Crochet

On Friday the postman delivered a parcel that I was very excited to receive.  I ordered a selection of wool from the Attic24 yarn shop.  I am doing the granny stripe blanket that Lucy designed using double knit special wool by Stylecraft,  The colours are wonderful, so warm and rich; the wool is really soft, brilliant for a snuggly blanket.

My order arrived really quickly and well packed.  When I opened the parcel, it wasn't in a boring plastic bag but this lovely net bag: 



I have copied an idea from Lucy and put a bit of wool around a clothes peg along with a note of the colour and shade on one end.

As you can see I am getting on quite well with the blanket.

Bargains, Books and Brownies

After lunch today I went for a look around a local charity shop.  I was really pleased to come away with two nice tops.  At least one of my tops at home is starting to show signs of needing to go into the rag pile so one of these will be its replacement. 

I also visited my library and picked up 3 books.  I thought I wasn't really into 'chic lit'; then I discovered  Trisha Ashley.  I have now read all her books and they are brilliant so I decided to give Sophie Kinsella and Jenny Colgan a try.

I've also read the first Robert Galbraith book "The Cuckoos Calling" and enjoyed it, so I was really pleased to see the next in the series "The Silkworm" on the library shelf.  I know Robert Galbraith is the pen name of J K Rowling but I loved the Harry Potter books too and although there isn't a wizard in sight in her Galbraith books, the characters are interesting, believable and the writing is excellent.

The Teen has a friend coming to stay tonight so for a treat I have cooked them chocolate fudge brownies.  I don't think they will last long, especially since they are the Engineer's favourites.

We don't usually have takeaway pizza but just this once ........ 

Enjoy your weekend.

Fledglings

C & D have now returned home; it was lovely to have them visit for such a long time.  C has planted up some pots for me with trailing lobelia and geraniums, so more nice things to draw.

This morning I was in the garden bending over some flowers wondering whether to take a flower to art class to draw when I heard something whizz over my head.  Then there was a scrabbling noise to my right where the Engineer has put up a large grey tent to store some stuff from his shed.  The shed is going to a new home and being replaced with a larger shed.  The scrabbling had come from a fledgling blackbird which had flown into the tent, as in splat.  It wasn't hurt and was just staring at the tent as if to say "where did that come from?".  Mummy blackbird then arrived with a beak full of worms and a reassuring chirp.

The fledgling then seemed to carefully think about all of its next moves.  It looked at the garden chair that was next to the tent, then looked at the floor, then repeated the move before hunching its shoulders and flying onto the chair.  No splat this time.  It did this sequence every time it flew to a new perch and it let me stand there with my camera and take photos.  The sun was warm and the birds were singing it was quite a special moment.

I don't know if this little one is male or female but its all beak and feet at the moment.

On the way to the art class I dropped into a garden centre and picked up a geranium called Lotusland.  It has such amazing leaves that I couldn't resist.  It will be quite a challenge to draw - I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew, or draw.

Gulp!

Beans, peas, Dr Who, big bits of metal and a hyacynth in graphite.

On Thursday I was at work and C & D caught the train into Southampton and walked the walls.  Before they left C decided it would be good idea to begin hardening off my beans and courgettes as the weather was nice.  However, it was quite windy and when they came back my plants were very battered, bruised and the beans in particular beyond help. 

They look much healthier in the photo than they are.

On their way home they had stopped in at Aldi and bought salmon to cook for dinner.  While C cooked, the Engineer and I went and cast our votes.  Dinner was delicious; salmon in sweet chilli sauce with red peppers, mushrooms and noodles.  Yum. 
After such a nice meal we all sat and played Monopoloy, Dr Who Monopoloy which was a little confusing for C & D, but C still managed to win.

Extra TARDISs and sonic screwdriver not included.

