the patchwork dress

therapy

A moment when we saw the evening sun in the garden this last week! It's been raining on and off - mostly on for what seems like weeks now... so the other evening when I got in brain dead from staring at a computer all day, it was so therapeutic to get my hands in the earth and do a bit of repotting.

I like the fact that you can do lots of little short tasks in the garden that feel as if you are accomplishing something. I'd been looking everywhere for really plain simple cheap pots to put my sunflowers into, as the plan is to train them up one wall in the garden. Eventually I bought these black pots online for the magnificent cost of 84p each or something. It actually cost more in postage to send them. But weighing up the driving around looking for things, with the time factor - it was the simplest thing to do, and the pots arrived the day after I'd ordered - very efficiently!

here are 'the girls' all lined up!...

Another online purchase was by N. He noticed there were a lot of wasps, attracted to one particular hedge in the garden, but very close to the composter. He'd read about this device that you can hang in the garden that deters them. Wasps are (apparently) very territorial and they think this looks like a wasp's nest, and will not invade another wasp territory.

So he thought he would try it as an experiment. Needless to say, that evening the bush was full of wasps merrily buzzing around completely oblivious to the odd looking thing the humans had hung in the tree!

Looking forward to a mini-crop of tomatoes, courgettes, herbs and lettuce which are all underway... The other night we found a wild strawberry growing in the corner of the garden - which was just plump and ripe for picking. It tasted fresh and fragrant - a subtler taste than a supermarket strawberry, with plenty of water in it... no wonder after these rains!

at last... a holiday

a week off... freedom!!

...to do what I want and go where I want!!
Writing this quickly before I rush off to Edinburgh for a few days to begin the next stage of my course... and catch some of the EIFF on the day of the solstice tomorrow.

new openings, and just generally an extended 'artist's date' to get some new perspective and recharge...

thanks for all your lovely comments over the past few days - catch up soon!

Forget-me-not

Hello again! Thank you again to all those who wrote and told me the flowers in the garden..
We've had...

..lupins and solomon's seal...

lots of buttercups and yellow poppies, and now some red ones...

Meanwhile, I've enjoyed the blog-break, but it's good to be back. My work has been extended until august, which is good news and the course continues with a rewrite over the next 2 weekends. Oh the sun is shining and I'd rather not have any more work to do!

I did squeeze in a couple of artist's dates over the last 2 weekends - although the second one wasn't really an artist's date as I went with Suzanne and Susan to Potfest up in Perth which is atmospherically set in a cattle auction. Bulls and china shops always come to mind. No photos, I just enjoyed it without documenting.

The previous weekend was Loch Lomond Quilt Show which was nice and local. These quilts were hung in the trees by the National Park Centre, although the highlight for me was the appearance of Jen Jones's Welsh quilts.

This is a detail from one of them. I've seen Jen's book advertised about the quilts, and along with meeting the quilt artist Pauline Burbridge, it was one of the highlights.

It feels funny coming back to the blog after a break - I almost feel a bit rusty - although there have been things I've wanted to share - like this formica during a teabreak at the quilt show!

and this poppy unfolding over 3 days...

...the black almost like eyelashes.

So thanks for coming back to read, and forgetting-me-not!

things that happened in last 24 hours...

sparrows ate my primroses

first thing seen this morning - a rabbit washing itself by the garden gate
I have never seen a rabbit here before... the day after I repot my parsley and think about putting it outside... Hmmm...

N saw a cat who had caught a rat, be chased by a dog - it dropped the rat, which was picked up and eaten by a rook!

red sky at night

sunday walk

...the view from Duncryne back to Killearn on Sunday. The moon was up in the sky, even at 2pm or so in the afternoon.

..a tree on the way back has become part of the fence.

oh joy!

Last week got a bit dry, setting up things for my writing course - like doing all the online stuff (including joining Facebook, something I didn't really want to do, but decided to embrace - as it is a really good way of keeping in touch with those on the course... if you are anyway mildly interested in what I look like, it's now or never...) - also doing more spaceclearing in the 'writing space' so that it is organised and set up to manage my coursework.

...so you can imagine my joy when this unexpected parcel of things arrived about an hour ago from Victoria at dearmeagan.blogspot.com in...

!

