Fliss Russell@Darned with Faint Praise

Ercol and yet more Ercol

2011-12-27T08:11:00.001-08:00

Very pleased to acquire a stylish Ercol chair from a charity shop, and now have acquired a sofa and two more chairs from another charity shop. Only problem is that the linen covers are just too pretty and too busy, so I have dyed them all navy blue. It works, looking like a self pattern on damask. Now do I strip all the dark varnish off so that they match........

One cushion is Doveflight by Mark Hearld and the other the copy of a fragment of 18th century fabric from the Foundling Museum in London.

Random Spectacular

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

My issue of Random Spectacular has arrived and it is absolutely glorious. This first issue is a limited edition of 750 copies - produced by St Jude's Gallery - with the proceeds going to cancer charity. With contibutions from the likes of Mark Hearld and Anglie Lewin it is a feast for the eyes indeed.

Reflections and other fascinations.

2011-12-04T22:27:00.000-08:00

Entirely eclectic

2011-12-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

London

2011-10-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

Spitalfields, Columbia Road and Highgate - all in one breath - and such a lot of photographs......

Southwold,yipee

2011-09-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

A day on the beach, bacon rolls, lots of walking, late clusters of swallows, a pint at the Lord Nelson and for lunch fish finger sandwiches, how sophisticated is that........

Rain, Spain and Plains

2011-09-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

Spain, and no rain..................................

Conflux and Flare

2011-08-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

Sean Heny's exhibition of sculpure at Salisbury Cathedral

Following a medieval tradition of putting the figures of saints in cathedrals .......

Flare 11 by Antony Gormley - a dense wire mesh supporting a falling figure - angel or human - who knows.....

This chap has seen nothing like it......

By the sea..

2011-08-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

19th century King William's yard, function at its very best - designed to provision the fleet (Pepys had the original idea) and now being converted into eating venues (roll on dear Hugh) and some very impressive flats.

A ships dog..... Marley and the lovely Kara Mor

Church Groupie......

2011-08-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Somedays you just have to galvanise yourself.......

Ely, Wells and Salisbury - does this make me a cathedral groupie.......

Devotion and Beach Hu

2011-08-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

Devotion exhibition at the British Museum, and then across to the beach huts on the South Bank - all enhanced by a yummy lunch from a Airstream caravan..............

flowers, flowers and flowers (and some more)

2011-07-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

A day when I veered between terror and sheer pleasure mixed with not a little control freakery, but the flowers got done and my clients were thrilled..........! So much pleasure I am amazed it was legal.

Not the royal wedding, but the real wedding....

2011-06-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

Breakfast at Harvey Nicks.

2011-05-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

Its the Royal Wedding........... yummy breakfast and lunch, and cocktails - thank you John.

is the order of the day - aided by martini cocktails - can things get any better than this.......

A woman on a mission........................................

thank goodness we have one sober grown up with us............................

Salami

2011-04-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Am a little anxious as I hung a slice of salami in the pond and had a feeding frenzy. Not sure if salami is quite the thing and now the tadpoles are on fish food - the aim being to prevent them scoffing each other. However I could be breeding a generation of very tough frogs who now have an inbuilt taste for salami and I will be a marked woman every time I set foot in the garden.... It has been a lovely day, the tortoise is rushing about and all around the pond are mason bees collecting the damp mud, thirty or more at a time. A lot of blackbirds and robins - think I may have to get some mealworms as the ground is so hard.

It is amazing how much time you spend sitting next to a pond.

Unapologetic

2011-04-22T04:48:00.000-07:00

There is a rather snappy blog called `Mrs Trefusis takes a Taxi' and she says "at least two-thirds of anything I utter starts with words "I am so sorry..."

Well I fear I am the same, I can say sorry until the cows come home, BUT I hate brussell sprouts and I am not in the slightest bit sorry........ so there.

Paul Nash

2011-04-22T04:41:00.001-07:00

Paul Nash lived in Rye, Iden and Dymchurch, he painted the Romney Marsh - how did I manage to forget that.........

Prospect Cottage and Dungeness

2011-04-22T04:30:00.000-07:00

Dungeness is like nowhere else, desolate but magical. Derek Jarman created a garden from found objects and shingle plants, he had tragically little time to enjoy it. I need to investigate the quote written on the side wall `what are the rags of time.........'

De La Warr Pavilion

2011-04-22T04:24:00.001-07:00

The De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill on Sea. Built in 1935 and designed by the architects Eric Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff. This is Andy Tuohy's picture from 2009.

Rye

2011-04-22T04:10:00.001-07:00

Rye is absolutely lovely and full of surprises - this is street we stayed on in a converted Quaker Chapel.

I did climb the church tower - heart in mouth, heart in boots, heart everywhere but in the proper place. This is looking down on Henry James' House.

Lots of marsh churches to explore - The Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust - www.romneychurches.net.

John Piper recorded most of the Marsh Churches - this is Snargate (1986).

Bloomsberry Pie

2011-04-22T03:24:00.001-07:00

Love em or loathe them I find the whole Bloomsbury set up absolutely fascinating. Their complex relationships, their desire to be experimental in art and appreciate the work of continental artists and most of all the way their homes and gardens became firmly embedded in their artistic sensibilities.

This is Monks House, home of Virginia Woolf with the art critic Clive Bell, husband of Vanessa Bell, Virginia's sister, and Vanessa's daughter Angelica from her relationship with the artist Duncan Grant.

Now to Charleston, home of Vanessa Bell, Clive Bell, Maynard Keynes and Duncan Grant.

Vanessa with Angelica who believed for years she was the daughter of Clive Bell, she was in fact daughter of Duncan Grant, a confirmed homsexual and was to marry one of her father's lovers - Vanessa and Duncan being quite unable to be honest with her and put a stop to it.

Vanessa at Charleston painted by Duncan.

The fresco scheme devised by Duncan and Vanessa at Berwick Church

Angelica posing as Mary.

Garden Heaven

2011-04-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

Great Dixter and Sissinghurst - how happy can any girl be?

Stained glass

2011-04-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

A patchwork of stained glass in the Marsh Churches, Winchelsea and Rye - check for the pylon in the piece below:

The window above and 2 below in the church in Appledore (Kent version).

Burne-Jones window in Rye Church

Small window flooded with sunlight at Charleston Farmhouse

A fantastic series of windows designed in the 1930s by Douglas Stratton for St Thomas in Winchelsea. Spike Milligen (I told you I was ill) is buried in the churchyard.

jolly hols

2011-04-19T13:29:00.001-07:00

Off to Sussex - first to the best bookshop ever in Alfriston

Village Church in Alfriston on its mound.

The male creche in Lewes - women push husbands through the gates before hitting the town; safe and secure their husbands can play bowls for hours on the old tilting green.

