H-Art Outing

We managed to get out for half a day today and went to Presteigne.  Visited a fabulous gallery called The Workhouse Gallery & Cafe.  Will be going there again.  Also found Christopher Rowlatt at The Presteigne Bindery, somewhere I have been wanting to visit for ages.  He talked about his bookbinding and demonstrated his marbeling techniques.  Fabulous.  He also had a very nice garden behind his bindery.

These cymbals were one of the quirky items in amongst the floorbeds and sheds.

We then went on to the Sidney Nolan Trust.  Here there were prints and book art on display. The setting for this studio is exceptional and there were ducks and chickens running around in the yard,

In one of the outbuildings we met Elizabeth Morison, the sculptor-in-residence throughout H-Art, and she had some very interesting work she has been doing with fabric (mainly stitched into tubes) filled with wet slip then left to slowly dry out.  She had been studying at the Hereford College of Art.

One of the art books

Daydreaming

This week has been much like last week - a bit of a waste of time.  We have now (accidentally) got a new water supply through a blue pipe rather than the lead pipe.  On Tuesday the builder accidentally cut through the lead one with the digger so the new pipe got connected up quicker than anticipated.

With the arrival of baby Alice on Saturday we are now down to 1 builder instead of 2 this week, and some of the time even he has not even been here at all.  Hopefuly the digger will be gone this week and some of the bits and pieces in the house might get finished.  Weather is not good for putting on the remainder of the render outside either.

DH is on holiday for a fortnight which means I am getting very little done so I have found an old photograph to put on my blog which is one of the postcards that I occasionally make and send to my friends.  I use any old rubbish and whatever inspiration leaps off the cloth at the time.

Crayfish

What excitement ... I have now seen a real live crayfish in the stream in the garden.  Some local kids had taken rocks and wood out of the garden and built a dam across the stream so I was busy removing it all when out he popped from under a stone.  What an amazing little creature with a unique swimming style.  Did not have my camera with me or would have taken a photograph for you.

Bookmarks

I really tried hard not to get involved in making bookmarks.  I told them I had no spare time so what happened?  This month's meeting was one without a speaker and we were all press-ganged into making bookmarks.  This is the start of my first one - I have another two to make after this.  I must be mad as I never get time to complete anything.

Backfill

View towards next door

Well now we have got the trenches filled in with Type 1 stone - like the colour?  It is typical Herefordshire coloured stone.  We still have an enormous pile of rubble out the front although the grab lorry came this afternoon and took another load away.

You can see Mr C's quaint little caravan next door.  It is a real classic.  His house is also in a much better state of repair than ours (well it is brand new).

The view towards the front door

Worcester Beacon

On Friday we had Jan and Phil to stay overnight and as the weather was nice we had lunch in the Deli (wonderful wholesome homemade soup) and then we walked up the Worcester Beacon to enjoy the fantastic views.  Jan and I go back to the 1980's when we both worked at The Kent Messenger.  What exciting days those were.

On Saturday morning I introduced them to the pleasure of buying cider from the farm gate.  Of course they needed to purchase some to sustain them throughout the rest of their holiday!

Bream Silver Band

We have had a fortnight of visitors plus catching up with old friends.  On Sunday we went down to Priory Park to hear the concert by the Bream Silver Band - of which two of our friends are members - Steve and Henry.  The weather was hot and we enjoyed an icecream sat on the grass in the sunshine.  A fantastic afternoon.  The ducks on the lake behind were quite vociferous and tried their best to out do the music!