unexpected treasure

Yesterday Jen and I visited my cousin Bridget, who I've only seen twice in the last thirty years or so. She has two children I've never met, and produces the most beautiful botanical paintings, a few of which you can see here. She and her sister Ruth lost both parents in quick succession during the past year, I lost Mum, and we have gradually been more in contact over these difficult months as the preceding generation leaves us behind.


We drove up from York. I had planned a nice B road country route, complete with cows, sheep, villages and lovely views. I had noted that the petrol tank was a bit low, but ignored it as we could "get some on the way, and anyway, there should be enough to get us there". However there were several miles of deep, stomach churning, nerve tingling panic as I realised I was running out - there seem to be fewer petrol stations per square mile here that I'm used to down in the crowded, busy south! Eventually a benevolent local sent us in the right direction, "there's one at Thirsk - that's only 11 miles up the road" - note to self - do stop letting that tank run low!! There was considerable personal pride at stake here, not only could I have run out in the middle of nowhere and had to be rescued, I had blithely stated that I'd be on time "not like Mum who was always late". So bad was she at this, that on one visit to the above mentioned cousin's parents, when we were small, Mum left really early and hid round the corner in her car so that she would be on time. She never got over the fact that Uncle Alan rumbled her and called her bluff by suggesting she'd done just that, as her being on time was quite simply unheard of!


Anyway, back to our visit. We arrived exactly on time (hurrah) and were give a wonderful greeting and treated to much needed cups of tea and happy chatter. I looked enviously round her and her husband's studio - delicious botanical painting on one side, exquisite violin being worked on on the other, sheep safely grazing framed through the window in the evening light. She showed us round her garden, all her own hard work, with some raised beds in construction which she, despite being a willowy and graceful soul, had filled up and dug over all by herself. The greenhouse was full of tasty things and the most beautiful copper beech hedge with an arch in the centre screened the garden from the quiet country road they are tucked away on. Once the children - sorry, teenagers, were also assembled, Bryony was at work just down the road, and Barley was deep in the throes of shooting virtual somethings when we arrived, we were served a very fine supper of roast beef and vegedibles, seated round a beautiful dining table her husband Barry had made. There was chat, and more chat, and more chat, and much laughter and more and more laughter, shared family tales and deliciously outrageous stories about Bryony's school friends. In fact I'm not sure when I've had such wonderful fun. We felt enclosed in a little bubble of happy warmth and beautiful things. Eventually, bearing in mind the hour's driving needed to get us back to York, we reluctantly left. On the drive back I reflected quietly to myself on the years that I have missed by not being in contact with these good souls who share my genes. I felt I had discovered a great treasure, which I didn't realise had been there all along. 


People are so precious

bees and fishes

I am away in foreign climes, visiting my wonderful daughter in York where she is studying biology and knows all sorts of things I don't understand. I was delayed by two hours on the way up by traffic chaos on the M1 on Thursday, but had Fleet Foxes and Emily Barker to keep me company. Yesterday, as therapy, I took us here to get our toes nibbled by tiny little fishes - something a good friend recommended. It was a very curious experience I have to say, but one I would repeat. You put your feet in the tank of water and the fishes swarm all over them, nibbling away - Jen, who has very ticklish feet, didn't stop giggling for about the first five minutes! I can only describe the sensation as like the tickly part of pins and needles, but with an odd sense of vibration overlaid. Afterwards our feet felt wonderfully soft and smooth. We had to stay and watch two burly young chaps put their feet in the tank - seeing a grown man squeal because he has fish on his feet was not to be missed!

 Today we went to the Quilt Museum to see the exhibitions on display. It is my treat each time I go to see Jen to pay a visit, there is always so much to look at, the staff are always friendly and helpful, and there is a little shop full of treasures downstairs. This time there were celebration quilts of all sorts, including this beautiful little christening gown by Jacquie Harvey. The stitching on this was so fine, I had to do my mad visitor thing of putting my glasses on top of my head and trying to get a close as possible to the work, my sight not being what it once was! I had vowed NOT to buy any more fabric, but you can't refuse a daughter's offer can you? After we'd been there we went to sit in the beautiful St Anthony's Gardens just by the museum. it is a wonderful spot to stop, tucked under York's ancient walls, a real oasis of colour, shape and the soft sound of wind in the trees.

Now we are back at her student digs, she is cooking for me and there are the incomprehensible and raucous tribal sounds of the male of the species watching football, bruising their way through the walls from next door!

I have my stitching with me, so hopefully Bee will have a bit more landscape to fly over by the time I go home.

stitchin' done

I am happy with the stitching on Norfolk Furrows. Having put it by for a while to distance myself from it, always a good thing with creative projects, I added a bit more and now, I feel there is enough. Just got to work out what to do next - bind with fabric and put a hanging loop or, as the Man suggests, get it framed like a picture. I tend towards the binding and looping - if you know what I mean!

