A summers day

Spent the morning potting up plants for the yard.  We have a yard with a garden beyond, the garden tends to be a overgrown cottage garden  mix of perennials, whereas the yard with its painted walls has pots of zingy coloured annuals as well as some climbing plants.  The idea is that when I am sitting out there in the evening with the candles lit in the lanterns, I can pretend that I am holiday in some faraway Mediterranean coastal resort, ah dream on!!

No sooner had I finished than ominous dark clouds began building up in the distance.   

I popped indoors to check out one of my favourite weather sites, this one shows you where there is thunder and lightning storm activity in the UK.  Sure enough there was a huge cluster (if that is the right word) of activity very close by, so time to put down the trowel and make a cup of tea and enjoy the spectacle which I could now hear rumbling not too far away.  It is strangeto think that as a child I would be quivering in my shoes with fright by now,  I am still not keen on being outdoors in a storm but really enjoy watching them from the relative safety of my window.  Before long we were experiencing flashes and window rattling thunder and an immense downpour complete with hail stones.  The garden was very grateful!  When I finally went back outside the sunshine had returned and my climbing roses were reflected in the puddles in my yard.

Working on a new painting at the moment.  sorry, not the best photograph,  I think I need a new camera!

sunshine to rain

We began this week bathed in glorious sunshine, summer was here, lots of trips round the garden were required with watering can for thirsty flowers, butterflies and bees flitted and buzzed around the plants, the birds were singing, lovely.

Mitten took up fishing!

He even got his paw wet!!

But I don’t think he caught anything, I reckon the frogs were watching him from the other side of the pond!

Friday dawned, a very special day in these parts, which I have mentioned before on this blog, Whit Friday. 

There are some that consider this day to be the best day of the year,  It certainly is an experience from the Whit walks in the morning, each church community walking the boundaries of there parish complete with banners, brass bands and flower queens.  To the famous brass band contests in the evening. 

The afternoon is given over to childrens sports activities if you want, but I join up with a group of friends to have a shared lunch in their garden, always lovely.   Here is my contribution to the lunch.

Easy peasie strawberry cupcakes, they were so easy to make and did a very fast vanishing act!  The recipe that I used was from my beloved BeRo cookbook.

100 g (4 oz)    marg or softened butter

100 g (4 oz)    caster sugar

2 medium eggs

100 g (4 oz)    self raising flour

I also used a handful of of chopped strawberries to add to the mix

You cream the margarine and sugar together, until nice and smooth, light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs one at a time with a spoonful of flour.

Then add the rest of the flour, folding in gently.

At this point I mixed in the chopped strawberries, the smell was so delicious!

Half fill paper cases and bake in oven (gas 5, 190 C, 375 F) for about 15 minutes.

I decorated them with a little pink icing and of course topped with a strawberry.

This year we were not so lucky with the weather, it was fine up to the end of the afternoon, but then at about 4.30 the heavens opened complete with a loud rumble of thunder, just at the time the band contests are getting underway outdoors all over the local area.  The day ended cold wet and windy with the threat of snow forecast for the Pennines believe it or not!! 

I am busy finishing some paintings for this years Art Week  in Holmfirth, It is ‘taking in’ day at the end of the month so the pressure is on!  However I have managed to find time for my new addition, crochet. My latest accomplishments are two bowls, one is an teeny weeny one of Noro yarn, the other is a bit bigger made with dishcloth cotton.

Can you see my treasured crocheted pebble from resurrection fern. 

I found the pattern for the cream coloured bowl here. 

Oh! Almost forgot, I am now on Twitter!!

Will have to dash, there seem to be hungry offspring hovering.  Bye for now!

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blossom

Spring time is blossom time, and the blossom has arrived in my garden.

I love this time of the year for all the billowy blossomy blossom that smoothers trees.  The blossom trees that I have in my garden are still quite young, but they have done well this year with a fair amount of pinky white flowers on them.  This morning they looked beautiful against the blue blue sky in the sun shine, sadly it has now turned all grey and rainy, but it was lovely while it lasted.

The petals are almost transparent with the sun shining through them.  I have also treated myself to some senetti (I think it is called), such an amazing blue.

On the creative front, I have picked up my paintbrushes again, it seem ages since I have painted anything, it has been papier mache for weeks now.  I am working on this chap at the moment, he appeared as a scribble on a scrap of paper and before I knew it, he had grabbed my attention and started taking form on a board.

Think I might call him ‘blossom’!

An excellant day out!

On Saturday, I jumped in to my friends car and we headed off to sunny Buxton (well okay it was raining to start with, but later the sun did shine). Our destination was Ceramics in the Dome.  I have never been to a ‘proper’ potters fair before, simply because they are usually miles and miles away,  and I work weekends, but I have so  longed to go to one and then I found out that this was almost on my doorstep (slight exaggeration but hey), so a days holiday from work was duly arranged.  I have an absolute passion for contemporary pottery, maybe it’s my background as I hail from the Potteries and my late father was a pottery designer and my late  uncle was a potter.  If I could choose my career path again, I might well go down the path of clay and glazes and kilns and raku and woodash, ooooh dream, dream, dream.   Well, we arrived at the Dome in Buxton and we were not dissapointed, my friend (who used to be a potter -how could she give it up?!!) and I were in seventh heaven. We were surrounded by top quality ceramics – mugs, jugs, platters, polar bears, ah, the polar bears, more about them later.  I was able to meet people whose work I had only spied in Ceramic Review or occasionally in lovely craft galleries, I was also able to meet someone whose blog I have been lurking on for a good few months, (yes, I own up, I am a lurker!) Hannah MacAndrew has a pottery up in Scotland where she makes the most beautiful slipware,  It was lovely to be able to say ‘hello’ at last. 