Cats and pigeons are the norm but in Lewes things have to be a little different! Just found a wonderful blog by a `gentleman bookseller in Lewes' - `The Age of Uncertainity' .

Saatchi Gallery

2011-03-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

Its spring

2011-03-31T13:11:00.001-07:00

faded histories

2011-03-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

Working on collages - faded histories - printing letters and photographs on fabric and building up a design around them:

Bruce Munro in Salisbury

2011-02-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

Light installations in Salisbury Cathedral by Bruce Munro. 2,000 fibre optics ending in clear teardrop diffusers, cascading from the Spire Crossing. A shower of light.

69 towers made up of 14,000 plus bottles of water and 6 km of optic fibre. A maze of colour that changes in response to music - and seen from a distance framed by the cloister arches is a living tapestry of stained glass.

Not easy to photograph, but I like the effect of these technically dodgy pictures....

Spring, just possibly on the way

2011-02-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

A walk to Wittenham Clumps - finally some sunshine breaks though and there are snowdrops, catkins and aconites. Sheep graze on the slopes and red kites share the crest of the hill with brightly coloured kites chased by children. A keen wind blusters but it is wonderfully mild. The flooding next to the river is white with gulls, like pools of spilt milk.

Early morning in the garden

2011-02-06T13:28:00.001-08:00

When its cold I mutter darkly about feeding chickens, but when mornings are like this well how lucky am I ........... View from the garden, what does not show are the queues of robins, blackbirds who wait by the chicken run for breakfast.

London Art Fair

2011-02-06T13:18:00.000-08:00

The London Art Fair - mostly a chance to look closely at art often only seen out of reach in museums and art galleries. Patrick Heron, Ivon Hitchins and Paul Nash. So close as to see the brushstrokes; the painter's hand.

Two Gormleys -forever separated by glass.

Then to the Arcola Theatre to see Toby Jones as Turner. Abbrasive and isolated, dependant on his father and rejected by his mother, Turner jostles with Constable to try to persuade the Royal Academy to take landscape art seriously.

sardines and daffodils

2011-01-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

Forgot the winter tree bit - just off The Mall in twilight, magic after a week being chained to my desk

Now to the sardines - how can you resist this tin .....................................

And, finally, Cornish daffodils, a present with a bottle of fizz - I love being a landlady!

Port Meadow under water

2011-01-16T11:46:00.001-08:00

A rather desolate day on Port Meadow. The flooding means that the wader bush telegraph has been buzzing and there are clusters of small indeterminate birds pottering here and there, together with clouds of gulls and flocks of geese. Huge increase in general in the level of birdsong and on the river Great Crested Grebe are eyeing each other up poised for the spring courtship rituals.

From Port Meadow to Binsey chapel - small, dark (no electricity) and satisfyingly plain and serene.

Mr Miles Dewey Davis

2010-12-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

Crime photographs of Mr Miles Dewey Davis. Am christmas hit, though this was a knitting nightmare.

Spreading a little love.

2010-12-22T05:29:00.000-08:00

Very proud of my Rob Ryan bunting........

I am a real fan of Rob Ryan and it was a pleasure to see the hard-headed Guardian praise his laser cut prints as clever, quirky and above all romantic. How can you resist:

I can't forget and I never will. You smiled at me and from nothing something came. Now the world is new to me again. I will remember still you smiled at me and now I dream a dream of good.

Well I am just a softie!

This is a stunning magazine he did for Elle - thank you to a friend's SO who was prepared to stand in a queue at the station to buy it when he saw it.

A fab tea-towel from TODRYFOR.

And my all time favourite statement - YOU CAN STILL DO A LOT WITH A SMALL BRAIN.

Socialising in walking boots.

2010-12-22T05:13:00.000-08:00

This is the view from the teashop window - a mass of strange reflections. Sitting on leather sofas opening christmas presents we are showing off a range of new christmas jumpers while below the table walking boots and wellingtons have a party of their own.

Oxford Market - I avoided the hanging wild boar, deer and ranks and ranks of turkey and geese.

If heaven is paved with good intentions - then hell is a morass of sprouts - please please no more dinners with people who can pop a whole one in their mouths and crunch.

Not quite a storm in a teacup

2010-12-21T05:22:00.001-08:00

More of a prickle in haystack I suppose. This is a christmas present for a very keen seamstess -
well you can argue it is truly unique and not a bad piece of improvisation on my part.

From V&A to RA

2010-12-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes exhibition at the V&A. Diaghilev put ballet at the heart of the development of Modernism - causing a sensation in 1920's London. He involved Cocteau, Picasso (see his wonderful backdrop of women running on a beach below); Stravinsky, Chanel, Prokofiev, Nijinsky, Matisse, Bakst and Braque. The colour and drama of the costumes were highly influential on dresses for the fashionable classes.

Diaghilev owned virtually nothing and lived by his charm on credit in the very best of hotels - he died in the Grand Hotel in Venice.

The Glasgow Boys at the RA in what Brian Sewell describes as a wretched attic gallery - certainly the amount of pictures had to be reduced from the original Glasgow exhibition. An easy exhibition to disparage - after all if one is seeking to represent the poor why seek rural poverty when there was plenty to be found in the Glasgow tenements. This loose association of artists saw themselves as painting real people and real places but certainly cabbage patch art found a readier market than urban misery. However there is a sense that these are pictures of integrity and dignity, something rarely allowed the rural poor. Rebelling against the brown toned academic art they did not look to their avant-garde contemporary Manet, but to the work of an earlier French artist Millet. Maybe not pioneering, maybe tame compared to Cezanne's French peasants in the Courtauld - but there is a sense of fresh air and clean bright colours that has its own charm - and goodness knows sometimes it is just satisfying to look at something beautiful for its own sake.

Well here we are again frolicking along the beach in St Ives- but no it snowed! St Ives will need to wait until the spring.

London in a rush

2010-11-25T12:15:00.000-08:00

Colour in London

2010-11-14T02:17:00.001-08:00

My Great Grandfather's shop in London - I am not sure that their artist's materials can compare with......

Cornelissen - Colourmen - just down from the British Museum -artists from The Slade, Augustus John, Mark Gertler, Dora Carrington would all have found their paints here. A feast of colour, with old wooden floors and tiny drawers and cupboards - all the original fittings.

The rows of colour pigments are absolutely glorious and have the most extravagent names.

London - The Foundling Museum.

2010-11-14T01:44:00.000-08:00

Fortified by a large slice of coffee cake... in fact every entry for today should read fortified by a large slice of cake (yum to the orange and lavender cake at Somerset House). I must have been walking close to the Foundling Museum for years and just missed it, but rectified that today for this lovely and poignant exhibition - which continues untl March.

The original Foundling Hospital was established after a prolonged period of struggle by a sea captain - Captain Coram - in the18th century. Coram was appalled by the way children were disposed of on the streets like rubbish by desperate or uncaring parents. The original hospital has been demolished and the area now a green space -Captain Coram's Fields - no entry for adults without a child. The interior was carefully preserved and reassembled close by.

