Around and about our house ...

... things happen ...

fruit and vegetables ripen

 

and Paul has been blanching  & packing corn on the cob for the freezer  ... we're eating them every day  ... so sweet and juicy 

meanwhile just by the front door the newly hatched sparrow chicks can be heard asking for food and a parent prepares to deliver  

out of sight, the chicks are deep inside our wall 

 and I'm going very slow with some more eco dyeing  and rusting. This time with dyed fabric and old lace ...  presently its air drying, tomorrow a wash, more drying and I suspect it will have faded!

Thank you for reading this, comments welcome  -that way I know you  are there!!!!

Good stuff on small journeys

I'm writing this with an eye on the flurry of long tailed tits feeding on suet balls in the garden and wondering if, at last, I'm comfortable with the flapping of birds' wings!!  The robin is also there, defending his or her winter territory and yesterday Mr Blackbird came along. What joy.

And I'm feeling very relieved to have rinsed, washed, ironed, and logged the 24 pieces of fabric that were put into dye baths three weeks ago.

 The record keeping was a bit tedious but now I have colour recipes when I want a particular colour and shade.


Not sure how i'll use them yet, somewhere that'll show the great patterns from the more or less fidgeting I did with the fabric while it was in the dye bath.












Maybe the fabric will come into its own for a piece based on some of the ways that lines have - I'm collecting lots of pics of lines, like these on a walk around Bloomsbury last week.

Lots of blue plaques en route (http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques)

and some inspiration for stitching patterns ....













Finally, a couple of pics from last weekend in Dorset: I slept under this ancient beam and the first snowdrops bloomed under my window.








Have a good weekend all. My to do list includes mushroom soup and drafting a poem for the first workshop of a Poetry School (https://poetryschool.com) online course called Re-writing the Map.
This fits wonderfully with the work I'm doing on journeys at Inspiration to Stitch  -almost too good to be true.

Out and about in this wonderful sunshine

So difficult to be inside when its sunny outside but at least there's Wimbledon to watch until the garden is cool enough to sit it.

I'm posting some pics of a lovely day at the Goodwood Festival of Speed .. not obviously my thing but was a guest of some friends on warm and sunny day. Lots to see on the track, including 'trick' riding of cars and motorcycles, some very good jazz to enjoy while sipping champagne and much to look at around and about.

Came home from the weekend away via Tichfield Haven nature reserve, a quiet and bird-full spot very close to where we used to live in Warsash.

Plenty of birds to see, its a real challenge for me to recognise what is what but really enjoyed watching this Avocet and her chicks feeding and then Mum sleeping on one leg - impressive!











Time now to get ready for a poetry reading at Camden Poetry this evening ...  I'm first to read so I'll be able to relax and enjoy everyone else's poems after the two short ones I've chosen.

Enjoy the wonderful summer weather everyone.

Long time no blog

but I'm here today with a few pics of a great week of birding in the Highlands of Scotland and Orkney, and some poetry inspired by a very lovely group of people and some even lovelier birds, flowers and geography.

Navigating in Bird

What's that? Where? Over there

attracts a withering look from our guide

and a plea to make use of the clock.

Midday is ahead, add distance, a height

and then when you spot a small dot

on a pine in Tomvaich or Brodgar,

wonder if that's an eider on the water,

when the Skua moves as your bins focus in

or a Puffin breaks the boil of summer sea

you call two o'clock, low, fifty, flying right,

four o'clock, five o'clock, going and gone o'clock.

On Orkney

Leaving the shore at Yesnaby

we cross the peat soft meadow

to look for Primula Scotica.

Under our feet, stars of spring squill,

ruby thyme, golden vetch

hug the ground, and our quest

nests between these common plants,

it's saucers of bright leaves the setting

for rings of fairy amethyst.

On the horizon

the feeding frenzy rises

a triangle of fin

Against the tide

a seal in grey water

head up, swimming

On the ledge above

the guillemots, three puffins

shuffle shuffle in the nest