a silent walk in the woods

the narrow quilt

I've added a strip onto the colourful piece so that in can now be draped over a chair, decorative, and it could be worn as a shawl  on a  chilly evening, useful.
this is the 'front'

......and this is the 'back' , the 'messy' stitching has been hidden by the light blue and from now on all stitching has to work both ways, so there's no more hiding;  this means the connections are knowable and visible;  I want to try and stitch as many circles as possible and keep it flat at the same time. 

..keeping it flat means I have to undo some bits....ugh, but this is the way I want it.
more on this piece here, here, here and here

painted trees

'espalier'
oil on wood 7x8 cm 2012

'tree of life, when chaos was taking shape'
oil on wood 7x12 cm 2012

'air tree'
oil on wood 7x8 cm 2012

so for my small fall exhibit I have managed to finally finish these three small trees

caught my eye

sun shining through 'her secret garden' seen here from the back

where we live

one could say we literally live at a low point in the Dutch countryside, as we live very close (ca.100 metres) to this pumping-station -gemaal in Dutch- in what is known as a polder, flat areas of land that before drainage and the digging of canals were marshes; in this part of the Netherlands we live below sealevel so we're protected from the sea and the rivers by dikes and dunes and a whole system of canals/rivers, pumping-stations and sluices. This pumping-station is situated at the lowest point in the polder and built on one side of the dike along the river Linge and can pump excess water from the polder into the river on the other side of the dike and vice versa. A small part of this dike lies at one end of our garden. We are surrounded by many shades of green, earth, water and a lot of sky.

in memory of those who since 1231 dedicated themselves to maintaining the Spickersluise, later named the Polder Spijk, included in the polderdistrict Tielerwaard 1 january 1969.

east side of our house, why did I take this photograph: underneath the wooden cladding bats live and they moved in before we did 16 years ago

bat-poo on the east-facing window in our living room; unfortunately I have not managed to take a picture of the bats flying as it is too dark when they're up and about. Which is now 22:20 hrs

what are they?

title: Brunn, by Esther Jiskoot

title unknown to me, by Esther Jiskoot

title: Blanzar, by Esther Jiskoot

intriguing objects by Esther Jiskoot in the Nationaal Glasmuseum in Leerdam, a nearby museum which I have visited only once before in the 17 years we live here.

You can find more information about her work in this exhibition here and on her website here

memento mori

a young dead robin, weighs appr. 15 grams
for some reason I cannot leave a dead animal behind when I see them on my walks, maybe it's because I don't like the idea of dyeing alone, or would not like being left alone like that, abandoned.

we do eat meat and fish and I wear leather shoes, I kill mosquitoes and wasps, no second thoughts, but when confronted with a small dead bird or mouse, you know it makes me go soft inside...

butterfly

wow, on our first walk together since the dog returned, we spotted this butterfly

quick fix

before we went on holiday I washed the dog's mattress-cover and realised how torn it was!

as we arrived yesterday evening and decided to pick up T. today, I had just enough time to fix the worst holes and torn-away bits by hand and machine; so now his settee is ready and waiting for him!

bye bye

bye bye U.K., we're back home in rainy Holland

grrrrrrrrrrr, haha

shopwindow in Brasted

Knole

after Charleston we visited Knole in Sevenoaks and had a walk in the park

Bloomsbury and Charleston

a glimpse of Duncan Grant's studio (we weren't allowed to take photo's indoors) 

Charleston was the home of artists Vanessa Bell  and Duncan Grant. They moved here in 1916 and kept a lease until Duncan Grants's death in 1978; it became the country retreat for the collection of writers, artists and intellectuals known as Bloomsbury. The house was decorated by the artists over the decades they spent here; it embodies their belief that art and life should be inseparable. 

back to needle&thread

we spent a sunny morning shopping in Tunbridge Wells; round 2 p.m. it started to rain and we decided to visit Leeds Castle (without the boys: they'd had enough of sightseeing) once there however, it transpired an event was to take place and we couldn't get in, by then it was pouring, so no walk in the countryside; we settled on visiting Tonbridge and happened upon a lovely secondhand bookshop, Mr.Book's Bookshop; and I bought a small collection; we'll be visiting Knole tomorrow (Vita Sackville-West's childhood home)

this particular book is going to be very useful to me: many basic (well not for me) techniques are explained in word & image, and I'll get to learn the correct sewing terminology in English.

this looks interesting