It has been a beautiful day.

 

So beautiful that I was inspired to paint some papers.  The colours are a bit odd because I was experimenting with using watercolour to make paste paint, and  used up some left-overs. [Those dark marks are shadows, because the sun was shining!]

 

 

So beautiful that we had lunch in the conservatory for the first time this year – and I took my sweater off!

So beautiful that we tore up the ‘to do’ list and went to the Hillier Gardens, where there were spring flowers, 

 

 

 

camellias,

 

 

 

 

 

 

an amazing rhododendron, 

 

 

 

 

and beautiful trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tea and cake were pretty good too.

But best of all – my beloved flowering cherry at home thinks it might almost be spring – there are little tiny red buds on there.

 

 

 

According to Google weather, there was a ‘chance of snow’ today -suppose it still might…

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze ...

although 'wind' would be more accurate.

When I was going through my photographs looking for yellow ones I realised that although I have a lot of pictures of yellow flowers - I didn't have any of my favourite flower.

So this morning I rushed outside and took one.


Unfortunately it was quite windy so they were difficult to photograph.

And although I have been trying not to post any more pictures of the cherry tree - I couldn't resist. Aren't they beautiful? I love the little circle of darker pink dots formed by the stamens. I understand why the Japanese so love cherry trees.




And finally - another experiment. These are three explorations of adding black stripes to neutral, dyeable, fabric - or, in a couple of cases, polyester which won't dye. Some of the black stripes are piped.

They look pretty similar [if my sewing was more accurate they would have been identical] but one has felt underneath, one has cotton wadding, and one has cotton flannel.

Since I took the photo they have been through a hot wash to see how much they shrink. When I took them out they looked as if they had shrunk about the same amount, but I'll measure them when they are dry.

They will be dyed some time this week - I hope. In two places I layered sheers over a base fabric - in one case cotton organdy over poly, in the other sparkle organza over cotton - to see what happens in the dye bath.

Watch this space.

The cherry tree is trying very hard ...

to come into blossom -so it must be nearly Spring ...



Although these could almost be today's red image [well, pink] the real one is below. These wonderful red blooms are, of course, strictly man made - an image from last year's 'Art in the Garden'. They remind me of enormous chilies.

Spring will be a little late this year ...

Cherry tree, January 30th 2008. Same cherry tree, March 1st 2009.

There are buds on the branches, but I think it will need some warm days before we get the blossom. And not a daffodil in sight, despite it being St David's Day. Cymru Am Byth* - which is about the extent of my Welsh.

To look on the bright side - the lack of leaves on the trees has made me realise just how many hazel bushes there are in this part of the world - the catkins really show up. I now know that there are two in our garden - I knew we had one but I had never noticed the other one, hidden in the hedge. I bet the squirrels knew it was there, though...

There are lots along our stretch of the A31, as well - we noticed as we drove to Guildford yesterday to meet Babybel and her daddy for some retail therapy, duck feeding, and coffee and cake in the theatre cafe. I got very nostalgic because nearly 30 years ago I used to take Babybel's daddy and uncle duck feeding in the same place. And ducks still know that baby buggy = food ...

[Imagine there is a gap here, despite Blogger's refusal to insert one.]

Returning briefly to stamps - remember this?

Well - now it looks like this.

I hope the wonkiness is just the result of the hoop. Not sure where it is going next, but I think it needs a border. I shall have to extemporise because I have very little thread left and as it is some I inherited from my aunt nearly 20 years ago which has no label I don't think I'll be able to get any more.

If I haven't bored you to tears with stamps. you can find some very inspirational examples on Susan Purney Mark's blog. And some very inspirational work as well.

Although I have enjoyed making all those stamps. learned a lot and got enough inspiration to last me a long time - I have found it pretty time consuming. So I have decided to go back to just a picture a day, with no associated activities - at least for now. But I wanted to continue to have a theme for the pictures - colour. I wanted to feature a different colour each week , but I wasn't sure I would have enough images to last a week. Until I started going through all my photos ...

For no very good reason - except that it is one of my favourite colours - my first choice is turquoise. And here is a very smart gentleman photographed last year at Upton House in Dorset - probably the epitomy of turquoise. Unfortunately he didn't want to show us his tail.

* Wales for ever.

In case you've been wondering

I haven't given up embroidery. I have been tackling UFOs, starting with the one which, when you saw it last, looked like this. I swithered for a long time about it, trying to decide what else it needed, before adding some ginormous feather stitches and a few fake leaves. It seems very simple but I couldn't think what else to do with it.

I had been playing around with the leaves for at least an hour before I remembered that the picture I started with was of - autumn leaves.

The embroidery reminded me that at the Alice Kettle workshop, my friend A. and I had a discussion about minimalist embroidery. A. sees herself [I think, she'll correct me if I'm wrong] as 'not really an embroiderer' because she uses relatively little stitch. This is, of course, rubbish - she is an embroiderer and a very good one.

I think we both feel 'less is [usually] more' - it is possibly one of the reasons I am relatively productive! I was told to go and add more stitch to this extended sample because the tutor felt there wasn't enough. So I added the foliage at the bottom, telling myself that I would take it out later. I haven't done so yet - but I still think it might be better without. Comments welcome!

And of course there is relatively little stitch in the foreground of the leaves piece, although the woven background was machine embroidered before it was cut up, and it is held to the background with overcasting. And the purple background is embellished, although I'm not sure if that counts as stitch!

i am not anti-stitch - i think Julia Caprara's work is stunning - and Alice Kettle is not known for minimalist stitching! But I think it is hard to handle heavy stitch and when I try it it looks a mess, so I get discouraged [bored?] before I have put in enough stitch for it to work. I have a low boredom threshold for repetitive work - it's why i don't like cross -stitch and why I will never make a big traditional quilt again. Having said that i can still face a cushion coverful of tent stitch, provided there is not too much background!

One a completely different topic - if you have been reading this blog since I started you will have read my gushings on the subject of my cherry tree. I cannot resist this photograph, taken this evening, of the setting sun on the underside of the leaves - it is quite magical to see and looks as if the tree has glowing lights in it.

Although I suppose that isn't a completely different topic - it is autumn leaves again. Sounds like a good subject for an embroidery to me ...