'Birch Bark Rolls' from Starr Carr

In the museum at Whitby are these rolls of birch bark, that come from Star Carr. How I'd love to know what is inside them; what they were used for!

My friend Jackie has finally re-homed the 3 ducklings that hatched from her Mrs Duck; and the 6 kittens she caught have all gone to homes...it's been a busy summer for her! I've tried to offer some help, though she's done most of the work.
I've insulated the studio ceiling and have to get the floor sorted now. Then I can move the furniture in, and begin work again. I keep going in there, at different times of the day, to see how the light is, how comfortable it feels. I think it will suit me beautifully.

More fabric pieces have gone through my alchemical kitchen! And I'm awaiting the tea-bag dye-ing results.
And I start a City & Guilds Creative Textile course in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to that. And on Saturday is a Heritage Open Day at Westgate Chapel, which I've volunteered to help with. 

Yorkshire Sculpture Park - MIRO

Off to visit the YSP last Tuesday, to see the big Miro exhibition on there. I liked some of the work in the Underground Gallery. The large black bronzes (tautology?) outside were too solid and...well, black, for me!

But there was a lovely quote from 1959, on the wall of the Underground Gallery which I thought worth repeating. Particularly as the grounds of the Sculpture Park could be regarded as a massive garden.......

  'I think of my studio as a vegetable garden. Here, there are artichokes. Over there, potatoes. The leaves have to be cut so the vegetables can grow. At a certain moment, you must prune. I work like a gardener or a wine grower.

Everything takes time. My vocabulary of forms, for example, did not come to me all at once. It formulated itself almost in spite of me. Things follow their natural course. They grow. They ripen. You have to graft. You have to water, as you do for lettuce. Things ripen in my mind. In addition, I always work on a great many things at once. And even in different areas: painting, etching, lithography, sculpture, ceramics.'

The River Dearne; birches; blackthorn in bloom; all signs of spring on the way. The land beginning to awaken, open, and push us into the coming season.

Reminding me, I too need to get my gardening gloves on, and begin the work of planting, and tending. 

And remember, 'Everything takes time.'