Glorious Yorkshire!

In a Vase on Monday: Surreal?

I grew these Apple Blossom Antirrhinums from seed (a bit late) and some are struggling in the heat, so I have snipped off the flowers to help them out.

So pretty.

Still influenced by the surrealism at West Dean college I made mini topiary with poppy seed heads

Is the heat getting to me too?

Probably!

The little stained glass trees are made by TaylaMadeGlass

Joining Cathy for her wonderful In a Vase on Monday meme.

 

Scrap Happy Wild Wool

I spent a few days in Seaton, Devon, near the wetlands, last month.

There are some beautiful walks and tranquil places to sit and ponder

When I saw all that wool on the fence, I just had to gather some

I washed it and then decided to felt some

by making layers of vertical and horizontal strands – about 7 layers

Then adding soapy water, I put the layers between bubble wrap and rolled it this way and that with a rolling pin.

Now to add some rusty bits

using some rust dyed thread

and framing the result in a acrylic box frame

And another one with old rusty sheep wire

I rubbed acrylic wax into the rusty wire to halt the rusting process, but have left these nails to continue to rust into the wool

Felting takes ages and is physical work so I started just to make soft little balls, just rolling them lightly in my hands – this is a work in progresson some corrugated iron. Not sure where it is going yet.

Joining Kate for Scrap Happy July

In A Vase on Monday: Rust, Moss and Hellebores

Yes – still obsessed with the possibilities of ‘Moss on a Plate’. 🙂

With hellebores, rust and muscari.

Joining Cathy for ‘in a Vase on Monday’.

A Vase and An Adventure!

A couple of weeks ago I set off for the North.

I have not travelled any long distance for a couple of years so I was both nervous and excited – I have a tiny 14 year old car – would it carry me safely onto motorways, round scary multi-laned roundabouts and do battle with the juggernauts of the road? My friendly car mechanic gave her a check over and announced her fit to travel…. but was I?

I planned to visit a couple of friends before spending a week in Harrogate for the Knitting and Stitching Show and then popping in to see Nanacathy on the way home.

On Sunday 14th November, after a negative result from a Lateral Flow test I set off to visit Rambling in the Garden Cathy of course I could not go without picking a few things from my garden!

Some pink Hesperantha, eucalyptus, golden privet, garrya elliptica, cotoneaster, a purple salvia, and taking pride of place, right in the centre – and the rose, Hot Princess!

Hot Princess was given to me as a birthday present by Nanacathy in 2018 when I went to visit her in Yorkshire and to attend the Sawdust Heart exhibition.

Hot Princess flowers in early summer, goes very quiet and then blooms again in early October and there has always been a flower from her on my birthday, at the beginning of November. It seemed a wonderful link between three bloggers to pick the last bloom of the season for Rambling in the Gardren Cathy.

I arrived at Cathy’s in sunshine (we had both had a negative lateral flow test that morning) and what a joy it was to meet her and the Golfer!

Of course, first on the agenda was a walk round the garden. It is difficult to descibe the feeling of actually standing in the garden I have seen so many photos of. In a photo you see what is just in front of the camera – but standing in the garden and soaking up the atmosphere and having 360 degrees vision made me tingle with delight!

Atmosphere is what struck me most. Cathy’s garden has the most gorgeous friendly, sort of cosy, atmosphere. Cosy isn’t quite the right word but the garden wraps you in a sense of friendly conversation with quotes and quirky, playful details around each corner.

Cathy enjoys creating brickwork buildings and little follies, all with a purpose and use and of great charm. Never have I seen a more appropriate example of “work is love made visible”, one of my favourite Kahlil Gibran quotes.

Cathy’s creativity is evident and it was fun to see her in her natural habitat. 🙂

Of course I loved all the art and the sculptures in the garden, it is an outdoor gallery and made me think that I would really love to introduce more art into my own garden

there were also plenty of rusty beauties tweaking my rust obsession into life!lots of beautiful autumnal colourand an intriguing hellebore, which I have forgotten the name ofdon’t you just love those leaves.

We had such a wonderful time talking about all the plants and seeing every nook, cranny and coop. I felt honoured to have an exclusive tour with Cathy as my guide – what a treat!

❤ ❤ ❤ THANK YOU CATHY!!!! ❤ ❤ ❤

And then in for a cuppa and slice of yummy homemade cake.

My jam jar of autumnal gleanings and the purple scented iris I took as a gift looked right at home in Cathy’s glorious kitchen.

and I left full of joy and gratitude to Cathy for sharing her enthusiasm, her garden, time and cake with me so generously.

