A Monday meander - and a few other things

We took advantage of a reasonable afternoon yesterday to visit the Hillier Gardens again. Not being a gardener I wasn't sure how much there would be to see - but I was pleasantly surprised.

I enjoyed being able to see the shape of the trees without their leaves, including this pollarded willow - which I think is really a young Ent.


Yes - that is a shoe hanging in it. There was a St Valentine's plant trail - and this was part of it. Allegedly it is a Yorkshire custom for an unmarried young woman to throw her shoe into a willow tree. If it stays there she will be married within the year.

Whoever owns this shoe was taking no chances - it is very firmly tied there ...




There were the first signs of spring in the form of lots of flowers. No daffodils yet but plenty of promising green shoots of an entirely non-financial nature.



I also got time for a bit of stamp making, based on the centre of this group of tiles. This time I folded the paper into quarters to cut out the design.



I really like the secondary design which was very strong in the negative version - more spring flowers, I think.

I tried to bring that out in the positive version but with less success.

Reverse applique, I think, for anyone with a lot more patience than I have.

I have done a little more on the canvas work piece but still not enough to show you. The stamping came out quite irregularly, but I found myself thinking that I could tidy it up as I embroidered it. But then I thought - it is the irregularity of the stamps, and the original tiles, which I like - why do I feel the need to tidy it up? And it is a need - it is going to be difficult to resist! So the plan is to stick to the way the stamp came out and not make it neat and tidy. Odd that I want to because I am not a naturally neat and tidy person!