Meanwhile I've been adding to Uffington, bit by bit, but have now put him to one side as well to work on bees; well, a bee. 

The homework I came home with from the embroidery group is to create a themed bee from the pattern above, with wings for goodness sake! All will be hung at the regional show day in Ardingly so I thought I'd give it a go. No harm in trying, but it's the first time I've done anything like it - it's a 3D object! 

The theme for the "challenge" was flight so they chose bees as an interpretation. There were several very fine bees at the meeting on Saturday. I can't hope to match them, but we'll see how my "bee's eye view" goes. Still in it's "pupal" stage one might say, I'll keep you posted. 

These  are little bee bodies, with the fabrics evoking the landscape the bee buzzes across. I want to couch some silver and gold threads across to represent the little bee paths that other bees see when they fly across the landscape

This is the side I've started stitching - I take photographs of things as I'm working, partly to show you, but also so I can see how things are going. You can see more in a photograph, it puts a distance between you and the object, rather like turning an almost finished painting to the wall for a while, so you can see it clearly when you look again. The open space on the left is where the head is supposed to attach.

I was glad I did this. I made the classic hurry'ers mistake, forgetting to turn the template for the mirrored half. Much turning over and marking of new outlines ensued. Then I had to patch some bits in at the tail end to create enough space for the template to turn round in, then I stitched the outline again, having done it once the other way round ..... then I put the template on to take this photograph and realised I've sewn the wrong outline in the fore end of the body!

Back to the sewing machine!

The head - not even started yet, will be in bee colours, with a bee face and beaded eyes .. bzzzzzzz

floral delights

hello, just a quick post to bring you come of the lovely things my garden is giving me at the moment

 some beautiful iris

 these poppies, which were almost hidden by weeds and grass, I'm hoping once both are established that the colours of the poppy and and the deep purple clematis will sing together

 this beautiful delicate rose, which is full of buds just now as it rambles across the front of my shed

the rusty patterns on the water tank which make me smile

and this ash tree, which I will regularly curse as it's babies spread themselves profligately round the garden - look at that great truss of seeds waiting to flutter down and find some nice safe spot to germinate!

However when the wind rushes through the garden, the leave flutter and swing against one another, making the most wonderful shushing sound, and the whole tree looks as though it is waving at me in a very regal fashion - that funny side to side motion of the hand that they do so well!

Embroiderers anonymous

I have just had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with the local branch of the Embroiderers Guild and a very nice group of ladies they were. This month, luckily for me since it was my first visit, there was a talk by Lucy Goffin, which was tremendously interesting. She showed slides of her work, from the very early days, through working with Jean Muir in the eighties to her current collaboration with Anokhi in Rajasthan. It is always inspiring to see an artist talk about what they do and how they came to be doing it. She had lots of slides of her work, and included some lovely tales behind some of the commissioned waistcoats she has made, her time in residency at Great Dixter and her other commissions including one for Glyndebourne and the ecclesiastical robes which provided timely income just as her husband was setting up Marchants Hardy Plants. She also brought along some examples, which ranged from the most delicate gauzy scarves dyed with Japanese Indigo, to a wonderful waistcoat with a shibori lining.

So, a fine afternoon with pleasant company, interesting talk and more to look forward to in the coming months, including a workshop in October on using fusible fabrics. I thoroughly appreciated the warm welcome I was given, and will go again.

Then I decided to go with my plan for walking home, it was "only" 2.4 miles. I started out in good spirits with the sun shining on all the neat suburban gardens, holding Beachy Head in the distance, in a blue veil of haze. I love the meditative swing of walking in town, I think it reminds me of the hours I spent walking home from school, books full of good intentions tucked under my arm and summer breezes wafting across from the distant sea. However, I had to be rescued by me dear man after 1.8 miles, which is at least better than not trying at all. 

I really do need to get out more!!

how my garden grows

things are slowly evolving in this lovely space we have come to. In the back garden, the moon bed has gone from
this

to this

ready for compost and other goodies to enrich the soil. You can see how dry it is, made more pronounced for the fact that it sits directly below a yew tree, but I love the tree, so will have to try and plant things that like dry shade. This well turned soil is not my work I have to say. My good soul stripped off the grass and dug it through. The darker soil to the right is the spot I cleared a while back, which has had soil enricher. You can see the difference.

In the blue pots we have iris nestled in front of the rhododendron

Meanwhile, down in the dell I was creating a rough mown path with the strimmer

through all this lovely greenness and motion, grasses and plantain flowers which swish and swoosh

while above me the fresh walnut leaves sang in the blue, blue sky

The front garden too is developing from

this

through these

to this, shimmering in the breeze and catching all the south facing sunlight

grasses to swing and sway

veronica and penstemon

geum

euphorbia

And this greets me every day when I come home from work, lifting my spirits with its exuberance.

White horse grows

I had a strange glitch with Blogger that has resulted in a repost of my first Uffington post.
Here is the update - his land of dreams is expanding - time to go talk with him some more!