Did someone ring the breakfast bell ?

 hell yeah .....

this season's brood of baby starlings are raucous, squabbling, ever moving and always, but always hungry. We are constantly delighted by their scuffles over the food we provide them in the garden - this feeder is the latest attempt to stop Badger and Squirrel from carting our offerings away wholesale after a bit of inventive breaking and entering! It works well so far, allows access to the smaller birds while the larger ones can feast on other food in a nearby tree. Sometimes there are as many as 20 all flapping and squalling and fighting over who gets what! The little ones are just beginning to learn to feed themselves instead of sitting in a row on the fence shouting for Mum.

Just now

We sit in our garden of an evening and feel a huge gratitude to the Universe for providing such a spot in which to dwell.

Columbine, my favourites, always scattered round my childhood gardens, the infinite variety and sheer gaiety of these flowers always delights me.

and then .... later ..... I stroll into the siting room and there he is, huffling and snuffling just down the path

oh delight

All unpressed

as they are, and not very good iPad photos 

more May shibori - goes rather nicely with the soft turquoise from here 

doughnut tied

folded and clamped

pole wrapped

ploughed up (like in tray dyeing) tied and clamped

vintage linen

Evening shadows

 

 and highlights

of differing kinds

And in between,

the garden grows all by itself

all right dear?

May Shibori 3

So I dipped and dyed, and dyed a bit more and generally faffed about for a couple of days. And here is where I am now

This piece speaks to me of dandelions in a field, very pleased

This needs more work I think, though I'm not sure where to take it. Studio 11 tomorrow, show and tell, I'll see what people think, which is one of the pleasures of being there.

The blue ripple that had been stitched back and front is so subtle that images don't really show what little pattern is there, but for the record, here it is. Again, more work, much more work, but still developing layers.

There is a faint extra ripple there, but I think one of the bits of stitching worked loose, which didn't help. I'd like to repeat this process, but on a different scale

So I learn a little bit more. In particular this time, about quantities. It's good when I can experiment at home; I can be more systematic and understand the results better. None of these pieces are anything like as deep in colour as I'd hoped they would be, but have still taught me as  imade notes of times and quantities on the way there.

May Shibori 2

So I took the cloth out, let it dry looked

and thought, not quite rich enough, just shadows of triangles and ovals, rather than brilliant jewels. Perhaps another layer?

And then there's that bit of linen I ran some stiches into, having folded and layered first

That could be drawn up and popped in as well