2017...........oh dear.......

Well; not a great start to the year, really, is it. Things feel rather unstable. I've been spending time in my garden; trying to clear it, ready for the coming Spring. We gotta have faith. A garden is faith in the future. So time in the garden is my way of holding on. Keep breathing. X

woad seeds

A friend kindly gave me these woad seeds for xmas. They're very light; like feathers. Planted up; hopefully I'll get some plants come through, and get enough to be able to dye from. Plans for my 'dye-ing garden' are developing! Cross my fingers.

plants....gifts.....

My friend Jean has moved to Scotland. She and Steve have bought a house, but she was down in Yorkshire to try and empty her polytunnel.....well....she's got hundreds, nay, thousands! of plants in there! So she's invited her mates round to take away whatever plants they want. On Friday I drove over, and filled my van with plants! Needless to say it hardly made a dent in her collection!

But it will make a significant difference to MY garden! Above is a selection of the plants she gave me. So this is my job for the autumn/winter. Clearing space/s to plant up. I have never had enough money to go buy this many plants; so to have them GIVEN to me, is an absolute joy! I'm so grateful to Jean. Such generosity.

And the twisted hazel has the catkins already. I've been out chopping it back; letting some light into the garden, and cutting out the straight growths to maintain the twisted branches. The pyracantha has to be massacred once the berries have been eaten; and there'll be more space and light in the garden; that will allow me to have a sense of the structure of my garden, and allow me to make better decisions about where to plant up.

 Just love the sculptural forms of these seed heads!

And writing of gifts; this is  gift to my 14 year-old self! Who wanted to learn guitar; and never had enough money to buy one; and my parents couldn't have afforded to buy this for me. I've spent some of my redundancy money on this beautiful guitar. Went to the local music shop, and asked their advice. Have been strumming it for the last week or so; but I'm going to see about lessons.
Because I realised if not now, then never. Time slipping away.   

tending/mending....completed!

This is it.
Finito.
I need to stitch a couple of loops onto the back, so I'll be able to hang it for the exhibition in November's Artwalk in Wakefield.
It has plant-dyed fabric (brown=walnuts; blue=woad; green=existing commercially dyed); hand printed, and hand-stitched, elements. And a lot of running stitch, which you can see better in the earlier posts. I think I've just got 2 more 'samples' to complete now. Best get on with it! 

allotments

The cob building at Woodcock St allotments. It's roof is made of sedums etc; a living roof.

The rear of the building; I wish my peas and beans looked like that! Slugs have decimated my peas; though the beans are looking better.

Cornflowers and trailing lobelia in a planter mum bought me years ago on one of our visits to local garden centres. I got some flower, herbs, and vegetables. Will be potting up into planters, rather than straight into the soil, to try and deflect the slugs and snails.....hmmmmm....we'll see, won't we?
We are having tremendous downpours of rain. Stair-rods. Then sunshine. Humid. Tropical. Perfect slug weather!

Standedge Tunnel Marsden

 Withy tunnel, of willow, at Standedge Visitor's Centre, Marsden.

 Standedge Tunnel, Marsden.

Up high in the Pennines, on the border, between Yorkshire and Lancashire.

The river at Marsden, tumbling over the weir. We went on Easter Monday, a couple of weeks ago. It was a gorgeous sunny day....surprising for a bank holiday! And now we have another bank holiday, so I'm in the garden, tending.

And stitching!



pomegranate patterns

This was the cotton, painted with egg, before I dyed it with the pomegranate.

I just brushed it on randomly.

 This was the silk, also painted with egg; the brushmarks show up darker.

And this is my patio, after laying out the wet fabric as I took it out of the dye-pot! It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts, once it rains.



trees

Today's been a gorgeous sunny, warm day. I've been out in the garden; clearing away; cleaning the pond to get it ready for the frogs; planting up some Lilly-of-the-valley that Rob gave me; threading wire through the drilled holes of the fallen birdbox, almost ready to pop back up in the tree now; sawed up some wood; prepared a relief print.

Spring felt like it was on it's way, and I could almost imagine the garden all greened up like it was last summer.