Hogarth's portait of Captain Coram. Hogarth was a strong supporter and encouraged artists of the day to donate artworks - the Hospital became the first public art space in London - displaying works by Gainsborough, Reynolds and other top artists of the day - it was a PR success. Handel composed music for the Hospital and the Messiah was performed there, he left a fair copy of the score to the Hospital.

Many of the parents forced to leave their children were deeply caring and fully intended to retrieve them when circumstances improved. Tiny momentoes or scraps of fabric were halved one to be kept with the child and one to stay with the parent to aid identification in later years. 5000 scraps of fabric are pinned in the ledger books, each one the life of an abandoned child. Thousands of children passed through the Hospital (there are 250 metres of ledgers) - few were ever retrieved.

Florella Burney's tiny scrap has been reprinted by the London Printworks Trust - see below. Florella was never retrieved and although named by her mother, she would have been renamed by the Hospital.

This collection represents the largest collection of 18th century everyday textiles available to textile historans.

Crucible Exhibition

2010-11-06T12:01:00.001-07:00

An outing to Gloucester to see the fabulous `Crucible' exhibition - 76 sculptures from the Pangolin Gallery. A superb range of sculptures all set within and just outside the Cathedral. Two particularly stunning images I have not included below - incredibly powerful they were uncomfortable viewing - David Mach's huge and tormented Calvery and Marc Quinn's Waiting for Godot - a skeleton kneeling before an altar.

Michael Cooper's Bear

Stained glass from the workshop of William Morris.

Edward Paolozzi's Vulcan

John Sydney Carter's Le Poisson.

Anthony Abrahams' Walking

One of three beautiful windows - comparatively recent and I have forgotten the name, but they reminded me of the lovely Chagall windows in Rheims Cathedral.

Lynn Chadwick's Crouching Beast II

Joe Rush's Hornbill

Antony Gormley's Close V

Dead at a mere 17 with her baby.

A female nude in a saint's niche- Torso with Head by Michael Cooper.

Gloucester Docks

2010-11-06T11:46:00.001-07:00

To Gloucester Docks, curiously empty and rather wonderful with huge Victorian warehouses, mostly converted into apartments. Elegant huge windows of the warehouses set behind waterfront form an upmarket shopping centre, of which I had only the most fleeting glimpse! (sulk). Various barges and dry docks; spare and satisfying industrial architecture.

Who can resist the rather fetching (padded, ouch!) bra on Edith.

Roche Court

2010-10-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

A lovely country weekend, with wonderful meals and library with deep sofas and so many books - staffed by the most eager pair of hands dispensing lethal G&T's - almost heaven.

To Roche Court a 19th century house with a sculpture park and garden. Sculptures include Hepworth, Gorley, Caro and Opie(two rather wacky brightly coloured cars of coloured aluminium). Pooled with rain, covered in cobwebs with muddy cat-paw prints from the pair of cats that use them as a giant playground. A backdrop of burnt orange and chocolate tinted scarlet trees, with gently falling leaves. Sinister bronze birds lurk in the walled garden where there are still flowers in the almost derelict cold-frames.

A lovely spare glass gallery designed by Munkenbeck+Marshall with an exhibition of Christopher Le Brun's rather chalky and enigmatic canvases - like early Italian fresco. The Artists' House, which was closed, is designed by Stephen Marshall and modelled on Kettle's Yard to provide a domestic space for contemporary work.

Below is Christopher Le Brun's Union Horse with Two Discs. Not my picture, there was a very fierce custodian indeed.

Birthdays and berries....

2010-10-27T09:53:00.001-07:00

I am not sure that my birthday was given the gravitas I might have expected........

Still coffee with friends in Cell Two

A wander down the rather grand hall...........

But the accommodation left something to be desired...

To recover from the grand dinner of the night before it is a crisp and brisk walk up Wittenham Clumps. Leaves are turning and there are so many berries. A beautiful day.

Footling in London

2010-10-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

A more peaceful day in London, unlike last week's lively expedition to see War Horse (which was fantastic). To the Breon O'Casey at Somerset House - not particularly inspiring really, his output is prodigious but somehow the artist was missing - so little information about him. I had the same problem with the Gauguin - all the buzz, the queues etc., but somehow the artist as a person was simply not accessible. But the Thames itself was glorious, the sky a cold lapis blue and there was the tiny treasure of All Hallows crypt.

7734

2010-09-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

To Jasmin Vardimon's 7734 - an absolutely fantastic dance production. 9 very young dancers all different nationalities use dance, words and video. Vardimon is an Associate Artist with Sadler's Wells and her dances deal with man's inhumanity to man and the manipulation of power - `visceral' - but with passages of quiet lyricism. A packed house with a riveted audience.

The Long Dark

2010-09-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

Exhibition at Kettle's Yard - "medieval revivalism in contemporary art - industrial processes blended with traditional crafts. I particularly liked the wall painting, translucent washes of colour over the rough plaster - the colours created from a range of poisonous substances. Such a homely touch - just lick that bit darling - it certainly would be the long dark!!!!!

Muppets and Chariots of Fire

2010-09-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

To Cambridge for Chariots of Fire. Fab bikes, I want one, neon pink...... Cambridge is full of the most delightful bikes in the cheery shades so beloved by academics.....

Here we are, a brief interlude in shopping, and running, and fizzing, and generally putting the world to rights. This is lovely lovely Clare gardens.

This is outside the Fitz, it sort of sneaked in - but good reflections..

Now unfortunately John's amazing video of the sing-a-long evening would not attach - too long - but I have been assured that this is a very good thing indeed.... muppets at large was one of the kinder comments. But gosh were we good............................

One for all etc., etc

2010-09-06T14:21:00.001-07:00

A weekend in Covent Garden. High points include eating gourmet mashmallow from a nearby grocer sitting outside the RA (and then vaulting scones and jam of worthy RA members taking tea in order to see the Tracey Emin exhibition).

Now disaster strikes, so overcome by champagne on the rooftop terrace of a penthouse, just off Baker Street (name dropping I know I know), I muddled my camera and so apart from this there are no acceptable pictures of the weekend (especially the drinking from the wrong side of the glass - well not if I want to live).

A magnifying glass should reveal the London Eye!!

Find of the weekend, by an intrepid pair of Musketeers - Princi - 135 Wardour St - calories in style!

Such a Gay Day.

2010-09-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

So now for Provincetown - slightly alternative - well actually very very alternative! Here we are the dynamic duo out and about.........

The Kalmar Nyckel - a replica of a 17th century Dutch pinnace - absolutely wonderful, I was rather obsessed with her.

Very Provincetown - the crew wear feather boas.......