I marvel at this wonderful blogging community – we get to know so much about each other and what we share in common, so the meeting is easy, comfortable and fun. Then, over a cuppa, we discover more and truly enjoy each other’s company.

I left with warmth in my heart and all ready for the next leg of my journey – onwards to Cumbria!

Joining Cathy as she has gone on an adventure of her own today, with her vases, for In a Vase on Monday

Scrap Happy: Wooden Ladder

I saw an old wooden ladder lying at the back of my daughter’s woodshed.

They said I could have it as we, in the UK, are no longer able to use wooden ladders for their intended purpose – health and safety.

So …..

It is now above my woodburner as a drying rack for clothes in the Winter and a place to dry herbs and flowers and hang crochet mandalas in the Summer.

This is it in its raw state, before I treated it for woodworm and waxed and oiled it. The brackets are not the ones I wanted – I had to grab Dave, the local handiman, between jobs when he could put it up for me, so these were the only brackets I could get locally on that day.

He told me that you can treat woodworm with White Spirit, so I took the ladder down again and painted on lashings of the stuff – the ladder soaked up the White Spirit like a sponge and I gave it 3 generous treatments. Later on I found a small can of woodworm treament at the back of a cupboard and treated it with that as well.

I knew the wood would need feeding but when I tried wax and oil on the bit of ladder that had been cut off, the wood went very dark. So I Lime Waxed it first.

You brush the wood, going with the grain, with a wire brush, then rub in the Lime Wax with wire wool. After Liming it I gave the whole ladder and the rusty bits two coats of the Finishing Oil.

(Those are Marmoleum floor samples under the oil – as far as I can tell Marmoleum is one of the most environmentally friendly flooring material one can get here in UK – let me know if you know otherwise. I am going to go for the Turquoise one on top for most of the ground floor in my house – I am so fed up with carpets!)

Ta Dah!

I am thrilled with it – it actually makes the room feel taller and larger.

The wonderful rusty spring on the left is a present from a friend who knows my love of rusty old items. Her son now farms the farm where my Dad grew up, and she found it there and knew I would love it even more because of the connection. What a kind thought – Lucky me!! It is GORGEOUS – so big and heavy.

The woodburner is all ready to go: to heat water, cook delicious stews and dry clothes. Making that space as multi-functional as possible in true Permaculture style!

I haven’t lit a fire yet as it has been so mild here, but I am sure it won’t be too long.

I am joining Kate for her monthly Scrap Happy gathering – pop on over and see how others have been using up their scraps.

In a Vase on Monday – Vintage Plough Share

Eucalyptus clippings and self-seeded wallflowers in a glass vase and a little found shrimp paste pot; an old brick found on the beach, and put in the fire to clean off the black tar; a vintage plough share, washed and waxed with furniture wax, and some rusty old sheep wire formed into a spiral.

I was walking along a farm track with my daughter and her three children a couple of weeks ago and spied a piece of rust embedded in the chalk and rubble of the track. (Not this track but one very similar – this photo was taken on Friday)

Oooh Rust! I cried! and bent down to try to pick it up. I couldn’t get the piece out, so said I would come back another day to retrieve it and bring a tool to work it free. The children were determined to get it out for me, and with some sticks and stones they only took about 5 minutes to free it. I always have my rucksack with me, which was just as well as it was heavy to carry home.

A precious (well to me anyway) piece of farming history. My son-in-law recognised it as a single furrow plough share, from the horsedrawn era and spent a bit of time looking online to see if he could identify it more precisely. It might have come from something like this one.

Just the sort of plough that my Grandfather would have walked behind on his farm in West Dorset.

When I sent this photo to my son-in-law later, he said it looked like an alien snail

So the working title for this little sculpture is ‘Snailien’.

What does it look like to you?     What would you call it?

It’s catching – Little Miss M, 8, has now started her own rust collection!

and this is Miss E (13) having her first welding lesson from her Dad, what a cool Dad he is!

It turns out she was making a flower/plant for me! and when I got home that night she had planted it in my garden!

Oh my! Better than diamonds – this makes me so happy.

This is a great fat rainbow I saw on my walk on Friday – it looked so much closer and bigger in reality. Maybe there is a pot of rust at the end of it! 😉

Joining Cathy who is Rambling in her Garden this morning and giving us a Little Love to help us grow.

❤ 🙂 ❤

From my nest on the cliff

7.06 am 25th December 2020, looking out from my static caravan window.

Click on any image to see it full screen.

