enthusing over monstrosities which only a neolithic troll might perceive as stylish. Great idea!  So I walked into the very first shop I came to, and who was the first person I saw?  Yes, Richard.  He was at the counter, buying the latest in Joseph Delaney's Spooks series. We both really enjoyed the Spook's Apprentice series, but didn't tak...

New covers for four of my ebooks are now available.  Here they are:-   The image on the cover of Dark Tides   comes from one of my photographs of West Kirby beach.  It was a late summer evening and the tide was coming in, which is why there's a snaking rivulet of water over the shadowed sands.  Tides come in fast there as the Dee Estuary is very wide and flat, so there's nothing to slow the flow of water.  When we still lived in West Kirby I'd walk my dogs on the beach regularly, and we often go back with them now we're in Oxton, which isn't very far away. This cover uses one of my photos of the seaward side of Hilbre Island, where the Irish Sea pounds against the red Bunter sandstone rocks.  The rock pools around Hilbre and Middle Eye are always fun to explore.  You have to watch your footing, as the rocks are covered by slippery seaweed plus cockles and barnacles, but it's easily worth the effort.  Take binoculars if you want to...

Since 2012, I've created a list of annual goals which I hope to achieve within the following twelve months.  This is one way to keep track of the progress of various projects and it's a bit of self-entertainment. My goals for 2015 were:-  Move house; Finish Fabian; Write at least one short story or poem a month; Finish the NCC Skills course.; Continue with the NVQ Level 3 course; Fun stuff - swimming; doll collecting; photography; art. We certainly moved house .  We sold our 1940s box-like semi in West Kirby and bought this lovely four-bedroom Victorian home, built in 1879, in Oxton.  Both of us consider that buying this house was one of the best decisions we've ever made.  We have a garden, an art room, we both have our own rooms - his for his films, music and Dr Who collection, and mine is where I write and keep my dolls houses and doll collection.  The dogs have settled in well.  The only thing I miss about our previous house is my ...

A pair of blue damselflies mating on our pond It's been a beautiful day here on the Wirral.  Lunch was taken in the garden, and then later in the day there were three pairs of blue damselflies courting over the pond, plus a fifth blue damselfly and a red damselfly resting on rhubarb leaves overhanging the water.  A family of pond skaters has hatched out, and a water boatman has been scooting around for the last few days. Work on the fourth novel in the Artisan-Sorcerer Series continues, and the word count now stands at 90,000 with a fair chunk of plot left.  I'm toying with murdering a popular character...  Maybe, maybe not; I've not entirely made up my mind yet, mostly because this is one of my favourite characters too and it would be a shame to wave goodbye.  But, hey, I can always create another one....

Stapledon Woods used to be known as Thor's Wood, before Olaf Stapledon bought it and bequeathed it to the people of West Kirby.  It's also one of the locations I use for the Artisan-Sorcerer series.  This video shows a collection of photographs by Richard and me - so you get to see the old trees, a few remaining ruins of long-gone buildings, the faerie pond, some ancient rock art and the panoramic view from summit of Caldy Hill, which the wood covers. Enjoy!

Above and below:  Calder Stones, Neolithic tomb stones, Liverpool. Believed to have once formed part of a Neolithic chambered tomb erected some 4,000 years ago, the Calder Stones have been protected inside a large greenhouse since 1954.  The circle's current arrangement is based only on 19th century guess-work about how a stone circle should look, following an assumption that druids had created the tomb - which actually predates druidry in Britain by a considerable margin. The tomb itself was destroyed some time during the 18th century.  The six remaining sandstone pieces were then sited near the main entrance to Calderstones Park in Allerton, Liverpool.  The disturbance revealed pottery urns containing human dust and bones. None of these were preserved as (or so I was told by park staff) the groundsmen who removed them smashed them all for 'fun'.  These photos were taken by me back in the spring o...

The Faerie Pond, Stapledon Woods I've been busy writing Fabian , and was wondering how many further books this series might run to.   The answer suddenly popped into my head, which is something that tends to happen if I don't block the process somehow by trying too hard to make this work.  If I set out thinking something like, "Ok, I now want the answer to X" regards my writing, nothing happens.  If I just open my mind to possibilities, ask the question and then immediately let it go off into the ether - to use a term which is vague but sufficiently useful - and forget about it, then more often than not the answer flashes back.  Is my brain a cosmic postbox?  (That might explain the amount of 'junk mail'...!) So, the Artisan-Sorcerer Series will run to seven books in all.  I have the titles of the last three.  Each is named after the main character in that particular novel, eg. Tamsin , Rowan , Bethany Rose and the fourth, wh...

Steep steps leading up to Mariner's Point, West Kirby. A doorway in the woodland realm.     Fabulous red sandstone - with a strange light behind the fallen branches.     Part of an old train, half-buried on the woodland floor.   Four old train wheels.     Heather covers the summit of Caldy Hill.     Just one of many tangled thickets in Stapledon Woods.     The fairy pond, currently no more than a shallow smudge of mud.   Woodland canopy above the fairy pond.   Rain rolling in to the Dee Estuary.   To view these photos bigger, simply click on an image then use the slideshow.   All photos (C) Adele Cosgrove-Bray, 2013.  

Emily and Poppi inspect pools of water beside the sea wall.   Hoylake Beach   Looking towards Hilbre Island   Adele at Red Rocks, Hoylake, with dogs Emily and Poppi.     Richard sitting on Red Rocks, on Hoylake Beach. Sand dunes and grassy marsh running from Red Rocks alongside West Kirby beach. Sparrowhawk hovering over the grassy sand dunes along West Kirby beach.   Several of my short stories and one of my Artisan-Sorcerer novels, Rowan , are set close to Hoylake and West Kirby beaches.  So here're a few photos so you can see the location for yourself.  Richard and I were here this morning, taking our dogs for a walk.  It was breezy but sunny and pleasant, though three hours later it's pouring down.  The weather is typically changeable here, being right on the coast and with being a peninsula, which seems to create its own microclimate anyway.   Click on the photos to see them bigger, ...

I have long been fascinated by other creative people's workspaces.  Photos of them offer glimpses into how that person works.  Whether it's a chaotic tangle of prompts and tools of the trade or a minimalist super-tidy area, I enjoy peeping into their world.  Here's mine, tucked away in the corner of our dining room:- Click on the image to view it larger.     There is a collection of forty photos of the workspaces used by well-known writers, poets and artists here  which I enjoyed looking at.  I'm tempted to start a series on this blog, posting photos of other people's workspaces.  If you would like to take part, email me on ACBwrites@aol.com .