C & D also bought me a bunch of hyacinths of the lightest violet colour so I am doing a quick sketch in graphite.  I don't think they will last long enough for a colour pencil attempt, and the unfinished sketch below isn't that brilliant as I have hard edges making it more of a line drawing really.  When I initially sketched it the flowers of the hyacinth were closed and now they are open so I am having to use a little guess work and the other flowers to do the shading from. 

I also need more tonal value in my flowers or that thick black line on the stem will stand out like a sore thumb.  My work area is smelling lovely though.

Speaking of edges, the postman delivered a pack of Prismacolour Verithin pencils today.  These are harder and thinner than my usual Faber Castells which means I can sharpen them to a very fine point to enable me to deal with "furry" edges of my bean leaf.

On Friday after a quick look at the election results we went out for lunch at Lilly's in Wickham and browsed through the shops.  When we got home C went into the garden and planted some more beans and courgettes for me.

Then she put some bamboo canes with string around them for my peas to grow up.

D and the Engineer spent time in the garage drilling holes in big bits of metal.  They were happy boys.

 

Saturday we all went out to have look around some more of the Chichester Art trail.  Although the day started with rain, it cleared up and became quite warm. There are so many talented people out there; the Teen was very taken with a life sized hedgehog that had been done in needle felt and even its spines were prickly.  We then had a look at some beautiful jewellery, some of which was hammered silver and some cast.  At this point we lost D who had asked the jeweller if he could see her workshop; this was a theme carried throughout the day - C, the Teen and I looked at and enjoyed the art.  D and the Engineer looked in workshops and asked how things were made.

We ate lunch at The Anchor Bleu in Bosham; a lovely meal with a wonderful view as the tide came in over Bosham.  


The Engineer & D enjoying the view

We decided we didn't need pudding but the Teen asked for an icecream from a van and got a rather spectacularly coloured ice lolly and yes, it did turn her tongue blue.

Blue Tongue Lolly

The Teen also made friends with a cat that seemed to live in one of the shops in Bosham. 

We saw everything from sculpture to botanical art, from fused glass to paintings in a tiny terraced house.  It was a good day out and I feel inspired to get out my needle felting tools.  But then I also want to finish my hyacinth and get on with the quilt I am part way through and carry on with cross stitch.  As I finish off this post the Engineer is doing something creative with grinding wheels and sticky tape, the Teen is in her bedroom being anti social and the sound of gentle snoring is coming from the sofa where C & D have fallen asleep reading their magazines. 

Runner Beans in colour pencil, finishing stage one

At art class today I finished my runner bean sketchbook piece in colour pencil; well I say finished, but I need to sharpen up the edges as they are a bit "furry".  The bean plant had got so big it had a tendency to wrap itself around the light over my drawing board.

My biggest challenge was keeping the highlights on the main leaf without giving it too much shine as the leaves are a matt finish rather than a waxy shiny finish.  I had left areas of white for highlights so rather than leave these blank and therefore too shiny I had to make them a lighter colour to give a good contrast between the shadows and so giving the leaf depth and life.  I ended up using a Faber Castell Polychromos Dark Flesh 130 and light Flesh 132 for some of the thicker veins as they only seemed yellow in places due to light shining through the leaf.
  
I finished with a "wash" on the front tip and the far right hand side of the leaf using Faber Castell Polychromos Chrome Oxide Green 278.  This subtly enhanced the shadows that are caused by the leaf drooping.

Copyright Su+2

Below is a collage of the stages of my leaves, I think they are all in the right order.

copyright Su+2

I thoroughly enjoyed doing these runner bean leaves and learnt a lot in the process.  Overall, I am very pleased with this sketchbook piece and can now begin work on the actual composition.

But then again, I also have a new jar of peas happily germinating so maybe I can work a bit more on some pea leaves...........

Blackbirds

We finally moved the blackbirds abandoned nest today.  They haven't been near it in 3 weeks so its definitely not in use. 

