Slow Sunday Haiku

Leaves falling

Showing front and back

Autumn’s here

 

It is a long time since a haiku popped into my head.

This one was inspired by this post by Mrs Gumboots.

Joining Cee’s Challenge FOTD – Autumn Leaves

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Inspired by Japanese Boro

I am a member of The Stitchbook Collective

After our Stitchbooks were finished we had an opportunity to sign up for Year 2, in which we have been given supplies and video tutorials for more projects.

For one reason and another, my life has reduced the amount of crafty projects and blogging I have been doing over the last year or so. I have not been stitching as much as would have liked to.

However when this latest project arrived from Helen, all other things had to be put aside! A group project to use scraps of denim fabric and Boro-like stitching to create squares of simlar sizes, for Helen to stitch together into a wearable Kimon0 that will be raffled in aid of MIND, the mental health charity.

I love all things Japanese, and was lucky enough to go on a textile tour to Japan in 2015 We went to a museum with wonderful Boro displays and ever since I have wanted to create something looking like this, and now here was a fantastic opportunity.

I absolutely loved doing this stitching so free and relaxing.

Helen sent us the scraps of denim and some threads, but we could also include some of our own. On my trip to Japan I had been given this skein of reject weaving thread at a weaving house we visited. The thread had been dyed by the same process as in this post

I really enjoyed using some thread from Japan in this project, even though it is hard to detect, I know it is there.

I will certainly be buying a Raffle ticket when they go on sale in November.

We are all hoping that the Knitting and Stitching Show will go ahead this year and our Stichbooks and the Kimono will be on display.

Joining in with Kate and her Happy Scrappers for Scrap Happy Day.

120, Fenchurch Street

Hellooo!

Here we are again, this time on top of 120, Fenchurch Street – wow that sun was bright!

(see previous post about the Sky Garden at 20, Fenchurch St)

That is ‘The Gherkin’ in the background.

To get up to the roof garden at 120, you just turn up and queue. As people come out, more are let in – we only had a couple of people in front of us and didn’t have to wait at all. You go through an airport-style security scanner before getting into the lift.

This garden is open to the sky with native planting and it is much quieter and calmer than in the tropical lushness of the other garden.

I loved the play of light and shadows on the floor, walls and plants.

There are no restaurants there, but it is a perfect place to take a packed lunch as most of these people seemed to have done.

They were perched on the edge of the rather awkward looking water feature, more comfortable seating would be a bonus.

From this terrace you can see ‘The Walkie-Talkie’ building and look at where we had been just a few minutes ago – in the garden on top of that building.

so much to enjoy, looking in, looking up, looking through, looking out, with a few surreal reflections where the glass wall was high

and looking down and DOWN!

On the way out you pass under a vast ceiling covered with a moving video art installation

it is called Botanic and is a picture of slowly swirling flowers as if they are floating in a dark pool. It is part of Sculpture in the City.

and as we walked back to the tube station we spotted some more, this one with a very long title that makes very little sense to me, and is something to do with lava and volcanoes

and this

Bridging Home

which could be very witty …….hmmm. Perhaps I need to find out a bit more about them to appreciate them more.

Edit: I looked for more images and information about this piece. I wanted to see the piece up closer and from the inside. I found this which says the Footbridge was closed so that the piece was not vandalised. Grrr! So eventually it will be removed. I seem to have a whole load of thoughts and emotions swirling around about that. It would have been good to have had a video to experience this replica of a displaced home. I get the reference to migrants and displacement and the fact that the ‘home’ looks as if it has been just dropped uncomfortably out of context, I just wish it’s message could have been presented in a more accessible way.

Searching for all of the 21 sculptures and getting up close to them could be a nice focus for another visit to London.

I will end with a photo my son took just before we left The City.

Look up!

and went back to his house to spend a delightful weekend with him and his three girls, whilst their Mum was on a girly birthday celebration holiday.

Egypt: Getting There

The picture above is a screen shot from Google Maps.

Red marker marks my destination: Hurghada.

In 1995 I had one of the best holidays of my life when I went on a Nile Cruise with the mother of a school friend of my daughter. We did not know each other very well but we were both single and we agreed that if we did not get on, neither of us would have lost a friend, but if we did get on, then we would both have made a friend. We got on really well and had a wonderful time. We did the tourist tours of temples and tombs and drifted down the Nile each night, watching the life of the river banks slip slowly by whilst sipping cocktails til dusk – it was bliss.