As some of you will know, every other year I escape Christmas and find a hideaway where I can be on a blissful tinsel-free retreat.

This year, I could not go too far from home, but luckily a friend owns a caravan at Sandsfoot Castle, overlooking Portland Harbour, just 10 miles from where I live and she was kind enough to let me have it to myself.

I have not been away from my house overnight for about a year, so it felt very exciting to pack a suitcase and stuff the car full of craft supplies and head off to the sea.

8.00am  30 December

watching the sun come up each morning was the biggest thrill.

Each day a constantly evolving Rothko painting would gently, gradually, change with the light across the sea and sky

Lots of people seem to find it too odd to comprehend that I enjoy going away on my own to be in some far flung place in isolation – but I LOVE it. My very own silent retreat, away from village life and all the practical ‘to do’ lists of home and garden.

I often get asked “but what do you do?”

Most of what I do fits around Tide Timetables, the weather forecast and the time the sun rises and sets  – and that is a wonderfully calm and simple way to live for a couple or more weeks every other year.

In 2008 I went to California for six weeks,

In 2016 I stayed in a treehouse on the Pembrokeshire Coast from the 15th December to 15th January.

paddle boarders

This year, I was able to walk from my nest, along the Rodwell Trail, that follows the old railway line, from Weymouth to Portland. From there I could tramp up along the top of Chesil Beach

This photo was taken at 1pm on Christmas Day. Whilst so many were tucking into a turkey, I was walking for about a mile along the top of a nearly isolated beach in crisp clear air and glorious sunshine – it felt SO good!

I say nearly isolated as there was one family having a windy picnic lunch looking out to sea and in the carpark, looking out over the harbour, where it was a bit more sheltered, there was a couple in red and white Father Christmas hats sitting at a picnic table covered in decorations and having a lobster and champagne lunch. Fabulous! The camaraderie of doing things differently.

There are plenty of old rusty bits and pieces to enjoy along that stretch

I would love to know the story behind this abandoned boat

The Pheonix

But oh the shed!

Look at those doors – all that texture, the colours! the corrugated rust!

ART!

So, dear readers, I am sure you don’t need to ask me, “what do you do?!”

Scrap Happy: Weaving

It is the last month of The Stitchbook Collective and this month’s box of goodies is all about weaving.

Helen has sent us a kit to create a loom on cardboard but, you must know by now, it’s all about rust for me! So what better than some old rusty sheep wire to create my own little loom.

and as if by magic

it fits perfectly on the Stitchbook page.

It needs a backing to cushion the spikes of the rusty barbed wire.

As I was doing the weaving with yarn, I wondered whether it would work with just bits of metal woven through linen thread. I have to admit, I am thrilled with this one.

I am not quite sure how to mount it, but I am just enjoying it as is for now.

When Little Miss M (8) saw my weaving she asked if she could have a go, so I made two more looms for our afternoon by the lake.

We collected reeds and other bits and pieces, and she sat on her paddle board to weave

and together we made our diptych entitled ‘An afternoon by the lake’

I am planning to mount them in a box frame when they have fully dried.

Joining Kate and her merry band of scrappers for Scrap Happy Day

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin and Vera

 

Dreamcatcher

Look what I found, hanging in my fig tree!

My wonderful son-in-law is a farmer and he was clearing away an old rusty fence. Knowing how much I love rust, he wrapped some into a Dreamcatcher for me and hung it in my Fig Tree.

He also left another bundle of rust for me to cut up and use.

I am so delighted with the thought and the time he put into this in his busy day.

When I thanked him for the time, the thought, the gift, he said, “I like supporting your crazy arty-crafty ways”!

How lucky am I!

Rust Dyed Paper

Hello, it has been a bit quiet around here recently hasn’t it.

All is well for me and my family but I have a few friends needing support in various different ways just now which has meant my blogging mojo has gone on holiday.

Still plenty of crafting going on though and my obsession for rust dyeing has not waned. I can set up a pan of rusty pieces in the morning, go out for the day and find the magic on my return. It is truly amazing and completely addictive!

I hope you enjoy the little video.

Happy Sunday.

Rust Dyeing

rust and red wine

I’m in deep!

rust and red wine

I have been thinking about writing a blog post about my adventures in rust dyeing, but I’m so into it, I can’t stop to put cohesive thoughts together

rust and black coffee

So here are a few photos to give you and idea of what is going on around here

dyed with black coffee, before washing

after washing

calico, nails and white vinegar

white vinegar, copper panel pins, rusty nails

I found some craft stranded threads for 40p a skein, made by Trimits, ideal for rust experiments

I have made a start on stitching

copper panel pins, white vinegar and stitching

Must go and check on the pieces I left overnight…….

