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Stitch Art at the gallery and a peek in the archives

  I'm not exactly good at painting, but I do love to mess about with colours.  These painted splodges are going to end up stuck in a junk journal.   But my flowery messes aren't the main point of today's blog post.  I mooched into the city centre on Wednesday for another of my monthly Stitch Art classes. This time we headed out of the art gallery and into the sculpture gallery next door.  It wasn't a building I'd been in before, but I will definitely visit again as it's a lovely space.  We had a chance to visit the archives, and in particular to concentrate on the work of a sculptor called Roger Ackling.  I confess I'd never heard of him before, but we had a talk from an archivist about his method of working and what inspired his art.  The current exhibition of his work is entitled 'Sunlight' and I'll quote from the printed guide:  ' For forty years Ackling made objects by burning wood, focusing sunlight through the lens of a hand-held m...
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Strawberries, spies and sparks from the vacuum cleaner...

(Photo of my front garden.  Everything's growing like crazy!) Finally!  I didn't think I'd get any decent strawberries from the dried out looking plants on the allotment.  But recent rainfall's meant they've grown and ripened, and I've had delicious bowlfuls of 'em.  I don't eat them with cream - can't afford to scoff all those calories - but natural yoghurt instead.  Last year I tried freezing some of the berries I picked, but they really are best eaten fresh.  I'll save the freezing for blackberries instead when it's their harvest time.  So it's strawberries in my morning breakfast of either porridge or overnight oats, berries for pudding and berries for evening snacking.  Yum!  I finished reading the Stella Rimington book I picked up in a charity shop.  It was a decent enough spy story, but rather dry and I won't be in a particular hurry to read any more of hers.  I'm about to begin the Barbara Kingsolver novel 'Flight Beha...
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Not another Bank Holiday?

  Bank Holiday's come thick and fast at this time of year, which - if you're stuck in an office job or a schoolkid - you think is wonderful.  Short working weeks and time to kick back and enjoy yourself.  We've sunshine and showers over this long weekend.  The rain's arrived at last, giving the plants a desperately needed drink.   The rainfall hasn't been heavy, so no chance of the water butts being refilled, but I'm still a happy gardener.  Everything's fresher after a shower of rain.  Greener and perked up. I love how the water's pooled on these Valerian leaves.   The foxgloves are in a range of colours from white to cream, pale pink and a more vivid shade.  The bees love these, and it's so much fun to watch them feeding, buzzing from one bloom to the next.  Crawling inside the tubular flowers, sometimes having to squeeze in if they're a particularly chubby bee.   There are a few purple aliums dotted around, threade...
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I'm still here ..

I haven't entirely deserted blogland, but have got out of the habit of posting anything lately.  I'm too easily diverted by sunny days and scrolling through Instagram and 'X'.  (Wish we could go back to the days of calling that Twitter.  Why trash a perfectly good brand name?)  Anyway, I'm here now, and just back from the allotment where I've been splashing water over wilting strawberry plants.  According to the BBC weather app we're due rain on Saturday, and if it falls you'll hear the sound of cheering from grateful gardeners and happy farmers all across the land!  On the crafty front, I've almost sewn together my Ann Wood stitchbook, just a couple more pages to go.  But I've mainly been obsessing over my new-found hobby of making junk journals and decorating them.   I'm making tags and journal cards and messing about with die cut butterflies and birds.  All a lot of fun and very absorbing.   At the moment I'm simply adding a...
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Will it ever rain again?

  Another sunny day, and it's amazing the countryside's so green & lush when we've not had more than the merest sprinkle of raindrops for the best part of two months.  I was hoping for a bumper crop of strawberries on my allotment, but the plants are desperately thirsty and I don't reckon I'll be scoffing bowlfuls of plump, juicy berries this year. But at least the foxgloves are almost ready to flower, and they've self-seeded everywhere.  It should be quite a show.   A couple of years ago, at least, I planted a packet of red clover seeds, and not a single one germinated.  Then, low and behold, look what's popped up.  The seeds must've been lying dormant until conditions suited them.   A patch of this also appeared.  I know it's a plant classed as a 'green manure' as it's good for the soil, but can't recall it's actual name.  However, it's a bee magnet.  They absolutely love it, and we've all got to do our bit to help t...
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