...full of fabric bits and lovely magazine images, just the sort I would use to make cards, but am going to keep this lot, Victoria, thank you, for my own scrapbook!

I got a bit confused initially because I'd had an email from another dear blogger who said she was sending me a parcel, so I thought this must be it until I read the envelope and card! How wonderful.
Also included was this Irish linen teatowel which goes so well with this older post - I wonder if she knew? It's funny thinking these were made in Ireland, as the colours do seem from warmer sunnier climes!

On Saturday I visited Lomond Shores which is a favourite place of mine to go for a wander and have a coffee looking up the loch to Ben Lomond. It also houses the "gateway centre" to the National Park, so is a funny mix of outdoors and retail park. I like the architecture and think the whole scheme was very bold. Unfortunately the Drumkinnon Tower, which is an amazing circular building based on a Scottish broch has become a bit of a theme park where they keep otters (I'm not even getting into that debate) - I know it has 2 or 3 theatre/cinema screens inside and think it would make a great centre to show and host a variety of arts and media connected to Scotland (but then that's just my gig). Sadly too the outdoor clothing shop and bookshop have both closed, and it does feel as if it could do with some rethinking, as it has loads of potential.

...it was a bit cold for icecream...

On Sunday I attended the John Sayles masterclass as part of the Glasgow Film Festival. It was my first artist's date in ages. Sayles is a screenwriter, author, actor, director and film-maker. He talked about making his own films by investing his own money into the production through a series of working really hard writing for others, and reinvesting in his own projects. Although I'm not so familiar with his own films, I was really interested to hear him speak from a point of process ie. about actually being a writer and filmmaker and what makes him tick. I wasn't disappointed, he was eloquent, informative and amusing... you can see why he's had so much work yet even within Hollywood he has kept down to earth.

stomping

I felt like going out for a stomp today before doing anything else...

it's been quite a fast and intense week, and just felt I wanted to get my boots muddy...

These snowdrops were growing on the riverbank, which I somehow cut out of the shot - but I quite like it anyway. The crows were having a meeting further up the field - and the fields to the right were full of wintering geese grazing as they tend to hang out there during the day. Often now I hear them at sunrise and sunset flying backwards and forwards over the house from dayfields to nightfields I presume, maybe just towards the sun.

I stopped in to the house of a lady I met walking a few weeks ago. She'd invited me to drop in sometime, so I did a very old fashioned thing and just rang the doorbell - good timing as it was just gone 11 and she invited me in for a coffee. We had a really interesting chat about loads of things including Loch Lomond - and I left with a brace of books on the subject.

Ginny at the Flourloft recently tagged me with this idea to list some archived posts in relation to 1. family, 2.friends, 3.yourself & who you are, 4.something you love, 5.anything. I'm not a fan of these types of things greatly, but because it's Ginny, and because it was interesting to look back I suppose and see all that's in there I did it...

So...

1. family:: had to be this one. (although this day out I had with my mum last summer was a lovely day)

2. friends:: I thought, oh, the blog about the creative café - and then I realised I hadn't ever blogged about it! So here is a picture from one of our meet ups last year...

...that's Susan, Pam, Elaine, Suzanne and Christine! There are others who weren't at this meetup... also the CC is possibly changing into some other form... as yet to be decided upon... but it's a good idea and lovely friends to be sharing a creative journey with.

3. yourself, who you are:: that's a tricky one! but this post on my Taos trip kind of summarises what interests me and where my passions lie.

4. something you love:: ah, many things, places and people... but I chose this post about making the gift tags and cards because I loved doing them, I also love the simplicity of the idea but the effect you get from it. So perhaps a tangential answer, but as my other choice was this also about making cards - I guess I can say making things is something I love.

5. anything:: I'd love to include all the lovely blogpeople I've met and some of the lovely packages and swaps I've been involved in, but am choosing this post about a package from Barbara, as it touches on other themes close to my heart.

Well you are supposed to tag 5 others, so I invite the following people to do the same - at least 2 are meant to be people you don't know so well, or have just met, and I would be interested to hear from:

Meshell at the solitary thread
Melissa at tinyhappy
Amisha at heavenly days
Suzanne at fieldy
Alison at sotreadsoftly

I don't expect you to do it, but I tried to pick people with larger archives, also some that I don't know so well, that I thought may enjoy the reflective process... alternately if you are reading this and would like to do it, leave your link in the comments so people can find you.

gleaning

Having never really had a garden of my own to be responsible for, and not knowing much about plants... I feel we have inherited a 'plot of surprises' - as I'm not sure what's out there particularly, and what might come up.

