Autumn walks

Wellies on.
Walking pole in hand.
Clump of boots and tick of stick.
Striding out along the path.
Down the hill.
Buzzards wheeling above the trees.
Rooks cawing in protest.
Along the footpath,
squelch and slip.
The mud reveals the
night time visitors to this field.
Deer, badger and fox
trod where I now tread.
Golden leaves hang and shake
as gold coins on a dancing belt.
Here, I see the fieldfares
feasting on nature's berry bounty,
hips, haws, blackberry and rowan,
Trip, trap over the bridge.
No trolls here.
Water taking my path as a short cut.
Along to the spinney marvelling
again at waters power,
where the brook cuts the clay.
The spinney path is still frozen from yesterday's frost,
crystals decorate leaf and blade.
The sun never sees down here.
The brook again,
The water runs into the sinkhole,
disappearing down to the rock below
to appear once more as a spring down along.
Spring Wood covers the hill top,
and I turn away, up the valley side
towards home.

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week#51

I have not written for weeks. However, tonight I have time before I begin my internet sabbatical.
The prompt from Julia is …. the line was drawn ….

It was time...

Yes, it was time the line was drawn under the whole unfortunate affair. Quite how Esme and Beatrice had managed to escape their Nanny will never be known. What persuaded them to acquire the toad is also veiled in mystery.
The bald fact that Grandmamma is still sniffing on smelling salts as if her life depended on them is inescapable. However, there is no point in carrying on as if the world has come to an end when it has not. They are naughty, naughty girls.
It was very funny though I should not say so...
Grandmamma has a very loud scream!

Summer...

The weather has exerted more influence this year than I can ever remember. I experienced the drought of 1976. We all stood fully clothed in the rain after weeks of baking sunshine.
The tremendous irony of being under drought restrictions as the heavens opened in cataclysmic style escaped no-one. All around me were jokes about the rain. Now all drought restrictions have been lifted. We all long for a prolonged change in the weather so that we can dry out literally and metaphorically.
However the plants and trees have been enjoying their prolonged drinking session. As I drive the country lanes the verges are blowsy with overgrown sappy vegetation. Our lawn became a meadow, Mr G has resorted to a sickle to lower the height of the grass. As he commented sickles can operate in ALL conditions. His sickle was purchased at a market stall specialising in old hand tools. It has been honed to razor sharpness and now the meadow has been mown.
Today the sun shone though. As I stepped out into the garden this afternoon I could hear the bees buzzing in amongst the lavender and fox gloves. Their relief at being able to forage in the warmth was almost palpable.

Photo from here

As I write the clouds are gathering once more. Through one window the sky is blue with powder puff clouds. Looking the other way, the window frames an all too familiar picture of lowering rain filled clouds. It looks like it is raining in the valley.

For those awaiting a new piece of Teeny Tiny Art, there is a new very different piece, still in my style, at planning stage.  A completed piece will be going to a lovely person before the end of the month. When the originals are safely delivered to their new homes I will publish pictures of them here.

Time flies...

Time flies...

I made this picture last night. I had wanted to make it all week but work needed to take precedence.

The idea came from this picture I took earlier in the year.

To make the picture I chose a piece of handmade felt in  a blue green colour way.   I placed the piece of stockinette tube to be the stem for my dandelion clock. Next I used  the plaited cotton thread to represent the grass. I wanted to give the illusion that the back of the picture was in focus but the foreground is out of focus. I carded three shades of green merino tops to blend the colours then laid them at the base of the picture. I secured the wool by needle felting along the bottom and sides. I created the dark centre to the dandelion clock by needle felting a ball of brown merino tops. I hand stitched the clock with a single strand of white embroidery floss. I had originally planned to stitch the entire clock but decided to make it look as if some of the seed had flown.  I then embroidered the individual seeds in the corner, as you can see in the detail below.

Next I stitched the white and pearl seed beads to represent a cow parsley type of flower. I joined these using a tiny chain stitch.

                                                                                 
Finally I decided to add a snail to the foreground. I used a pretty green and white glass bead and added the snail's 'body' using three strands of pale grey embroidery floss.

                                                                               
Had I  taken longer with this piece, I feel that my execution would have been better. However, I am pleased that I was able to realise the idea in textiles and I have definitely honed my skills through making it.

Our green and pleasant land.

The beauty of the English countryside has never been more apparent to me. All around me the cow parsley lace edges trim the velvet green of the fields. The shorn sheep seems to glisten purest white as the scudding clouds allow the sun momentary access to the fields. Spring Wood plays hide and seek behind curtains of rain. When the weather really closes in I cannot see much beyond the garden fence, it is as if we live on the edge of the world. The field beside the house rolls like the sea, as the crop moves like waves before a storm.
Yesterday, the little birds fluttered around the seed, today they are nestled in the grass gleaning the fallen morsels. The hedgerow is adorned with rich pink hawthorn blossom and the fragrant platters of elderflower.

Gooseberries and elderflower are a happy union of flavour and scent. Dunk the flowers in the still warm stewed gooseberries, the flavour improves and the delectable juice is decorated by the tiniest and prettiest flowers.
Even as the wind roars around the house, sneaks down the chimney, whistles at keyholes,
the ancient fields and hedges hunker down, for all the world declaiming, we've been here too long to be bothered by you.

Stone wall with Lichen

I finished a piece of mixed media textile art today. As this is a mouthful, I am going to call my works Teeny Tiny Textile Art.
Here it is:

This piece started from this macro picture:

I decided to create a piece with just a few stones. I used some small pieces of felt in five shades of grey. I padded each 'stone' with a little wadding. I decided to add 'mortar' to my stones. To create this I used space dyed floss in shades of grey with hints of green. I sewed a rough satin stitch to join the pieces, stitching in different directions to add texture and interest. To create the lichen effect I needle felted with greeny grey uncarded felting wool, highlighted with a vivid yellowy green merino wool tops. I do not have any mustardy coloured wool tops yet so used artistic licence. When I had finished the stitching I felt the piece needed 'lifting'. I added some very small beads to the 'lichen' choosing some which matched the colour of the wool and some clear beads which I added to some of the 'stones'. I wanted to give the effect of water droplets and I am very pleased with the result.

Detail of felting and beads.

 Further detail of stitching.

This piece has taken quite a long time to finish as it has quite a few elements in it. It has been a satisfying experience however.
I shall probably make my next picture one of the flower/leaf/seedhead macros I have taken.
I would really appreciate some comments on this piece.

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups #41

Another week and another challenge from Julia

and this is our prompt...

As dry as a...

With a faint click, the last piece was placed on the work. Work, no, wrong word. Labour of love maybe...   This toil would be missed, the concentration, the planning, the execution.

He remembered when the pieces had seen the light for the first time in millennia. The breathtaking anticipation as brush and trowel revealed the almost unimaginable. His hands shook with the memory. His breath caught once more.

Now, he looked again at his gloriously created cairn of bones. How fitting, how marvellous, that these distant creature’s remains should stand in mute celebration of their lives.

He tiptoed silently away...