The trees aren't greened over yet though; still look more like this! But there was a real shift in the season today.
I put a pomegranate dye-pot on today; soaking it first. Will boil it up later in the week, and pop in some fabric. Not used pomegranate before, so it'll be interesting to see how it comes out.  

the mother-of-all-dye

Silk dyed with cow-parsley flowers, from last summer. A delicate yellow. Hard to remember the beautiful hot summer we had in 2013, when we're having such a wet, dreary winter.
I've printed onto it, using the collography plate I've made; I'm using it on a lot of the 'samples' I'm stitching currently. The darker area, has come from some bleeding through from a fabric I dyed with procian dye. I like the random-ness of it. It's just sitting there, waiting for the next idea. It's unknown; a mystery.

Dug out from the pile of detritus behind the compost bins.....a lovely post finial; at least I think that's what it is? I've nowt to attach it to, so it's sitting beside the door to my studio, looking pretty. It's ceramic, and a wee bit chipped at the top, but still looks nice.

spring......ing

 daffodils

 borage

hazel

Spring is a-coming. These were in my garden last week; green coming through the bleakness. And the days are slowly lengthening. Lightening. For which, many thanks.

I've been doing some more clearing up in the garden today. Got out while I could. Good timing, as we've had roaring wind, and pouring rain this afternoon! When I get up tomorrow, I expect everything will have been blown all over.

I've been in the studio too. Did another collograph print onto fabric last week, so wanted to check it, and see what I could do with it. It's pinned up; awaiting my needle and thread.

Yesterday I visited a friend who lives near IKEA. We walked over the fields to have some dinner there (a first for me) then had a stroll round. I bought some tea-lights (doesn't everyone!?) and a rather fetching pinny. Been wanting one to use for printing; and although India Flint in her book 'Second Skin' recommends using an old shirt to make one, and includes instructions, I ducked out, and went for the easy option!

So quite a busy couple of days; and even got some jobs done. Don't know if I'll get into the garden tomorrow; weather forecast is grim, even though we're having a fairly mild winter, and not experiencing the massive snowfall they're having in the USA. 



completed; crazy shirt

Wearing my patched shirt; stitched patches onto a second hand shirt I got from a charity shop. Finished! Warm! Layered!
Doing the job that I intended. Acting as insulation to keep me warm throughout the cold.
I layer up with t-shirts and jumpers/cardis, and keep toasty warm. Intending it to be an 'overall' I could wear in multitude situations, today I wore it outside while doing some garden clearing.
Last autumn I had an ash tree taken down that was too big, and overtaking my garden. During this, the tree-feller managed to smash a glass screen that was acting as a coldframe on my raised bed. Result; lots of fragments of safety glass in my soil, and raised bed......sigh.
Each job, creates another.
Disheartened at the amount of work I would need to do on clearing this glass I've put off the job. Today, I started picking out the glass. It was archaeology; me on hands and knees with small hand-spade, picking out glistening pieces from the soil. At least I've begun. For the actual raised bed, I'm going to just get a spade and dig out the lovely compost I put in (which is where the glass is!) then chuck it in the bin. It'll be hard work; but quicker than going over it like an archaeological site!
It made me wonder about my methods of doing things with small tools; the hand-spade; the small brush I used when I decorated recently, rather than a roller.
I'm like that with my paintings; small brushstrokes, rather than sweeping ones. Making small seed stitches, when working on textiles. It may simply be a physical thing; I have quite small hands, so grasping hold of large pieces of equipment can be uncomfortable for me. Still; preferences can change. Methodologies can alter.

sliced slate

 

 

wall? bridge?

a line of slate slices, delineating space

The slices of slate create the boundary wall that encloses this garden. Undulating.
The garden is up near the council buildings in Wakefield. It was made for the Chelsea Flower Show (not this year) then subsequently re-created as part of the urban renewal of Wakefield and the surrounding District. The rusting metal question mark on the right, was, when installed at Chelsea, a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, who was born in Wakefield.

 Some of the late greenery and poppies of this civic garden.

