a whole week poured into one post

 How overwhelming the blogging becomes if you don't keep at it and feel there is so much one wants to share, for although I've been home for the most part of this week (just two short trips into town) I feel a lot has been happening; thanks to the absolutely lovely summer weather, not too hot, warm enough to prance about in a bikini whilst being very active. As a result we, meaning myself and our youngest son, managed to get loads of odd jobs in the garden done (I made a list lest we forget what I felt was imperative)
We cleared out a very messy border at the back, just outside the north facing kitchen window, where I intend to sow a mixture of grasses and meadow flowers, 'easy to maintain' she optimistically said to self; we pruned the hazel bushes along the entrance path to a reasonable height, letting so much more light shine upon the cars and of course those entering the garden! we started cutting back the ivy along the east facing fence, still a long way to go there; we cut away all the superfluous ivy on the entrance bower, now looking very trim and proper; we tidied up the paths by pulling up the plants I don't want growing between the cracks; furthermore there was endless sweeping of leaves, sweet chestnut (Castanea Sativa) catkins, linden (Tilia) fruit and the gathering of poppy seed heads for yet another Interesting Project; we also kept the areas where we had done our whacking tidy by throwing the green stuff onto the compost heap and driving the other junk over to the council's recycle-station; I even vacuumed the porch all over, yes you read it right, more or less dust free now; cleaned the down stairs windows, indoors and outside (in fact, did quite a lot of house cleaning).....ah the glorious feeling as the sun shines through once more....how satisfied one feels with all the chores accomplished, for a while at least

 

 despite all the horticultural activities I also went for walks with Django, dyed and over-dyed several items, looked at, admired & smelled the blooming roses and thistles, rubbed-for-scent and nibbled many herbal leaves, enjoyed both shade and sun, read a marvelous novel 'Music and Silence' by Rose Tremain a gift from my mother, who being Danish must have thoroughly enjoyed this particular book as it is mainly situated at the Royal Danish Court round 1629, I certainly did; I then started reading 'the Seed Collectors' by Scarlet Thomas - with wonderful cover - another book I bought in the lovely bookshop in Biggar; cooked easy food: summer stew

rediscovered this poor bird who had managed to fall to his death in the heart shaped tray

in amongst the uprooted plants from the border was this strange root ball, what is it?

one bed done...

....another one still awaiting a face-lift

yesterday (Saturday) we had a storm raging over the country, it had blown in from France, to be fair it wasn't nearly as bad has had been predicted, 't was supposed to be the worst since 1901 or some such year

this morning in the woods we noticed just this one huge willow branch had succumbed to the winds, for the rest mainly leaves and twigs were strewn about 

a light and airy result: bundle from the copper pot with onion skins and avocado peels, coin&washer clamped; it had been in the red dirt dye, however all of the reds disappeared, even with a soy mordant no luck, will have to do more research in that field.

this is surely 'the landscape' cloth (it reminds me of Japanese water colours), it's the piece in top pic wrapped around the copper pan, which had been left wicking whilst we were in Scotland and then the bottom half was steeped in same pot for a couple of days for an over-dye as it hadn't had enough I felt; the images don't do it justice I'm sorry to say

here a tiny piece, sewn this week in the evenings sitting next to himself as he watches the telly, with between the layers curly wool gathered on our hike along Hadrian's wall

I have a habit of wrapping delicate stuff I find, in this case birds' eggshells, in leaves, here the drying leaf has shrunk and folded itself so completely you can see the outline of the egg and it is just so beautiful I will leave it as is (bird drawing btw was made by eldest son 11 years ago)

river-clay vessel turned out to be a useful receptacle for the collection of egg shells 

'landscape no.2'
I was going to make 4 of these, one for each family member on our travels in the U.K; it consists of two layers with stitched 'pockets' created by following the shibori demarcations, filled with stuff I found on our journey, such as the aforementioned wool, and a yellow flower from Hadrian's Wall - which left a yellow stain on the 'back' -  and clematis leaves I took from the walled garden in Argrennan and pressed and sewed in top row; however as I got to stitching I lost the desire to make four of the same and ended up with one; I haven't washed this piece as there is also a trickle of the Red Dirt and I'm not going to wear this or incorporate it into anything that needs washing

lovely shop in Edinburgh where I chose (and he paid for) this necklace by Stephanie Cole (blog in sidebar)

....and still it feels as if most of what has happened remains untold