 

 As you can see there are 4 eggs and they were a bright blue with grey speckles but they have faded in the sun to a very light blue.  The nest is fascinating, made from grass and moss and even packing tape on the bottom.

The blackbirds built a new nest in our garden in a much more suitable place.  Although we can't see the nest now, we can sometimes hear the little ones.

 

At least here the local cats can't get at them inside all this bushiness whereas on top of wood store was very open.  The male and female blackbird fly back and forth with beaks loaded with worms and bugs.  They are loving the fact we have lifted some paving slabs and there are lots of insects and worms available for them and when I was doing the weeding on Sunday the male bird was following me along the border.

Have you got birds nesting in your gardens?

May Bank Holiday

On Saturday we woke the Teen up early, well at 8.00 so early for her, and after much grunting and groaning we finally went to Chichester to look at some work on the Chichester Arts Trail.  This is an open studio event that runs on 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th and 10th of May.  Its a brilliant way of seeing art of all kinds for free in relaxed environments.  People open their studios and or homes to display their work. 

There are people who are professional artists and earn their living from their work and those who do it as a hobby.  Work is shown in studios, homes (including kitchens) and garages.  All the people we met were friendly, helpful and enthusiastic.  If you can get there next weekend I would recommend it.  Just follow the link to find out all about it.

We were hoping that this trip would inspire the Teen as she works on her GCSE Art course work.  She did enjoy it but was much more interested in that cat at Gaynor Dickeson's, while we were more interested in the wonderful botanical art and the lovely garden.

Happy cat, happy Teen,

After looking at some more wonderful work we went into Chichester for lunch.  I will not name the Italian chain restaurant we went to, the food was good and the service was good as you might expect but the price! It brought tears to the Engineer's eyes.

We then made our way home much to the Teen's relief; she went back to Minecraft and we went out into the garden.  We had been thinking for a while about planting strawberries but I didn't want to plant them straight into the soil in case they rotted or were eaten.  I thought a strawberry barrel would be the way to go until I saw the price of them.  Then the Engineer came up with solution using two different sized pots and a brick. 

 So I can now (once they have grown) have fresh strawberries for my breakfast rather than frozen. 

My other plants are doing ok: I have neat(ish) rows of red onion, beetroot and leeks.  The onions are a little messy as some nocturnal animal has been busy digging.  I don't think it was a cat as there as no poo left behind.   I also planted up a small herb pot; I didn't have enough herbs so I filled in the top and some of the gaps with trailing lobelia.  Don't worry I won't eat it by mistake. 

The green haze in the middle really is leek seedlings, honest.

On Sunday after Church I spent time on my runner bean leaf (more next time) and the Engineer did something engineeringy in the garage.  We then spent some time making the house spic and span ready for a visit from the Engineer's Mum and Dad (C & D).  We haven't seen them since before Christmas so there will be some catching up to do.  C is a gardener, she is my guru and advisor, D is another engineer so we probably won't see much of him and the Engineer as they will spend as much time as they can in the garage. 

On Monday the Engineer and I left the Teen in bed (although she was awake and internetting by the time we left) and caught the last day of the Emsworth Arts Trail.  Its the same kind of thing as the Chichester one but runs on different weekends, hence we were on the last day. 
Again the people were friendly and helpful; one even offered to let us come back next weekend so that C could see the beautiful garden. 
There was a wide range of work from beautiful acrylics to delicate water colours and glass work to jewellery.  The Emsworth Community Centre housed a number of art class works which were very interesting.  They also served a nice cup of tea. 

For lunch the Engineer and I had a picnic sat on a bench by the sea.  It was very peaceful as we were in a little area sitting on a bench overlooking what used to be the Emsworth oyster pools. 

As we left I noticed that the bench has been put there to celebrate someone's 90th birthday; a celebration bench rather than a memorial bench, I liked that. 

We then made our way home and managed to get the washing in just before it rained.

How did you spend your Bank Holiday?