Rust

 

no silk or satin

to grace my skin, happier

in a rusty truck

~

Cathy-and-Daffy’s One-A-Week Photo Challenge – RUST

and

Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge, Prompts: SKIN and SILK

Join in our challenge by adding a link in the comments on either blog, we’d love to see your interpretation of this week’s subject.

Next week – REGAL

From Rust to Regal, we like to mix it up!

 

Paint Party Friday

The second completed painting in the Beach Clean Art series – yes, I’m now confident there will be a series!

‘Beach Clean 2’

Acrylic paint, rust and fishing line.  8″x 8″

I love the rust pieces and some deserve a place of their own – the found fishing line, which comes in all sorts of colours, is perfect for attaching bits and pieces.

The painting started out like this – the one top right

one of this group of backgrounds I did back in July

~

I was blown away by the wonderful response last week to my cry for help. I can’t express how immensely grateful I am to all of you who joined in the discussion. It really did help so MUCH!!!!!

Are you wondering how the painting looks now?

Well it has been sitting on a table in my sitting room for me to look at several times a day and I have tinkered with it many times. Taking everyone’s comments into consideration really helped to concentrate my mind and consider all the elements that were brought to my attention – what a gift you all gave me – really!!! Here is last week’s post – Help!

And here it is now – nothing has been fixed yet.

Already as I look at it I know I will rearrange the turquoise rope at the bottom when I fix it, but I think it is nearly there. It just needs to sit a few more days for me to be sure.

The title will be ‘Beach Clean 3‘

Joining in with Paint Party Friday…..

…. and completing the second of 7 paintings for my 16 for 2016 Challenge

 

Help!

Decisions decisions!

Remember this painting which i had just placed together but not yet fixed, when I wrote this Beach Clean Art post ?

Today I set about fixing it all together. I really like the piece of wood on the right too much to let it go yet, so I replaced that element with some of the rust I found on Ringstead beach.

This is how it looks so far with the small canvas screwed on and the rust attached with a bit of netting and red fishing line

1.

Now I’m driving myself crazy trying to work out where to go next – does it look right as it is – less is more – or is this better …..

2.

but is the balance right? does this look better?

3.

or this

4.

Aaargh! My head is aching!

Can you lovely people help me!?! Which one.

The pressure is on a bit as for the first time ever I am entering three paintings into the Dorset County Show and this might be one of them.

Joining in with Paint Party Friday where you can see masses of wonderful artworks.

 

Repeat

no dazzling summer

dull skies give an even light

best for photographs

~

The rusting sea defences at Charmouth Beach, Dorset, on England’s south coast. Their shapes, colours and textures fascinate me, sculpted by the sea.

Did you watch the BBC’s ‘Springwatch’ or ‘Springwatch Unsprung’? On the latter programme there was a guest called Martin Dorey who founded the 2 Minute Beach Clean

“We are a growing family of beach lovers rolling up our sleeves to help rid the world’s beaches of marine litter and plastic pollution, two minutes at a time.

We believe that every piece of litter removed from the beach matters. So it doesn’t matter if you do 2 minutes or 30. Each and every piece of marine
plastic removed from the beach is a piece that will no longer go on to kill.

Our movement has grown enormously since its inception in 2014. Since then thousands of people all over the globe have used our hashtag for their
beach cleaning activities.”

Inspired by this I went to Charmouth to do my 2 minutes, and then posted my finds onto the 2 minute Beach Clean Facebook Page. 2Min Beach Clean is on Instagram as well.

I came across a huge tangle of detritus too heavy to lift

but including a fascinating array of waste, all with an unknown human story attached

I set about cutting bits out that fascinated me and put them with the rest of my haul of beach rubbish. 2 minutes turned into a wonderfully relaxing hour of  beach-combing finding more REPEATs

Amongst the rubbish it was this rope that intrigued me the most

which I have since discovered, from a diving friend, is a float line for a fishing net, probably a net for catching prawns.

I soaked the best bits in rainwater and just had to have a play around with the shapes

Next time you visit a beach spare just a couple of minutes to pick up the plastics, it thrills me to feel part of this wonderfully international inspiring idea.

Joining in with our 52 Week Photo Challenge: REPEAT

and

Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge: prompt words DAZZLE and SKY

Next week our Photo Challenge Prompt

is

ROUND

~

Update: I have just started a new blog to house my Beach Clean Art.