This is the Hannah MacAndrew mug that I own, with it’s lovely little birds running round the top.

A few pots came home with us on Saturday….

A small head by Sally MacDonell

Two pebbles by Emma Williams, amazing colour.

A bowl by Katherine Winfrey with hares running all the way around it.

Small wall plaque by Alasdair MacDonell (husband of Sally above), such a talented couple.

A new mug for my horlicks by Toff Milway, once met, never forgotten!

Last, but certainly not least, a polar bear by Paul Smith, his work is mainly  inspired by fairy tales and has a wonderfully quirky illustrative style, I loved his red riding hood and wolf  hugging each other, but I will have to save up for one of those.  The polar bear now stands by my bed, on my dresser like a gentle guardian.

We had the most wonderful time and met some really lovely people (potters are always lovely people), and when we have saved up some more money, we would like to do it all again please!

Next stop Earth and Fire  yehhhhhh!

New birds

A while ago I experimented with making birds with papier mache, I loved it but other things took over, life and so on, and my little birds sat on a dusty shelf. Anyway whilst moving things around in my workroom, I came across them and my heart skipped, I had to make some more.

Ah, WordPress is not  letting me post any more pictures than this one, infact I can not even scroll below it to write this, frustrating or what!  I have more piccis to show you but maybe that will have to wait.  You could zip over to my Flickr page where there is the latest bird showing off its new spring plumage.   Hopefully normal transmisson will resume shortly!  Bye for now.

garden treasure

We were greeted with lovely warm sunshine today, which was brilliant as it is my day at home and the decent weather meant that I could spend some of that time in the garden.

These two cheery primroses were tucked away behind a tree, I love their bright colours.  Next to them were the hellebores, the only way to photograph them is to hold the camera beneath them pointing upwards, if you get my drift, so that you can see their pretty noddins heads.

On to the pond, where there has been lots of activity over the last two days, with the frogs that is.  The arrival of the frog spawn is two weeks later than last year, but I guess we have had a bitterly cold winter. 

Then it was time to check the pots by the summerhouse, they are looking so good, I added some little violas to them today.  Everywhere there are buds bursting and unfolding, fresh bright green tiny leaves beginning to open.  Just lovely.   Whenever I have a potter in the garden I am also on the look out for something else.   A long time ago, this area that is now the garden, was used as a dump in victorian times, and I often find pieces of pottery as well as other bits and bobs.  I can not remember the number of spanners I have dug up!  But today it was small pieces of broken pottery that I found, I love these fragments from the past, the patterns are so pretty and delicate. 

You can just picture them as cups and plates being used in the houses and cottages that are nearby.

I hope that you are having lovely spring weather where ever you are.

Bye for now.

pretty things

It feels like spring today, the sun is shining and the sky is blue and when I got into my car this afternoon, it was so warm in there like I had stepped into a heated greenhouse.  A welcome change from the bitter cold we have experienced of late.  Don’t get me wrong though, I have loved the ‘proper’ winter weather that we have had over the last few weeks, it was rather nice to have crunchy snow underfoot but when you get a day like today you appreciate it all the more.

The pretty crocuses in the garden are opening their petal to the sunshine as if they are drinking it all in.   This is their moment.

The pretty primmies are looking gorgeous on the kitchen dresser, their colours are so cheerful and their scent is heavenly  mmmmmm.

Another pretty thing popped through my letterbox today all the way from Canada,  Is this not amazing!

A sea stone covered in crochet, such fine crochet too,  divine simplicity,  it looks like a spring flower itself, beaming out at the world. This is from the very talented Margi of Resurrection Fern. She has an Etsy shop with these stones as well as beautiful prints, a real feast for the eyes.

Crochet on crochet!

Another little character is in the pipeline at the moment, I hope she will be pretty when she is finished!   Hope the suns shines for you this weekend.

Introducing….

A little while ago, tucked away in this post, I was telling you about the work of  a  lovely lady,  I had stumbled across her photos onFlickr and then found her blog and Etsy shop, You know how it is when sometimes you come across someones work that really excites you and makes you smile, and you want to see more and more of the persons work, well that was me.  I was enthralled by her work, those little faces exquisitely made, my heart was lost and I had to have one,  and so after a little wait  for her to fly across the ocean, my very own lollie girl is here.

Made from papier mache, paperclay and wire, with two little pebbles in the niche in her tummy,  and then painted with watercolours.  She now hangs on my red wall where I can see her all day.

and because I had the honor of being her first Etsy customer,  a little extra treat was in the parcel too,  one of Marilyns lovely heart brooches.

 

Just right for this time of the year!

Thank you Marilyn.

Today, I have been busy….

Walking the dog….

Past the old stone cottages, They look so lovely in their snowy setting.  Through the gateway that marks the old boundary of Lancashire and Yorkshire,  Mabel gets very excited at this point as she knows this is the way to the horse field,  lots of interesting smells, if you are a dog that is!

Wonderful views across to ‘pots n pans’ in Saddleworth,

and into the horse field, but hang on, where is the grass, where are the horses, just deep deep snow, poor Mabel.

Not quite what she was expecting.  It is too much for a little dog with very short legs,  Mabel soon became unimpressed with the white stuff and decided it was time to head home.

I must say I was quite glad to turn back too, it looks glorious, but crikey, it was cold this morning.  Time for hot chocolate and a newly iced cake.

Yum!