Walled Garden, Croome

Apart from visiting the National Trust property at Croome we also popped into the Walled Garden.  We had to take shelter in their makeshift 'Tea Room' as the heavens opened and it rained heavily for a short while.  We will certainly return later in the year when all the flowers and produce are in full growth.  In addition to the plants and greenhouses there are three lovely chickens in a coup in the garden.

After the rain ....

 Lots of lovely tulips ....

Wonderful paths ....

Capability Brown at Croome

DH and I went to Croome today to see the Embroiderers' Guild Exhibition in the Temple Greenhouse by the Worcester Branch. It was very good and the National Trust have actually provided a small pop up cafe to support the event which was much appreciated on a day which was full of sunshine and showers.

Below are one or two examples of the work on display. You will also find some more on the blog of the Running Stitchers  (alias Venture II).  (Running Stitchers)

 

Work by Venture I

A Bit of a Bash

Whilst I was up in Yorkshire my friend 'M' gave me an A6 portrait Seawhite Sketchbook as a present so I thought I would use it as a kind of diary.  I took it on a walk with me and drew in it as well as making notes in it too. I brought back some young horsechestnut leaves from my walk and acquired a dandelion flower from the garden. I had an idea I might be able to 'Flower Bash' them, so having borrowed a hammer I had a go and the photographs above and below of the pages are the result. I believe young horsechestnut leaves can also be used for dying?

I was impressed with the colour achieved from each, although the dandelion proved to be a bit of a problem when it came to removing all the petals from the page once they had dried out.  The stain also permeated several other pages behind it!!

Blue Book

This tiny little book was my present to myself when I was up in Yorkshire visiting the exhibition at RHS Harlow Carr.  It was created by the very talented tutor and artist, Joan Newall.

It is only about 3" square and is made from fabric that has been coloured, stitched and waxed.  Very tactile and just wonderful to look at. It is not as blue in colour as the photograph below.

Inner pages of the book

Water Level Marker Fewston Reservoir

The photograph above has made me consider collecting pictures of numbers, as I did with letters of the alphabet, just to see how far I can get and how many unusual ones I can find. I shall give it further thought.  Watch this space.

Daffodils on the road above Otley

Drawn North Again

I have been 'Up North' again and this time for quite a while. DH and I travelled up on Wednesday of the previous week as we had an appointment in York on the Thursday. We called at Hardwick Hall and The Hepworth Gallery on our journey up. Not sure how our planned destination of The Yorkshire Sculpture Park became Hardwick Hall, but we had a jolly time in any event.

DH departed on the Saturday leaving me with one of my 'bestest' friends to have a lovely week catching up and generally relaxing.

On Tuesday afternoon we went to the Bankfield in Halifax to see the current exhibition followed by dinner with several of the people who participate in the Yorkshire Travelling Journal.  Unfortunately one of them had double booked herself and could not come and the other person who was missing had completely forgotton!! We were also joined by a friend from my C&G days and another I met, first of all, when we both did evening classes with Ann Holden (Kirk) at Harrogate College a long time ago and who was also responsible for getting me to join the Harrogate Branch of the EG. We had a great catch up and found time to look at the YTJ's from the previous year.  It is surprising how you forget some of the pieces you have produced over the months.

I have had two days at Spofforth where I again bumped into several old friends, plus an afternoon at RHS Harlow Carr where I was fortunate enough to have time to visit the Paper & Printing Exhibition in The Bath House which was excellent. I ended up buying one of Joan Newall's little handmade books. It will be a lovely memento of the time I spent at Joan's classes in Pateley Bridge before we moved. At least that is my excuse for buying it, apart from the fact that it is very beautiful.

Fewston Reservoir

Several walks and lots of eating, all in all a very pleasant break which I was really in need of. Back home again now and need to get geared up for the forthcoming bookbinding and printing classes I am committed to.

Think I have gone into Hibernation!!

Not done much this week at all.  Exhausted after having done too much housework and cooking last week prior to visitors at the weekend who insisted on coming on their touring bikes and camped on the back lawn to try out their camping equipment in preparation for a trip to Norway later in the year.

Have got a Yorkshire Travelling Sketchbook I am working on at the moment and thought I would put one or two pictures from it on the blog for you all to see.  Seems two of them have been inspired by Venice over the past year .... Interesting to see their individual approach to the subject.

Lynda Monk inspired I think?

I then remembered that Italy had been one of my countries of choice when I did my City & Guilds several years ago and this is the board I did to go with it. How time flies ....