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Well Mothering Sunday chocolates have been consumed a while now, and the flowers are stlll blooming beautifully as a reminder. I how need to update my blog.

Have been very busy again and have returned from a wonderful weekend away at Urchfont Manor working with Julia Carpara. We were asked to study colour in detail, and being in such a tranquil and beautiful setting, I could not resist capturing some of the spring beauty on show.

The earth remains very parched still, despite the heavy rains and storms recently, even though the grass is now green.

Just love this traffic cone, this is how all traffic cones should end their days! Certainly never expected to find this in such an old established garden.

I did do some work in my sketchbook and have also created a digital sketchbook. Here is just a taster.

More chat and pictures in my next post. Blogger is playing up again.

Mothering Sunday

Hope you have all had a wonderful Mothering Sunday, it was a lovely day here. Flowers and chocolates, most welcome gifts.

Repairs

Recent gales had created some problems with the fences in our garden, one of the disadvantages of living on the top of a hill, it gets a bit windy! We had a lovely guy come and repair the damage yesterday, all went well until we needed to purchase 2 new fence panels. Did you know they are in short supply? We bought the last 2 available in this area.

Thought I would share a few of the images from the Exhibition I was involved with recently. Its a shame that the Gallery has not updated it 's website events calendar, however you will be able to get a flavour of the space, which is great.

The willow buds have been enjoying the sunshine this week too, look how they have grown. Really hope the predicted snow for next week does not happen, otherwise I suspect these buds are in for a nasty shock.

Fresh Thinking

Always think this is a better time of year for fresh thinking. The New Year celebrations induce you to plan for the year ahead, but with the start of spring weather, most folks get a spring in their step as the better weather in the Northern hemisphere ( in my instance Europe) starts to get a grip. Generally I seem to "come alive". Ready for new directions and fresh thinking.

This morning I spent some time in the garden admiring a new tree I had purchased. As you can see I was accompanied by another interested party too.

I just love its shape and recall being entralled by the huge buds on this species. Something I had inherited from my mother who also loved springtime and the catkins and the Easter lambs, chicks and all that goes with it .

My mother was a gardener, I cannot claim that. So I had no idea what this tree was........ so when I looked it up in her gardening book, imagine my surprise to find out its a willow, ornamental I suspect. So no planting it in the garden then, it will have to stay in a pot.

The buds are so wonderful. Seem to be bursting with growth, hope my artistic creativity does the same.

On the note of creartivity, I had some work in an exhbition in Sussex, last month, and the sun was shining brightly on the day I stewarded. Just love the shadows from the ornate windows in this photo that I took. Instantly knew it would be useless as a record of the work, but kept it for the wonderful shadows. Played shadows today with my 3 year old grandson on the way back from the park - such fun looking at the world from a toddlers perspective. More fresh thinking.

More excitements and experiments

We recently had a challenge to help a friend who is undertaking a University degree in London. The challenge was to complete 40 drawings in 3 weeks, this was the task her tutors had set her. To get her through the task, she asked if we would join her. The subject matter was to be a personal choice relevant to the individual. I was one to volunteer.

The theme I wanted to indulge my studies and time in - was/is to experiment with a variety of graphic media and create pages of colour and marks, that I hopefully could recreate in stitch ( machine or hand) and fabric. This sketchbook would then become my method of communicating some of my intentions in fibres and thread. In other words - my mark making.

Here you can see 10% ( ie 4 pages) of the work I have completed. I want to develop this further by adding small stitched samples to the pages. I will then be able to judge whether the marks are useful and whether they work for me. One thing I can say...... it is a really enjoyable exercise.

The sketchbook measures 20 X 20 cm (8ins X 8 ins), and the media you can see here, is monoprinting, graphitint pencils, wax rubbing, and coloured pencils.

Of course the proof will be evident when you can spot some of these experiments appearing in my art work.

Day out to London

Great day out yesterday. Paulene,an internet chum of mine had some of her work in an exhibition at Walton on Thames in South London. It was in a small but wonderful gallery by the river and so after we had chatted, eaten lunch and of course admired the brilliant work on display, went for a walk down the tow path.

As you can see, the weather was goriously sunny, just a slight chill in the air.

These swans were enjoying their daily feed, courtesy of the local bakery. Who take the time to go down to the river with any left over stale bread. Wonderful sight to see so many swans together. Of course they all belong to the Queen, a quaint old English custom.

You may be pleased to note,I have not been neglecting my own artwork, in fact I have been doing quite a lot, I have however been neglecting my blog. Sorry folks.

Here are a few snippets.

My embellisher machine has become a very good friend... I am really enjoying using it. So have done loads of work with it. I just love the way it keeps the fabric soft.