Spent a lot of time here people watching - no photo of the sweet young man wearing nothing but a pair of Speedos waiting for the ferry for Boston. Lots snacks of a Portuguese delicacy called malassadas - fried dough tossed in sugar - delicious -just lots of sitting watching the boats come and go.

Provincetown is the oldest continuous art-colony in the USA - estalished 1899. Our inn, the Fairbanks Inn ( www.fairbanksinn.com) was an 18th century former captain's house credited with the first indoor bathroom in the town (and so so appropriate for me).

The memorial tower to the Pilgrim Fathers - look to Siena for the original.

Houses with this blue plaque have been floated across the bay when the fishing sites moved.

I want, have always wanted, a verandah........ Seems a pretty low key request to me.

Its more likely I will have one of these!!

Cape Cod lighthouse - this is next to the Nauset Light beach (and yes there has been a Great White in the locality).

I remain a happy bunny, smiling bravely despite seams straining across excessive Malassadas........

Cliches all the way.

2010-09-04T14:15:00.001-07:00

I have to say that quite a few cliche boxes have been ticked, but Cape Cod is absolutely beautiful, with such a sense of space and sky.

Humpback Whales feeding a Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. We reckoned that about fifty of these creatures and a few Minke were feeding in a relatively close proximity to the boat. The whales thrashed their tails and dived causing huge rings of bubbles to erupt on the surface; suddenly excited masses of gannets and shearwaters started plunging into this malstrom and as they did so the vast jaws of the whales rose into the air.

It was absolutely magical.

This small and empty beach is part of the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History at Brewster, and in the sky above was an osprey, one of three young reared in the reserve that year. Later we saw an adult flying over Provincetown Harbour. Lots and lots of terns and swallows feeding along the edge of the water; the swallows skimming so close they almost touched you. Catbirds and chickadees calling in the scrub forest and marshland behind.

A long cycle ride among amazing trails with blueberry bushes, rugosa roses and huge butterflies and I am now one happy bunny (someone found a box of fig-rolls!!!!!).

Wonderland.

2010-09-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well I have already arrived in Wonderland, Boston in late summer......... I am following the blue line all the way.

Firstly the Museum of Fine Arts with an understated entrance painted by Sargent (who has exhibition at our RA right now).

Henry Moore at Harvard.

Boston is the perfect walking city, water everywhere, soaring skyscrapers and 19th century architecture.

Glorious houses in Beacon Hill, cobbled streets and gas-lamps. Monied, hip and exclusive.

The little building below is where it all started - the American War of Independence. It also paradoxically conceals the entrance to the T (underground).

"Old Ironsides" and the Boston skyline - including a Wren inspired church or two.

Quincey's market - an absolute feast for the senses, food from everywhere and a communal eating area under this dome. Corn chowder and oyster crackers- yumm..........

The Italian quarter in the North End really is very Italian - food again and again and again . Decorated for the Feast of The Assumption and Santa Lucia.

Macdonalds and Burger King passes me by, but I can see that despite this I am doomed....... there is just too much food in this city!

Jane's Unbirthday

2010-08-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

To Bath and Bristol for Jane's unbirthday.

A vintage tea at the Lodge with Rose and I as tea-ladies with attitude..........

Is this called losing your shirt?

Take-off

2010-08-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

Bristol Balloon Festival - thank you so much for the most fantastic weekend Jane and John (who seems to be able to magic up champagne at the drop of a hat!). How many days do you have when you meet navy helicoper pilots in very fetching jumpsuits, have tea courtesy of The Red Arrows(Red Arrow cup cakes as I live and breath), and a survivors' party with the balloon pilots - oh so many uniforms, so little time!

And finally, up up and away!!!!!

Dancing in the Dark

2010-08-16T10:38:00.001-07:00

The most magical experience, standing in a natural amphitheatre watching gloriously coloured balloons firing their burners in time to the Proclaimers shouting their songs to the darkness.

Birds,tomatoes and frogs.

2010-08-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

David Rotheray's first solo album comes out next week (16th) - he formed The Beautiful South and writes songs blending melancholy and humour. No point downloading this because the album notes cover all the lyrics etc., very much part of the package.

Tomatoes beginning to ripen despite the fact that it has now decided to rain in earnest, all shapes and and shades of red.

This little critter lurking on the supper table is supposed to be terrorising slugs from the hosta bed since I cannot morally use slug pellets - hosta's now shredded to within an inch of their lives whilst froggy makes merry on the patio and shows no sign of returning to duty. Hedgehog is now frolicking in next door's rubbish bin, so it is back to hand picking slugs and throwing them to the metaphorical lions - who cackle excitedly. To carry all the wriggly references further I feel a worm.

If I was an optimist I would kiss him.

Robert Race

2010-08-07T07:11:00.001-07:00

Exhibition of Robert Race's mechanical toys in Cirencester. Enchanting and very hands-on - though heart stopping moment when I loaded a weight and it shot down and crashed to the floor sure my hair stood on end like the chap below. Invigilator took it very well, apparently Robert pops in and out carrying out running repairs - children being particularly hands-on. An ex science teacher Robert has an eclectic approach, nothing escapes his magpie eye, bottle-caps, driftwood, shells, ancient paintbrushes............

I did a course with Robert, the most fantastic week as he was such an inspirational teacher - completely bomb-proof when I had a traumatising experience with a particularly lively jigsaw.

Cirencester itself is very pleasant little town with a glorious church built at the peak of the wealthy Cotswold wooltrade.

Midsummer in Bodley Quad.

2010-08-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

A Midsummer Nights Dream by the Globe Company on Tour in the Bodleian Quad. Bonkers, fantastic, funny and very very sexy. Puck was played as if Liza Minnelli in Caberet, she was absolutely stunning, reduced two small boys in the front row to pink-cheeked giggles and sat on a few knees of hopeful men. Bottom positively wizzed about up stairs and down stairs shouting out of windows. It was simply glorious, absolutely packed and it didn't rain!

Pallant House Gallery

2010-08-04T00:37:00.000-07:00

This is a lovely gallery in central Chichester and needs a lot more time - as do the Piper windows in the Cathedral. The current exhibition is Surreal Friends concentrating on the work of Leonora Carrington. But I prefer the core modern art collection which has work by well known artists, but so unusual and so different in style that I have never even seen reproductions.

This still life is by Christopher Wood - Lemons in a Blue Basket painted in 1922. Like Mark Gertler (below) Wood died young - jumping in front of a train at Salisbury Station. A less attractive personality than Gertler, but equally complex, and like Ben Nicholson, an artist with a European outlook.

Mark Gertler - who lived close to Oxford at Garsington Manor as a guest of Lady Ottoline Morrell, painted Near Swanage in 1916. He was a fascinating flawed personality whose unrequited love for Dora Carrington, hyper-sensitivity to his poverty driven Jewish background and constant ill-health led him to commit suicide in his 40s.

This is an unusual Ivon Hitchens - Curved Barn painted in 1922.