I hope you won’t be disappointed to hear that there will be no tourist tour pictures from this trip. No pyramids or temple paintings. I stayed with friends who run a business in Hurghada, and I was happy to fit in with their daily life and chillax.

Even so there were preparations to be made:

Top priority, crochet (in this post) and sketch books in this post.

Then toe nails – ha! I don’t usually bother with nail varnish but I had visions of lying on a sunbed on the beach gazing past my smooth legs and pedicured feet to a serene turquoise sea – turquoise is a great colour to show off a tan – so I treated myself

at Pure, in Dorchester.

How wonderful it is to be pampered sometimes – sitting there waiting for the varnish to dry, dreaming of sun-drenched beaches and making a mandala, was one kind of heaven for me.

And now for some new sandals to go on those newly spruced-up feet. Of course I had to make them mine

 

and add a bit of colour (with Sharpie pens)

 

I might add more later, but for now, they were just right

Our plane from Gatwick was delayed for about an hour, which gave me some crochet and ‘people-watching’ time

I took this picture as a ‘before’ to see how much mindless crochet I would do in a week. Just rows of US dcs (UK tr): I can do this whilst chatting, watching TV and even walking along. I’m using a 5.5mm hook and scraps of yarn of all thicknesses tied together with a reef knot. I will leave the knots and ends on show as a design feature. The crochet hook passed through security no problem – both ways.

As we flew over icy mountains

I was happy listening to Pick of the Week, and a Play on my iPad and doodling

until we were coming into land over the desert

and then a short drive to the villa where my friends live when they are in Hurghada

As you can see, not quite the clear blue skies we were all expecting

There would be no lounging about on a sunbed here!

Or swimming in that icy pool

But the villa was lovely and there was a peaceful view from the sheltered veranda

Where one could watch the many feline residents/visitors come and go

but more of them another time ……

Silent Sunday in Egypt

What to Do on an Aeroplane

When planning a trip, I put more thought into what I will do on the plane, train, whilst waiting in airports, stations and in quiet moments on holiday, than almost any other aspect of the trip. I have to get that planned well in advance, only then can I think about clothes and what the place will have to offer.

I will be taking my Scrap Happy blanket to crochet – yes you can take crochet hooks on board a plane. I have done so many times. (Just in case I meet with a problem, I take a cheap old plastic hook that I wouldn’t mind losing, keeping a better one tucked away in my case).

There needs to be an alternative to crochet as well. At first I thought I would take this 11″ x 11″ sketchbook in which I have painted some backgrounds,

but it is rather big and heavy, so I bought two 6 x 6 inch sketch books, one with black paper, one with white, and some gel pens intending to draw some small mandalas.

I’m not sure if the airline will be happy with a compass, hence an old CD to draw round. I drew some circles in preparation

and could not resist having a quick doodle.

and another

I remembered the ‘false writing’ Julie Balzer had shown us on the Whimsical Collage Workshop

It is such fun to do

These mandalas were not turning out at all as I had originally planned. I thought I would re-visit Alisa Burke’s superb online Mandala Magic Course, that I first took back in July 2015. She has so many wonderful online classes. I can highly recommend them – Alisa is very generous with all of her tips, techniques and ideas. Once you have bought a class you have unlimited access to it forever.

I was on a roll and enjoying this more minimalist form, keeping to the CD as the basis of the patterns – it feels like it might turn into a little series – I’m fantasizing about how I will frame them as a group …….

But Stop! This is supposed to be for when I’m travelling.

Luckily there are 40 pages in each book.

Reluctantly I have put them away for now.

What do you take with you to do when you are travelling?

 

6 Marathons in the Desert

And on the subject of SCALE!!!!

I just had to share with you what my crazy son is up to

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/DesertRICS

Marathon des Sables

He is running 6 marathons in 6 days in the Sahara in April.

This is totally OFF THE SCALE!

If you would be interested to see him in his video of one of his training runs

66 Miles in two days!!!

yer tiz.

 

He and his team are raising money for Macmillian Cancer Support, so it would be wonderful if you felt you could sponsor him.

I’m full of amazement and admiration – he has always loved a challenge!