Felt pebbles

Felt pebbles - part of the on-going sea-post project - doing the experimental bits is fun ...the problem will come when things have to be made in bulk!

Goose barnacles washed up - Mawbray towards Silloth.

An extremely cold and blustery walk on the beach today. So much so that we came back via the dunes! We found three separate items that had been washed up with goose barnacles on them: a plastic tray; a long length of timber and a fishing buoy.

Goose barnacles washed up on the shore. 

It was a lot colder than it looks! 

Blencathra - oil painting

Fellside - near Caldbeck

A damp but enjoyable walk...and plenty of evidence of the recent storms.

Spring Gentians - Teesdale

Looking forward to photographing my Spring Gentians in situ up at Cow Green ...hopefully among lots of real blooms.

Carrock Fell from the Dry Gill shales - oil painting.

At long last an oil painting! Where does all the time go?

Felted Horse mussels

Developing a theme - I've added some barnacles to the felted mussel.

Serpentine pebbles at Kynance Cove.

The serpentine rocks at Kynance Cove, on the Lizard in Cornwall, are beautiful mixtures of greens and purples. Formed from an area of the mantle that lies just below the crust, they were once kms below the earth's surface. What I didn't realise is that the boundary between the crust and mantle - the Mohorovicic discontinuity (the 'Moho') is exposed on the beach at Coverack - 11 miles from Kynance cove. This will no doubt provide a good excuse for another walk!  ....

The grey gabbro meets the red serpentine at the 'Moho' at Coverack. Photo from www.geolsoc.org.uk/GeositesKynance.

Anyway - below are pictures of Kynance and serpentine. The felted pebbles are mine - the colours aren't perfect but they are closer in reality than this shows.

Sundogs over Carrock Fell

I'm thinking these are sundogs - caused by the the refraction of light by ice crystals - nice to see.

Needle felted limpets and mussels

As part of the sea-washed post project here are some needle felted mussels and limpets ready to be attached to the wood. Quite fiddly as they are life size and I'll need a lot!

High Pike - Carrock Fell in the snow

What a glorious day - not a breath of wind and superb walking conditions. Hard work though when you break through the crust!

A very, very happy Rocky...and now a very, very tired Rocky!  

Lovely ice along the beck.

Boltongate - a scenic walk!

What a lovely day for a dog walk...top: Skiddaw summit; middle: towards the Caldbeck Fells; bottom; Criffel - across the Solway.

Winter wonders

At long last the rain has abated and we have some snow and sunshine. Time for a quick lunchtime dog walk and some photographs.

Felt barnacles!

The sample piece is part of the development for a (hopefully) large-scale textile installation based on a sea-washed post. First the felt was made, then laid onto cold water dissolvable fabric and embroidered. Some small hand-dyed fabric samples were incorporated too. 

Felted stones

Experiments with stones...

Allonby sea glass

The coast between Mawbray and Allonby has been stripped of much of it's sand by storms Desmond and Frank last month. New areas of glacial clay, conglomerate and peat have been exposed and there are large expanses of pebbles. The beach combing was good - yielding a bottle stopper, marble and copious amounts of sea-washed glass.

..and the chips were good too! 

2014 Bushnell Trophy Cam HD Camera trap - testing at home.

I've been testing my new remote camera trap that I got for Christmas- the Bushnell trophy cam HD- from 'the Naturespy shop'.

I look forward to putting it outside in the future when the weather improves!

Tom

A compilation of Rocky and the three cats Bert, Pilchard and Mork