At Last

2010-07-31T12:10:00.001-07:00

Banned from the kitchen by two foodies who are making free with the gin and cooking supper. So time to load the pictures taken before breakfast after the rain in the night. It seems so long since it rained.

We have spent all day in Burford and Lechlade looking at churches, eating toasted buns and searching junk shops.

Too wet for breakfast outdoors, but lovely in the evening watching the moths collect in the lamplight and listening to the hedgehog (making a noise entirely disproportionate to its size)
trundle up and down the garden path.

Hodgkin in Oxford.

2010-07-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Museum of Modern Art in Oxford has an exhibition by Howard Hodgkin called Time and Place - a cool refuge on a hot and busy Sunday morning. I saw an exhibition of Hodgkin's work in Tate Britain some years ago and could not relate to it at all, but this time was very different. It was helped by a very informative video of Hodgkin himself talking about his work. He comes across as a very humane and humble man still striving to achieve - his down to earth discussion of the nature of painting was very attractive indeed. Two very large pictures, Home, Home on the Range and Where the Deer and the Antelope Play - his largest works to date look absolutely stunning in the white almost industrial setting of MOMA. I suppose if I could take one home it would be Spring Rain - such glorious colours. The two pictures below are taken from the Guardian - Leaf is almost like a piece of calligraphy, a sweep of green pigment.

Ghost Forest

2010-07-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

Ghost Forest, an installation by Alison Palmer, outside the Natural History Museum in Oxford, uses dead trees to emphasise the fact that a tropical forest the size of a football pitch disappears every 4 seconds. The artist showed extraordinary tenacity in sourcing and transporting these huge trunks and they speak more eloquently than any amount of facts and figures.

This exhibition was also shown in London in 2009, see below, and now remains in Oxford until summer 2011.

This all reminded me of Paul Nash's photograph of a dead elm taken in what he called the Monster Field. Nash describes exactly how this stricken tree makes him feel in `Outline - an autobiography and other writings'. A copy of this book was found for me in David's - the most wonderful bookshop in Cambridge.

It includes a few very striking pictures of Nash himself.

Jolly hols.....

2010-07-22T05:21:00.001-07:00

A week away, and absolutely glorious, so many cooked breakfasts, large teas and, of course, lunch and supper in between. This meant I was unable to sprint to the sea, in the mode of Julia Heseltine's picture below.....

but only manage a more sedate paddle instead....

Vast empty beaches full of Little Terns and the long slow beat of Marsh Harriers on the margins.

Fascinating shops, packed with Fairisle, corduroy, linen and baskets - this is Old Town (great website).

Sister castle to Castle Gaillard, not quite as dramatic, but lovely on a gentle evening with the swifts absolutely buzzing overhead. Some discussion over which of us might slide down the slopes on a tea-tray - my positioning is not sensible!

And, down along the shoreline.........

The best, the absolute best antique shop in the world, run by a stooping marsh-wiggle in faded cords - been coming here for 25 years and it never changes.

Hollyhocks, in every kind of pastel and frill absolutely everywhere.

ART IN ACTION

2010-07-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

Art in Action at Waterperry. A blustery day and cloudy - busy, and as usual you forget to go to half the things you mean to but here are a few of the real goodies;

Linda Bloomfield's hand-thrown porcelain - very tactile, functional and simple. www.lindabloomfield.co.uk

Mirka Golden-Hann and a huge emphasis on colour - see www.claystone.co.uk

Jill Flower - textile artist, currently working with recycled papers and stitch - www.jillflower.com.

Sarah Cant - milliner - bridal headress in paper - part of Studio Seven Textile Artists at Brewery Arts in Cirencester.

Rosalind Wyatt - creates evocative collages using family documents and old garments - evidence of a certain time and place - www.rosalindwyatt.com

pimms and pictures

2010-07-22T05:11:00.000-07:00

Brian Sinfield Galley had an exhibition called Celebrating the English Garden- very decadent with lots of pimms and other goodies. I hankered after this lovely Tessa Newcomb.

Knitting Madness

2010-07-13T11:13:00.001-07:00

Well it was supposed to be such a quiet weekend, with the perfect house guest, a pot of tea, a victoria sponge - gosh I do go overboard. But never, never, ever, attempt an American knitting pattern in company.

I think I may have over-reacted just a touch!

A Little Bird

2010-07-13T10:58:00.001-07:00

The little bird has arrived, thank you Dominic. A small lino-print from Breon O'Casey, son of Sean O'Casey the playwright. Breon, a painter, sculptor and jeweller, assisted Barbara Hepworth in 1959 and his work is described as primitive and eloquent. I feel very primitive indeed living on eggs and salad, but it is worth it.

Plas Newydd and enchanting Welsh despots

2010-07-07T12:53:00.000-07:00

To Angelsey - an epic journey armed with eggs and sweet-peas.

A wonderful house, ruled by a minute and charming dictator with a will of iron and great taste in nappies. We won't mention bathtime!

To Plas Newydd - home of the extraordinarily witty Rex Whistler mural and glorious gardens.

Llanidan

2010-07-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

The lovely hidden gardens of Llandan - only open once a year - what luck. And a well placed question meant I was swept off my feet by the Head Gardener and taken to the potting shed ... tra la la.

Rug Chapel

2010-07-07T12:28:00.001-07:00

or Capel y Rug to you and me. A plain exterior and a tutti-frutti interior. Creation of arch-Royalist Colonel William Salesbury; how I love those cavaliers!

Knitting and Mama Mia

2010-06-29T05:32:00.000-07:00

I think I forget to mention to people that I was singing Mama Mia last night as part of a choir, not quite sure how it slipped my mind, and how I could have been so inconsiderate as to deny my friends an evening of rib-jiggling mirth.... It was huge fun, we wore the shortest skirts we dared and even, oh thank goodness nobody in the audience knew me, danced and we had such a giggle.

Anyway back to the straight and narrow...knitting continues to take over my life, you can take it anywhere, the most unlikely people chat to you about it and men try to take over. Everything that can wear a scarf does.........

It turns out, after chats in Loop in Islington, or a snug sewing shop in Burford, that beautiful wools, and equally dramatic needles, are impossible to resist... This wool is hand dyed in Wales and makes the most wonderful textures.

Finally the bag that has occupied me for weeks is finished, lots of chatter, lots of counselling and, once four needles were involved, medical intervention, it is now felted and ready to go.

See knit and felt bags by Bev Beattie.

Highgate Cemetery East.

2010-06-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

Too hot to stand in the queue for a tour of the older West Cemetery (17 acres, 52,000 burials) and I will leave that for a damper and more desolate day. The West Cemetery has mausoleums, an Egyptian Avenue and catacombs, but across the lane, in the East Cemetery (20 acres), you can wander at will. This cemetery came into service when the West Cemetery filled and had its first internment in 1860 and is still a working burial ground. Full of trees and rambling roses it is awash with atmosphere and a wonderful space for wildlife. What follows are rather a lot of angels madly grieving.........

Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry may be annoying, but she is good on Highgate's atmosphere and the Victorian attitude to death.

The expression of the angel above appears to be neither grieving or uplifting, more along the lines of ` you're late, and your excuse is?' - probably a male grave.

Perhaps the last word should go to the artist Patrick Caulfield who died in 2005. Caulfield described his work as `social realism without the realism'. He designed his own gravestone....
what it says is short and to the point.....

Selvedge and Loop

2010-06-26T13:15:00.001-07:00

To the Selvedge Summer Fair in Highgate. A very long queue of artistic looking women and a church hall full of linen, vintage teas, bunting, lavender bags - you get the picture. Nearly flattened on the way in by a very large and noisy `lady' behind me determined on her goody bag at all costs. Once inside, well I had given the Fry Gallery picture sale top marks for middle-class pushing and shoving; that is an opinion I shall have to revise. Nothing like a large lady with an equally large chest for clearing a path. Of interest was acornandwill; Celia Lusted; rachel eardley; starch green; ellie evans, charlotte macey. After an hour of feeling jammed in a salad-spinner I gave up the struggle and headed for Highgate village and a large pot of tea in High Tea. From Highgate to Angel in Islington on the bus, getting these London buses cracked now, and to the fabulous Loop, full of wacky creatures and fabulous wools. This is one of Julie Arkell's creations, more to be found in the little book, Julie Arkll Home which Loop stock.

Goodbye, but Hello Wilson

2010-06-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

The continental birds landed, scoffed (food) and departed, but leaving me a Hello Wilson `Storm in a Teacup' tea-towel (available from TODRYFOR, and Liberty no less). See TODRYFOR's artist commissioned range on their brilliant website - and read the artist biographies - very interesting. Anyway far too good for mere drying-up, it is now on the wall. See Rachel's website http://www.hellowilson.co.uk/.

Nuns and Coconut Men

2010-06-20T13:03:00.001-07:00

Helping at the school 150th Anniversary Picnic. It was hug a nun day - they were overwhelmed by the sheer affection of `girls' from 1930s to the present day, especially as they had been, and remain, firm disciplinarians! I vetoed the traditional flower arrangements all stiff and starchy and did a huge display of Albertine roses and honeysuckle which I thought looked pretty neat.

In between running errands into town I saw the election of the Mayor of Ock St. This is a day long festival of dancing, drinking and a large supper traditionally held on the day of the Annual Horse Fair.

The horns date from 1700 and were won in a punch-up betwen the Ock St residents and the Vineyard Men. Abingdon Morris men will not dance unless the horns are present.

So that is today's history lesson!

Nothing quite prepares you for the clog-dancing Britannia Coconut men! The blackened faces are both to disguise them from evil spirts and also allude to mining traditions. Historically linked to Cornwall and Moorish pirates the dances were taken to the north by Cornish miners.

At Christmas in Cambridge market I watched the Molly Dancers - accompanied by a drum they arrived and paraded around the market square in complete silence, dressed in dark Victorian costume with ivy wreathed hats, they seemed very sinister - for Molly Dancers their black faces were to disguise them from the gentry who were probably their employers.

I am sure that either Oscar Wilde or Bernard Shaw would have had something succinct to say about morris dancing, but, as a former morris groupie and a fiddler's moll, I love morris dancing. I admire the fierce sense of pride in the rituals and traditions - and the ability to dance awash with gallons of beer and cider without apparent disaster. Nothing quite like it

Since I was clearing up after the picnic the chickens dined on wild rice, crayfish salad and blueberries! Standards seem to be somewhat higher at the bottom of the garden than they do at the top!

Giverny on Thames

2010-06-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

It may lack the drama of the Seine and Impressionists may not have frolicked along the banks, but it is home sweet home, the Thames at Abingdon Lock.

And here is my own Giverny on Thames.......

I Knit Paris

2010-06-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

I did not take knitting on Eurostar as I wondered if it might be classified as either a weapon of intent or simply a danger to the hapless person sitting next to me! But I was given some wool and needles to keep me occupied while everyone watched a very complex French detective series. Well really to shut me up as I kept asking who was a goodie and who was a baddie; very irritating indeed.

This was wonderful, and alarmingly chic, wool shop in Versailles (we did not bother to look at the large house on the hill, garishly gilded). My knitting style caused mirth - I was apparently`taking my fingers to the cat'. Soiz knits at formidable speed, her fingers certainly do not go to the cat, or if they do it is at the speed of light. Hum, dashed in the style league again!

Le Chateau Gaillard

2010-06-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

Le Chateau Gaillard et vue sur la Seine. Richard the Lionheart's (now he was a difficult man if ever there was one) castle. I had no idea that the countryside so relatively close to Paris was so glorious nor the Seine so vast.

At last.....Giverny

2010-06-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

At last Giverny, on a glorious day and really there is so little to be said without cliche after cliche. Suffice to say that it was absolutely totally beautiful. Even a few rather chic little chickens to add a certain something.

So here are the photographs, and my little camera was almost overheating.........

Paris Wedding.

2010-06-05T13:43:00.001-07:00

The first of the Saturday weddings at the local Mairie, and all the action takes place in between the market stalls.

The bride's veil was bigger than her car and her dress was much much smaller!

An accordian player on hand to heighten the atmosphere - and already a queue was forming. A somewhat larger lady had just parked her car and was striding across the road, clad from top to toe in heavy white satin, to the nearby cafe to get a coffee - no sign of a bridegroom, but I daresay someone would pop him over later.

Windows and Doorways

2010-06-05T13:27:00.001-07:00

Doors and windows just do not know how to be boring.....

Artists studios in Rue Blomet - including that of Miro - exceptionally large windows.

Paris Impressions.

2010-06-05T12:00:00.001-07:00

So, I cannot capture the smell of coffee, of fresh baked bread (literally on the doorstep), of the hospitality of very good friends (and the most generous hospitality it was), but here are a few photographs......

Le College des Bernardins, much restored and now a serene art exhibition space, glorious lightness of slender arches bearing a great weight.

The glass pyramid at the Louvre.

The little cinema La Pagode, an absolute delight, and just around the corner.

A shop doorway in Village St Paul - between the Marais and the river.

I know the French are stylish, but my chickens had better not start getting any ideas....

Fauchon - a sort of Harrods in neon pink.

Palais Royal - again and again.....

A pigeon, well there always has to be a pigeon in Paris....

The Rodin Museum.

Works by Rodin interspaced by glorious structures by Wim Delvoye,
this lazer cut steel tower - a neo-gothic tower over 10 metres high, shares a horizon with Eiffel Tower and the dome of The Invalides nearby. Delvoye has an `Art Farm' famous for tattooed pigs - the mind boggles..........

