Solway skies

A quick walk out from Mawbray towards Allonby ............

.

Criffel 

Across to Criffel .......

The Isle of Man

Towards Mawbray...........

Allonby......

Criffel

St Bees head walk

We do this walk every year to see the seabirds on their rookeries. Plenty of guillemots with fulmar, razorbill and kittiwakes. The new gates and improved path, as part of the 'England Coastal footpath', are great! The bluebells and thrift are just coming out while the primroses were spectacular.

The views ......

The rookeries ..................

On the sea......guillemots ..........

Everything was very green! 

Spring flowers..........

Kestrel and raven.

The lighthouses of Islay

Well now I have a set of 3 lighthouses - there are another 4 on Islay.

Port Charlotte

McArthur's......

Port Ellen.

Picos de Europa...snow and spindrift!

Well that was mist and snow painted recently, so why not combine them? The photograph is from the Picos de Europa; I've done it before as a soft pastel...but an oil was more challenging! Snow and spin drift.......

Felt daisies ..........

As part of my ongoing 'felt-ball' project I've made a daisy ball ready to take up to Islay and photograph in the daisy field.........

The idea of the project, which is entirely for fun, is to be inspired by somewhere, come home and make the felt-ball, and then return to photograph it in situ. Two of the most 'extreme' journeys have been from Cumbria to Orkney ...for Scottish primrose click for the Scottish Primrose trip and Cumbria to Lizard Point for spring squill for the squill balls on the Lizard click here.

These are some of the past balls ....

Top: Scottish primrose; water crowfoot; spring squill
Bottom: silverweed; spring gentians; rockrose

And in situ..........

Xanthoria lichen; sea urchins; rockrose; spring gentians; spring squill; primrose; sea balls and purple saxifrage.

....and the daisy ball in my rockery - not in situ!  

..and where it'll be heading in May...

Parton - a two marble day.

Parton in West Cumbria is always a good walk out - quite a temperature difference to Saturday mind you! Our previous visit http://juliagarner1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/parton-west-cumbria-more-beach-finds.html was a tad warmer - no biting wind.

Codd bottle marbles.

Pen-y-ghent field sketches

While the dog slept in the sun..................

Pen-y-ghent - the purple saxifrage pilgrimage!

It's always hard to decide when to make the annual pilgrimage to see the purple saxifrage on Pen-y-ghent. It was going to be late this year and then we couldn't make the last couple of weekends, so it was a bit of an all or nothing trip - but we were not disappointed! The plants were really dessicated - through snow cover and wind ....but spectacular as ever clinging to the cliffs.  A glorious day ...........

Enjoying the sun ................

Pen-y-ghent views ...........

The iconic purple saxifrage ........

Carrifran Wildwood ...and inspiration

Following our visit to Carrifran juliagarner1.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/carrifran-wildwood.html  I was bold and decided to attempt a painting of the mist clearing from the valley. It's 60 x 60 cm and an oil; all done with a palette knife.

Spring has sprung in North Cumbria

What a glorious day! The swallows and house martins are back as is the sun. The tulips in the greenhouse are all out - at the same time; the garden is beginning to show some colour. The soil is still best regarded as mud though!

Great Cockup ............a snowy painting

Following our walk up Great Cockup - see www.juliagarner1.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/great-cockup-in-snow.html - on February 4th - here's an interpretation of the view looking across the northern fells of the Lake District. Not the easiest of paintings - but I loved the sky and the clarity of the snow.

Drypoint etching on plastic

Here's a little drypoint that I did - the photograph was formatted as 'wash out', so that I could shade over it and then use this as my design. 

The waterfall - typically I can't find the exact original photo - but you get the idea!

The greyscale photo and sketch over a wash out image. ......printing the plate at different pressures and then colouring with watercolour. 

The lighthouses of Islay...

Here are another two lighthouses to add to the original one of Port Charlotte - they're lino cuts and all will be hand-coloured to fit onto cards. Rather nicely the paper is just spare offcuts from my longer lino cuts and so use up bits. Only four more lighthouses to go - think I'll just do the one on Oronsay though, so I have a set of four and can do sets at a reduced price!

Port Charlotte

Mc Arthur's 

Port Ellen

Celandines and spring flowers

It's so lovely to finally see spring arriving...we've had: the odd swallow; a couple of house martins; the celandines are out;  primroses are out too; barren strawberry are blooming and for a couple of hours there was some warmth in the air! ...then it rained! Fortunately I took my celandine with me on the dog walk....as you do....and took a few photos, of which this is my favourite.

Wordsworth's daffodils

It was on this day in 1802 that Dorothy and William came across their 'golden host' on the shores of Ullswater, and they were splendid yesterday too. 

"Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
    Fluttering and dancing in the breeze"

                                  

Wordsworth was walking back to Grasmere with his sister on 15th April 1802 (and on the shores of Ullswater near Gowbarrow Park) when they came across the scene that gave rise to "I wandered lonely as a Cloud..." 

Dorothy, describes the sight equally well when she wrote in her Journal..."We saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. They grew among the mossy stones about and about them; some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness; and the rest tossed and wheeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind, that blew upon them over the lake; they looked so gay, ever glancing, ever changing."

Pooley Bridge to Glenridding - the Ullswater way

The Ullswater way is right round the lake and 20 miles, so we decided to do this as  two part walk. Today we started at Pooley Bridge and walked the way to Glenridding before returning on the steamer. The path was varied and well waymarked, with the daffodil logo,  initially through woods and fields; then through recently felled conifers and into woodland with superb old trees and out onto the open fell. The path was great - flat and yielding superb views over the lake.