Saturday 29 December 2018

Gentle Stroll


The weather was so mild on Friday that DH and I went off to Croft Castle, situated at Yarpole near Leominster. We investigated the Ancient Tree Walk. Some of the trees are between 400 and 500 years old and, although very damaged now, are amazing to see.


A lovely sweet chestnut with deep ridges in its bark.


There are several avenues of ancient sweet chestnut trees.


Also a beautiful walled garden.




Sunday 23 December 2018

Christmas Cycling

Fitted in two organised cycle rides this week. One on Saturday of 22 miles and then a very short Christmas Ride Sunday.

Ride Leaders dressed as sprouts

There were 12 of us in total

There were 32 sprouts, 3 elves, a Father and Mother Christmas and then the rest of us. It was a damp ride but at least it was not raining and the temperature was around 12 degrees.  We had to have the obligatory cake and coffee at the end of course.


Note the earrings!!

Friday 21 December 2018

Walk at Croome


Dragged DH out for a walk today as the temperature was a balmy 12 degrees. He did not walk all the way round with me though and took a shorter route to meet me near the end do he missed this lovely view.


and also this one ….  but did see these chaps





Monday 17 December 2018

Chilly Cycle Ride


The weather was warm enough for me to get out on my bike this morning so did a 22 mile circular route via Clive's Fruit Farm at Upton on Severn.  I am sure the half way stop for coffee and a huge mince pie went a long way to getting me home again.  Really enjoyed being out in the fresh air after the wet weather.

Yorkshire Travelling Journal


I have recently received my Travelling Journal back from its trip around Yorkshire between my lovely stitching friends up there.  What a fabulous surprise ….


This was my first two pages followed by these two ….


The drawing was transferred using the Gum Arabic Transfer method I learnt from Sue Brown in Cheltenham.


This was the next two pages added by my friends. Think I will post the rest in the days leading up to Christmas.


Wednesday 12 December 2018

The Early Bird


It is surprising what you come across when you least expect it.  These jolly little robins perched on the postbox in Malvern Link when I went to get my haircut yesterday. I think there were probably lights attached too.



Sunday 9 December 2018

All Wrapped Up

Have had to make a present to go into a Christmas Cracker recently so have been decorating the outside of some crackers from a kit.  I have even put a snap into them so let's hope they actually do the job. I surprised myself with how they turned out as it was a job I have been putting off for absolutely ages ….


The top one has not been scrunched up and they all need further embellishment yet.  Only one has something inside it at the moment.

Sunday 2 December 2018

The Pears Keep Multiplying


This week was the last Solo Printing session in Cheltenham before Christmas and we were all doing viscosity inking. It changes the print completely. A base ink is rubbed into the plate and cleaned up and this one had a dark brown. Then a thinned ink is rollered onto the surface (Peter Wray Grey) with a second thicker ink rolled next (Raw Sienna).


A change of base ink to Prussian Blue gave a completely different result.


When I originally printed this plate with just one colour of oil based ink the centre of the pear remained almost white.  With viscosity inking the Raw Sienna stuck to the surface and gave a completely different result.
This was the original print where the base colour was Prussian Blue with a little Red Oxide blended into the bottom corner. A very different print to the viscosity one.