Leaving for Paris

2010-06-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

A bag of nerves, so what can possibly go wrong, a woman of a certain age catching the train to Paris.........

I have an unnaturally small suitcase (I normally pack for absolutely every eventuality!), two more Larsson books to totally absorb me, a piece of cheese (!), an indecent number of interesting biscuits and a bottle of water. Must confess to looking rather longingly at the longest champagne bar ever, but.............

hey ho and its away we go........................

Thwarted Lust at Nuneham

2010-05-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

A keen photographer to stay for the weekend and, ever on the lookout to enhance my B&B status, I arranged a trip to Nuneham to see the bluebells and the peacocks........

The bluebells did their thing, first there were a few..

with the numbers gradually increasing in density,

until there were pools of blue vividly complimented by the lime green of early leaves, pouring down the slopes in gentle waves - every so often punctated by a cluster of campion or stitchwort.

And around a corner, like a living statue, the first of a succession of peacocks...

All posing and posturing - the photographer thought he had died and gone to heaven.

All strut and screech and shake and quiver......

and all to no avail. Apparently all the peahens were taken by the fox and sheer frustration drives the males to desperate posturing before any camera - where will it all end - Nuneham said they have no plans to replace the females as yet.

Old Photographs

2010-05-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

A bevy of grandfathers, great-grandmothers, great -great-aunts here you are David and Ben - something for you to giggle over - make sure you show the girlies the handbag picture David. Inspired by the quilt exhibition at the V&A I am going to print these images on fabric and build them into textile art. I am hoping my tame graphic designer can advise me on the printing technique.

Woodstock in the Round.

2010-05-09T01:15:00.001-07:00

To Woodstock, wearing so many layers that I am almost spherical - it is very very cold, windy and wet - perfect!

It used to be possible to walk around the grounds of Blenheim Palace for a token sum, but then the Marlborough Family had the brilliant idea of charging you a vast sum for the whole package whether you wanted it or not. So it became a case of sneaking further up the hill and using the tiny wicket gate and being prepared to be challenged. Some kind of compromise now seems to have been reached and you are allowed to walk well away from the house for free; at what point you cross the invisible `now you will be charged line' remains unclear. Bill Bryson in Notes from a Small Island points out that since it was public money that paid for this rather daunting pile and it lies across a public right of way we walkers should all be very stroppy indeed and stand up for our rights My spherical appearance and stroppy expression obviously did the trick - a lovely though damp walk.

A triumph of lets all look on the bright side,we might not have a government, the weather is just dreadful but hey we'll have a fete - complete with a wonderful bric-a-brac stall run by some very smart ladies indeed who seemed unaware that the aim was to make money- `oh do take it dear, isn't it pretty'.

And Morris dancers - quite why one was wearing a cheese on his head...........

This amazing Flying Fish House in Woodstock is a new-build - a cool couple of million - very striking against the Cotswold stone cottages, and all the better for it.

Really Rocking now

2010-05-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

This is the chair, an American Rocking Chair, that I got for a song on EBay. Thanks to the kindness of one friend who fetched it for me (he said he would not have given a tenner for it) and another who mended the very damaged arm absolutely beautifully.

I spent one Sunday stripping off the very goopy varnish in the garden (with a Red Kite whistling so close overhead) and a sense of something nasty in the woodshed - very Cold Comfort Farm (and there was) - and a long time taking out all the tacks - the carpet became a no-go-area as they scattered far and wide.

And now, waxed and covered in a plain chenille with a linen cushion it looks much cheerier.

I am quite pleased she said, taking another tack out of the soles of her shoes..........

Yum, a garden supper.

2010-05-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

Feeling a trifle smug as all of supper save for the tomatoes came from the garden - and since I have planted Gardener's Delight and Roma I should have those too - if it ever, ever gets warm.

Lots and lots of herbs and chives from the veggie garden.....

a waft of Wisteria, and Bleeding Hearts strung on a row......

lettuce, more lettuce and rocket, all growing under Barb's reclaimed windows.....chives grow well around the old tin bath pond - the solar fountain is not getting much impetus at present - no sun.

And the final ingredient - freshly laid eggs from Butch Cassidy and the gang! I have found the perfect way to meet the neighbours is to be found chasing your chickens around their gardens. Of course the chickens merrily skip around screeching blue murder and you don't look your best in a heap clutching any bit of chicken you can lay your hands on - but it certainly breaks the ice.

I Knit London

2010-05-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

This is a wonderful shop, club and sanctuary in Lower Marsh, Waterloo. I do not knit - not since I nearly drove my mother demented when she tried teach me many years ago. My hands behaved like wayward clogg dancers and it was downhill from there. But such is the seductive nature of this little shop that I found myself buying the wool below. My mother gave me a quick lesson from which we parted still speaking and I am now a woman with needles (bamboo) and wool (Adriafil Baba) - will I be allowed to take them on the Eurostar?

Adlestrop

2010-05-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

Finally, after years of passing close-by I have got to Adlestrop- associated with one of the most evocative poems in the English language. The station has long gone and the last surviving GWR railway seat is now in the bus shelter. Edward Thomas, travelling from Oxford to Worcester, had an unscheduled stop at this station on 23 June 1914- in 1917 he was killed at the Battle of Arras. Helen Thomas wrote a memorable book - As it Was and World without End - a frank portrayal of the often tormented poet who chose to fight in the war, despite being over age, because he saw himself as fighting literally for the very soil of England.

Jane Austen visted frequently - her uncle was vicar and it is thought likely that his house was the model for Mansfield Park.

Poached eggs in Stow on the Wold - I live dangerously - and then to Daylesford Organic - a masterpiece of monochromatic tonal compositions.......

I fear allotment chic and make-do-and-mend do not have a place here, my chickens lack the aristocratic poise of the Cotswold Legbar and their hen-house does not have heart-shaped decorations. Hey but anywhere that sells tomatoes called Green Zebra, and Yellow Submarine cannot be all bad.

A mortgage for a cupcake

2010-05-04T13:21:00.001-07:00

London, on day of cold sunshine and incredible amounts of late afternoon rain. We walked from South Kensington to Covent Garden and across to the London Eye, where the painted galloping horses were the only colour in a grey deluge.

We missed lunch altogether, but made up for it with tea at the National Portrait Gallery.

Wonderful views, neatly cut sandwiches, pots of tea and cupcakes displayed on a cake-stand for very careful choice. Iced pink, or blue or yellow, dusted with silver and sugar flowers - such a temptation, but certainly not to over-indulge - given the Alice in Wonderland price-tag. We are not ladies that lunch - we are Ladies that Tea.

The V & A for the quilt exhibition, well worth the visit - quilts of extraordinary complexity, some made in impossible conditions - on convict ships, in Wandsworth Prison - sheer talent. An absolute delight.