Our compostor - Ecomax - (that's the name on the side) - arrived on Friday. We came home to find him standing in the front garden rather forlornly by the front door like a teenager who'd forgotten his keys. He had been on order since before we moved in, but the company couldn't find the cottage they said. So anyway now he is here, we gave him his first meal of some of the dead growth in the garden, and I was delighted to discover underneath it all were these!...

I am hoping this is outwardly symbolic, as I have a few creative possibilities opening out next week. I was so surprised to see so many shoots hiding underneath all that stuff, and wonder what they will become - Crocii? Daffodils?

I woke up this morning with a strong urge to go to the beach and see if I could 'glean' some driftwood for our stove. Not so much from a 'because we haven't got anything else to burn' standpoint, but just because it seemed like a good idea and a bit of outdoor exercise.

I did wonder about the okayness of it all - "well if everyone took wood from the beach..."

but when I saw my little abandoned trug (the green one in the picture), scale altered and it seemed like quite a small amount actually. Plus I got a really good workout, was outdoors and felt as if I was doing something useful.

A windsurfer who was at his car asked if it was for an "art project". I was glad he thought I looked like an artist, rather than a crazy woman. "No, I'm going to burn it". I kept thinking of this image. N had read that in a Eco-architecture book, that the best way to season wood is to emerse it in water... which made me think perhaps that's why driftwood looks so bleached. So it seems there is drying out wood to season it, and drying it when it is wet. The latter takes less time, so I shall experiment with the driftwood.

There are a couple of sites on these north beaches of the Clyde where stuff seems to gather. It does look a rather depressing mess to see all that plastic, rubbish etc all washed up. The next beach I went to was even worse.

While good for wood...

I realised I wasn't walking on the beach, but a mattress of seaweed and plastic, all snarled up in each other. It's rather horrible, and even more saddening to think this is only 5 minutes away from Scotland's National Park.

I do know that the council clean up the beaches periodically, that local people have groups that go out every week (not to this beach), and that you can't control what comes in because this stuff is washing up from everywhere and anywhere...

... but it makes you think. (All those folk who flush plastic Q-tips, sanitary towels down the loo - most of the colour in there, is them!!)

embracing the monochrome

These endless weeks of grey and no sunshine can get a bit... well,...depressing. Apparently yesterday, the 21st of January was statistically "the most depressing day of the year". So I decided to embrace the grey, and see what I could find out there by going for a walk down to the loch.

The Aber walk runs from the village and gets it's name from the river that runs through here. It takes you out through the fields, where I disturbed this flock of wintering geese. Oops. They all flew off very noisily - you can just about make them out (need to get a better lens for that sort of thing).

Over bridges, through gates and stiles, down lanes, through woodlands...

passing bunches of snowdrops and wintery lichens...

to Loch Lomond, as it was how I remember it as a child, mossy roots and no man-made shoreline - just shingle beaches into the water...

I met only one other person, who lives in one of the cottages down there. We walked along together for a while and she told me about the name of her cottage, which had intrigued me. It derives from the name of Saint Kessog, and she told me they had discovered a 6th century font inside the building, possibly moved from another site. The Loch has a few Saintly, monastic and Christian missionary connections, including

this island... Inchcailloch

The name associates with "the island of the old woman or the nun" according to a local guide.

It struck me one day, looking out across the loch in better weather, when the form was reflected in the water to make a whole - that the island looked like a body. Perhaps more of a jellybaby. The Cailleach is the old woman, or Crone from Celtic myth who was often seen in the land masses such as at Callanish.

...more geese sliding across the silver...

At the end of this walk is a nature reserve. It's very beautiful and still down there, the occasional cry of a bird or 'honk' of a goose. I saw this ice pattern frozen in the marshes...

...and thought it looked again a bit like a woman's body (do you see it? -like one of those psychologist's tests!), a little like Olive Oyl from 'Popeye', looking out to the right?? - right? Maybe I've been looking at Inchcailloch for too long...