Esme poor girl has a terminal accident.........well almost........

Hiya Everyone!
Gosh I didn't think I would be back again so soon but here I am with yet another tale of calamity to tell..... and this time it is poor Esme.  I fear that we may NEVER find the lost part of her beak ever again and for that I am mortified as it was 110% MY fault!

To explain I will start at the beginning.......I wanted a nice new photo for our home page to reflect the soon to arrive Mothering Sunday this coming week.  I am compelled to ensure that the beautiful Spring flowers box my sister made for me on a "special birthday" a few years ago now (don't ask me when...I try to forget!) is shown off each year if possible!
I built up a possible pose as per usual but this time my setting was more risky as it was OUTSIDE the church along the back of the bell tower wall.  Some of you may remember that I used it for the carol singing over the Christmas period on both my Christmas and Advent Calendar pages.  Vic Newey has done such a great job of the outside as well as inside of our church it is a shame for his work not to be shown off I am sure you will all agree.

See the above photo........check it out carefully.......and then wonder HOW muggins managed so many photos without noticing a certain pertinent fact............as below...

Poor Syd.......he had fallen over as I was arranging the ducks and I had failed to notice.    I have to admit to you that I was so mortified that I had, in my attempts to pose poor Esme, dropped her on to the carpet and in the process her makeshift beak repair had broken again!  Arghh.......however all was not initially lost because I almost immediately saw where her missing beak had gone.  So there I was sitting down and carefully, or so I thought, guarding the broken bit of beak which I had placed for "safe keeping" on a tissue on my lap, and in the process of picking up the tube of wood glue must have jerked or something and bingo............broken part of beak had gone missing completely.  We had the torch out.....checked the carpet floor, settee, where I had been seated.....you name it.........we searched there.
So the picture you see above was a result of me giving up finally on ever finding the said broken part of poor Esme's beak.  I was still keen, though, that she should not miss out on her original photo shoot however.

I was immediately quite annoyed and upset at my own faux pas but then decided that I should be positive here and use it as an opportunity.  So I decided on reflection that, if I couldn't find the broken bit of beak which, incidentally, didn't look that great a repair when done anyway, I may find another way out of the situation.  Strangely I remembered that I had some plastecine which I bought from the childrens' shop, "The Early Learning Centre" many years ago. (children's shops can be a great place to find things when it comes to my miniature work - ie plastecine, pva glue, toy animals etc - hence the arrival of two lambs one Easter Sunday morning in St. Hils...........) YES - I decided to attempt my own makeshift "mend" of Esme's beak.  I can't tell you that I think it looks really brilliant but I hope it makes her just about presentable enough for future photo shoots without having to turn her back to the camera! 

You can see my efforts above.......and a close up as below.........

You can see my repair better here.  I used a bit of white and black plastecine to refashion her beak.......think she doesn't look too bad all things considered! 

Incidentally you will find that one of the pictures above HAS made it to our home page and has been turned into a new card for you to all to download on our Downloads page. Note that I have put "Happy Mothering Sunday" inside.

I won't give up looking for my lost beak.............I don't think poor Esme would quite forgive me for giving up quite yet................wish me luck.............

Till the next time....