The V & A is an absolutely wonderful museum for dipping in and out of -back again in a couple of weeks............

Homes and Gardens

2010-04-27T11:09:00.001-07:00

Well this is how gardening should be. Paintings by Henry Tonks from the early 20th century - to be seen at an exhibition at the Geffrye Museum in London called A Garden Within Doors - which goes on until 25 July.

Not my outfit of choice for `doing' the garden, and I tend to be falling over chickens not parrots,but in my opinion you cannot beat a good pair of dungerees; this lady is missing out.

The cherry tree is absolutely beautiful, especially set against a clear blue sky and the bronze leafed pink blossomed version next door. About to send off the details to the Natural History Museum's Cherry Tree Survey - see their web-site.

Well, I am rather going for allotment chic, watch this space. I fear the flowers will outnumber the vegetables, but every space is going to be crammed full. Lots of herbs, lots of salads,tomatoes, beans, zinnia (!), cosmos, a cutting patch, and so on and so on. The chickens think they are locked outside paradise and each time I open the gate they try to rush me. Well they are going to have to rough it in the mini orchard - a couple of weeks with me and they have delusions. The very idea, an egg a day between four is no reason for an up-grade! I blame it on their night-time reading of TheMail and The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Observer having run out (my dinner guests bring old newspapers instead of wine!).

Wallflowers?

2010-04-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

These are no wallflowers to sit ignored at the ball - and I have rows of them to pick.......

Smug or what........

If you double-click on the pictures they enlarge and the colours are just glorious.

Wittenham Clumps in twilight.

2010-04-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

The most lovely walk around Wittenham Clumps and across the fields to Dorchester. How to feel completely happy, so much birdsong, the spiceness of blackthorn blossom and the dank rich smell of the river. House martins, swallows and the first swifts. The soft haze of an early evening smooths and bleaches the landscape This tree, half dead and half alive - spring and winter.

The horse chestnut leaves are just opening......

Blackthorn blossom, like enamelled jewels - you can see why it was beloved by the Arts and Crafts movement.

A pint (or so) in the George and back through the allotments - I need one of these .......

I love the pragmatic charm of allotments, and how perfect to have one here; and dungerees too, be still my beating heart!

Coming back in the twilight, we hunted for barn owls without sucess, but the tawny owls were calling to each other from the trees by the lock-keeper's cottage.

An absolutely perfect evening.

Three Guinea Pigs Make Do and Mend

2010-04-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Three guinea pigs, one weekend, lots of fabric, wine and chocolate, little cash and my catering (oh dear the dry fried cumin seed) - in short my first Make Do and Mend weekend.

Techniques varied. Rose - brisk and efficient and building in sun-bathing sessions - completed six cushions and a tea-cosy. If I had not begged her to make some cheese scones she would have achieved place-mats as well.

She took a very firm line with `Mr Mason' criticising his button-covering technique and challenging the accuracy of his 18" cushions!

But what an achievement!

Jane had a few depths-of-soul moments with her white chair........ She and her spray paint were bannished to the bottom of the garden, which thrilled the chickens, especially when she put on the face mask - there was some considerable jostling at the garden gate.

Matt black paint and a bold print from Ikea were used to drag the chair into the 21st century. The cushion fought back, revealing layer after layer of floral fabric. But Jane persisted.........

and emerged triumphant.........

Naturally I did let them out to play from time to time.

Chris, who joined us on Sunday, when chaos had engulfed the house and there was barely space for a cup of tea, took apart her Christmas Outfit and turned it into Christmas bunting

One happy bunny!!!

Hens Dancing

2010-04-15T12:33:00.001-07:00

Well I suppose it was only a matter of time before things began to look like Mark Hearld's picture below.....................This is the good life -well I do have the dungerees!!!!!! Now where shall I put that goat?

Four point of lay chickens have arrived, one Black Rock, one Columbian Blacktail and two Rhode Island Hybrids.

These little ones, Sneezewort and Gilbert (don't ask) have not got their red combs yet......

and seem to spend a lot of time dozing in the sun................ This amazing chicken run was created from a neighbours unwanted rabbit run and gleanings from the skips at the end of the road. Even acquired a gate to go across the path- no one will go out with me anymore! Anyway I had the full attention of an absolutely expert `bodger' who has done a fantastic job.

The Black Rock and the Blacktail are obviously the boss birds and are now laying. They are also excavating a vast hole and chasing worms with deadly intent, they seem very determined to live it up. All of them are totally unafraid and have taken a great deal of interest in my attempts to secure the silver birch and the apple tree from their ambition to create a series of dust-baths.
Hopefully the wild hedge has grown sufficiently to resist their digger obsession!

Brown speckled eggs seem the most I can hope for, shame..........

Edwina Bridgeman in Bath

2010-04-07T13:24:00.001-07:00

Wonderful, quirky and cheerful exhibition by Edwina Bridgeman at the Victoria Gallery in Bath. Bridgeman uses found everyday objects and turns them into tales. Saints with frescoed faces make joyful journeys, women build homes and tend gardens and children, angels with sunflower faces hover over rooftops. Ingenuity turns flour scoops into wheelbarrows, shoelasts into springboards. An absolute delight and a virtual sell-out.

The Women of Bardfield.

2010-04-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

This very striking portrait is of Tirzah Garwood (Mrs Ravilious) and is part of the exhibition The Women of Bardfield which opened at the Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden on Easter Sunday. Great Bardfield in Essex attracted Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious from around 1925. What Frances Spalding decribes as the "low key and slightly melancholic landscape" suited the "poetic understatement" of both artists. This exhibition concentrates on the work of the wives of Bawden and Ravilious, the first two of several women artists who settled and exhibited in this village.

Like most artistic colonies people came and went, relationships broke down and reformed. Some Bardfield women went on to achieve a national reputation, others merely a local. This is the first exhibition to celebrate the work of these women - who juggled childcare and artistic ambition in a predominently male world.

I
I know this view very well. The pub has recently been refurbished - only there a week or so ago for an evening of Irish poetry and song. Exhibition closes on July 4th - see http://www.fryartgalery.org/

April lst.

2010-04-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

Suddenly it feels like spring - I feel just like Anita Klein's 'Angelo della Primavera' ........,.

A long walk along the Thames. Lungwort is out and attracting a few brave honey bees - saw a solitary bumble bee or two rather stumbling about, and a Brimstone butterfly. On the river several male Great-Crested Grebes were skirmishing around a rather disinterested female. Two Red Kites circled overhead - one a paler youngster.

The reintroduction of the Kite has been so successful I constantly see one from the back garden. Cowslips have also been successfully rescued from the brink. Last autumn at Wittenham Clumps they ploughed up the slopes down to the river and were planting cowslips by the hundreds.

This circular walk ends back by the river in Abingdon - doing its best to look extremely picturesque.

The blossom of bird cherry has finally opened. Time for tea and buns I think......