Ferns Book

In an attempt to develop some ideas for my next textile piece, I had a play. So here are some of the pages from today's sketchbook. Now to fathom why I like some more than others and how to combine them into a design....

Comings and Goings...

An afternoon visit to Wedholme Flow NNR and it's amazing how rapidly things are changing. Flashes of bright green light up the woodland floor and there were copious numbers of Tiger Beetles flying and scuttling around. Then as spring establishes herself, the Whooper Swans, known as 'Angels of Winter', in Japan, disappear north to their Icelandic breeding grounds.   

Tiger Beetle.

Whooper Swans.

Up....

...and away.

 

Booming Bitterns

A trip out to hear the bitterns at Leighton Moss; they obliged. Also good views of a pair of Garganey, a rare dabbling duck with only an estiamted 105 pairs coming, from Africa, to the UK for the summer.

Some spectacular Scarlet Elf Cup fungus.

Sleeping Garganey on the bank at the coastal Allen hide.

Nice to see the Avocets back. 

..and on to the main reserve....

Shoveller.

Pochard.

Marsh Harrier...and below.

Golden-eye.

Gadwall - look at the feather patterns! 

...and more views of Garganey -  the RSPB staff were trying to establish whether this is the same one as we saw at the Allen hide...and below.

A pottery interlude (II)

Following on from my first post click here, here's the photograph of my glazed pots. I'm really pleased with them and have already booked another taster day with Upland Clay, at Crofton, near Wigton. I just loved the way the clay moved when on the wheel - there's plenty of room for improvement, but hopefully I shall remember something for next time! A short post for a change ..so here's the picture...oh and I've booked another session - no suprise there then! 

Purple Saxifrage

Just beautiful! 

Perfect Purple Sax

A perfect day on many fronts! Perfect weather did help, as the Purple Saxifrage was fully out and unblemished - but the walk is always great, as was the company. I'll let the photographs speak for themselves....and no doubt I'll need to do a second blog, just on the flowers themselves. 

There was no one around - the benefits of mid week!

The approach....

Blue skies.

Looking up on the cliffs ...

Purple Saxifrage...and below...

Looking back down the path - the Pennine Way - empty!

Looking back along the summit ridge.

Windy on the top! 

Looking back up at the top; it's a spectacular mountain.

Stalactites and Stalagmites

I have been struggling to visualise what I want to do by way of a textile hanging based on stalactites and stalagmites. Actually I had no idea at all of what it might look like. So I began by tearing up some old pieces of paper and playing. Once you get over the feeling of 'What on earth am I doing?' and begin to play, collage is quite enjoyable. The plan was to make some collages, cut them up and combine them into a new piece, but I actually quite liked them as they were, so I photographed them and then worked on the computer to chop those images up and recombine them, thus preserving the originals. 

The final piece will no doubt have a different color scheme, design and textural quality, but it's a start! 

The compilation design.

..and the individual pieces...