Mum's garden

On the day mum's house was emptied, I stood in her garden, and took this photo of her day lillies; the shadows on the parched grass. Some day lillies have come with me, and been re-planted in my garden. Lots of watering to get them established. 

paula tod

In March, for the Artwalk, Paula Tod had an exhibition at Westgate Studios Project Space. Here are a couple of her paintings. 
She paints oils on canvas, with wonderful evocative images of landscapes. She and her husband are moving up to Eyemouth, near Berwick-on-Tweed. Where she'll have fabulous landscapes to inspire her! I'm looking forward to visiting her later in the summer.

At home, the garden is greening up; and the rhubarb started to come through, at last. Spring's late this year.

And, some sea holly, from my visit to Spurn Point last winter. I went to see Alice Fox's exhibition from her residency there.
Last week, I went to see the exhibition of the work at the 49 Gallery, at the Old Town in Bridlington. It was a lovely day; the exhibition worked very differently in a more domestic setting than the Lighthouse at Spurn Point. And the light is very different at this time of the year. We walked on the beach; paddled in the VERY cold North Sea, and experienced sun, hail, and snow, all in a matter of minutes! 

spring 'as sprung

The daffodils are finally out, hurray! A bit different from how they appeared a few weeks ago when we had the snow (see photo below). And the weather is getting steadily warmer, the days lengthening.

As a postscript, margaret thatcher has died. I feel in two minds about mentioning it. Partly I want to turn my back on her, and her noxious prime minister-ship which saw the gap between poor and better-off widen. 

I've been very interested to listen to people's responses. 
Looking on Billy Bragg's website; Chumbawamba's website; listening to Elvis Costello's song 'Tramp the Dirt Down' on Youtube;talking to people at work, my friends. Interestingly no-one I know has had a good word to say about her, or her political policies. Though there are different opinions as to how it might be appropriate to 'mark' her death. 
Well, I live in the North, don't I? Where the ramifications of her deeds still linger. 
And it's interesting that our current governments 'austerity' programme doesn't include not paying for her funeral.....us peasants will all be stumping up for that. 
We have local elections coming up shortly. I wonder if there will be any impact on the results, due to the government paying for her funeral? Don't we just live in interesting times!

Did you see what I did there? I used bad grammar/lower-case so as to not give importance to her name and job-title. Other names have been given due prominence. Well, as we chanted at Greenham, and throughout the bitter dispute of the Miners' Strike, I suppose it's easy to see 'Which Side Are You On?'

winter jasmine

Last weekend; more snow.
Me walking out to buy basics and cat food from the local shop.
Dressed in hat, gloves, kagoule, walking boots, waterproof trousers I set out in the slippy, slidey snow.
It was hard work.

Today; most of the snow has gone. Some piled high in the hedgrows, out where it's colder, and the temperatures are lower.
But today we've had sun. Full, bright sun, the sort that warms through! Hurray!
This has been such a long, cold winter. I want spring, and sunlight, and sun-warmth. To not need to wear boots all the time. To cast off some layers of fleeces, and thick socks! Mmmmmmmm.
So here is the last of the winter jasmine, hopefully indicating winter is finally moving, and we can start to make tentative steps into the Spring. I hope so. 

wasp nest 3

While cleaning out the new home studio, I came across this; I think, a wasp nest?
I've found a couple of these things before. They are papery, and very fragile. 

Onions

It seems that the only thing to have survived the slugs and snails is this onion plant; flowering nicely!
We've had a lovely sunny day here, and I've been boiling up nettles (more survivors of the mollusc onslaught!) to dye with. Two bundles are in, steeping. I await the result.

poppies

Poppies in the rain.

The flowers don't last long with the rain we're having. The petals drop too quickly.
I'm getting some work ready to put into the Arthouse Open Members Exhibition, which will be on for the next Artwalk, at the end of July.

Garden Toad

My toad!
S/he's a beauty; found in a bin whilst clearing around the garage, ready for when the builder comes to do the work on it.
It's dependant on the weather....which has been pretty dreadful this last month. June, the wettest month since records began; and July starting off no better!
We are on flood alerts here in Wakefield. One friend has a flooded cellar; another has sandbags round her house. I have a garden which is covered in slugs and snails! Eating everything! I've given up trying to get rid of them. There are just too many.