Several years ago, on another of our memorable family holidays to Cornwall, we were lucky enough to be staying at the unspoilt Golant Youth Hostel. It’s in quite an isolated location, a great rambling old Georgian house, complete with originaI and crumbling orangery and marvellous, wild grounds. It overlooks the river Fowey  and is surrounded by beautiful woods, with a great walk to the nearby creekside pub over the fields.

Our reason for staying though was to see badgers. I had read, in the book the YHA used to publish with interesting information about all the hostels, that scraps from the kitchen were put out in the evening and the local badgers came to feed. In fact they were so used to this that they would come really close to the windows, which were floor to ceiling in height, so they could be clearly seen. I couldn’t quite believe this, I’d never been lucky enough to see a badger...

We were only staying for one night, so after the evening meal, we lingered in the dining room. It was mid summer, so there was a soft twilight for quite a time. I didn’t notice the kitchen staff putting out food, but suddenly there was a movement on the edge of the woods and then a young badger just trotted up to the house and started feeding, right in front of the window. He was quickly joined by at least six or seven more badgers of varying sizes, absolutely unafraid. It was a magical experience to be able to sit and watch them feeding and then playing on the lawns around the house. We were in a badger’s paradise, so it seemed.

We watched for ages until they finally disappeared into the darkness, the memory of them emerging from the undergrowth has always stayed with me. We learnt that in the nearby woods the badgers had tunnelled into the banks under the trees and on a walk to the village we saw some of the truly magnificent excavations they had made. I often wonder if the badgers still come to feed at the hostel, I’d love to go back and find out.

The beautifully illustrated book by Eileen Soper

At about that time I bought a beautiful book called Wildings about the  life of Eileen Soper, an extremely talented and rather eccentric artist, who also illustrated the Famous Five books. She was absolutely obsessed with wildlife of all sorts, and spent hours observing and drawing badgers in her garden. It was a revelation to see her amazing sketches and watercolour paintings and I discovered she had written this book...all about badgers! This book and the memory of that special holiday were the inspiration for me to create my own etched painting featuring badgers.

The book is full of beautiful watercolour paintings and pencil drawings

I knew I wanted the badgers to be underground,as they are so rarely seen in the open, and for the sett to be underneath a tree, like the ones I’d seen in the woods at Golant. I eventually produced a design I knew I wanted to paint and chose an amazing piece of turquoise opal Sea glass to work on. It seemed to suggest daybreak, so the badgers in my painting have returned home to curl up and sleep for the day. I loved the white streaks which make this glass really glow against the light and seemed to light up the badgers in their underground home.

The turquoise opal Sea glass really glows in the light.

The tree is a twisted hawthorn, I love these wind swept trees which you see on the moors in Cornwall and the Peak District. There are far distant hills in the background and tangled roots around the sett, with ferns growing In profusion. This will be for sale in my Etsy shop, when I can bear to part with it,or you can order it on my website, painted onto a glass colour of your choice. I think this design would also be very effective and mysterious painted onto the green and brown streaky colour. Badger’s Paradise will also be available as a limited edition print and card in the future, so please keep an eye on my website for details.