“…splendor in the grass, glory in the flower.”

The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind
William Wordsworth

Notes on reaching mid-life ( if I live to be 90) :- My birthday this year was very special as I was whisked away in a hired camper van to spend three days in the lovely Lake District. We found some sneaky places to park for the night; places with views that money could not buy and better still…the sun shone! In fact the sun shone in a theatrical way; so that, on discovering a beautiful clearing by a stream it would burst through the clouds with a flourish and highlight the perfectness of the spot. Reaching the summit of Rannerdale Knotts or the Lion and the Lamb the sun would rake across the the craggy rocks and illuminate the velvet brown slopes in the distance, while I caught my breath and was fed a handful of nuts and raisins to “keep your strength up”!

As I sit in my kitchen, feeling sentimental, post holiday blues I can’t decide which moments were the most magical…the heavy scent of Bluebells and the heady coconut of Gorse in Rannerdale, the pair of Buzzards near Lancrigg,waking up at Blea Tarn where a pair of Chaffinches kept us company or walking through mossy woods, full of birdsong and pine cones. I could write for hours but I don’t want to bore you with my holiday snaps, I expect you’re wondering who won the Giveaway…

Well, I picked a winner just now and the lucky person who will receive a big parcel of gifts, including my one and only copy of the Blurb notebook is… Deb Beattie…THANK YOU for all the comments and link sharing everyone. If you send me your address Deb, I will go hotfoot, to the Post Office before the price of stamps goes up. Hurrah for Great Britain and the double dip recession!

Just had to show you this treasure trove of a secret art shop in the back of the Heaton Cooper Studio in Grasmere. I was quite lost in there, feeling textured papers and lusting after sketchbooks and paintbrushes. There was a case of pastels that came in wooden boxes, in sets of 6 ,and cost more than I earn in a week; so beautiful and almost edible…you’d have to be a very good artist to dare use them and never never leave them near small children! I feel inspired to draw, as I always am after spending time in the Lakes, despite the fact that landscape is not my forte.

I also managed to persuade Rupert to do the touristy thing and we “did” Dove Cottage. The smoke alarm went off just as we got there and I imagined the whole place burning to the ground as we stood there clutching our tickets, I’m afraid it made me giggle inappropriately. Its a dark and smoky place but beautiful none the less;if only there wasn’t a HUGE yellow sign saying “Tickets this Way” right smack bang in front of the door so taking a nice photograph was impossible.I also couldn’t stop thinking about Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in “The Trip” ( more giggling) and realising that I don’t know any of Wordsworth’s poems – heathen!

Now I must go and dust the shelves in my various virtual shops and hope that some customers can be tempted inside ( This cushion is now on From the Wilde). Also, the lovely Vine House where I work , is now on Twitter so if you do the Twitter thing it would be lovely if you popped over to say hello.

“Lift me Higher”

Today, while the chickens sunbathed outside the window, I recovered from the weekend by drawing kodatrace designs with Lindsey. We drank coffee, ate sponge fingers and tried to whistle the national anthem while laughing. I can’t wait to do some printing and I do need to plan my time well as you only get 3 hours; my usual scatter gun approach will have to be tamed ; especially as I really can’t waste any fabric ( not at £22 a meter!). Once printed I will be able to add embroidery, hopefully while lying on a chaise longue in the garden, under a parasol.

The critical phrase in that last paragraph was ” recovered from the weekend”…once that would have meant in a darkened room with a bucket of painkillers and a lavender compress; not any more my friends …

No, I love dark sweaty clubs, thumping bass,unsuitable footwear and all the vices that go with them but I have to admit you can’t beat looking out at the world from the top of a very tall hill to lift you higher…as it were. The heat of my MacBook is soothing my tired legs and I have absolutely no guilt about the chocolate bar I’m about to eat when I finish writing.Just somebody please smack me if I ever buy a pair of beige “ladies walking trousers” .

Yesterday’s adventure was truly beautiful, once the evil uphill bit had ended and I could breath again. The ridge from Hopegill Head to Whiteside was lovely, despite the snow which fell from a clear sky and seemed to float upwards in a most dizzying way. On the way down ( known as the descent to fell walking types with beige trousers… ) I bounced over hummocks of springy moss and felt as though I could walk for ever.We cooled our feet in the icy beck with banks full of tiny violets (only visible to people who were starting to want to lie down)  and within moments of getting back in the car I was nearly asleep; so much for walking forever.

I have yet to spot a red squirrel but I did see and hear a wild raven for the first time, initially assuming it was Rupert making rude noises! I had only ever seen those at the Tower of London; poor city birds who must stay confined or, it is said, the Tower will fall.

Huge and enormously grateful and shy THANK YOUs to all the  people who have stopped by lately and been so kind and encouraging. In the spirit of random sharing here are some lovely people and places I’ve discovered recently… Bruce Hardy ( stunning pictures of the Lakes), Maricor/Maricar ( embroidery ), Les Ours d’Uzes ( in French so I’m luckily not able to buy everything on these pages and run about pretending to be in Wuthering Heights. French textiles and fashion …and les Ours means bears doesn’t it?)

Reading “Wild Olives” William Graves

“Reasons to be cheerful…”

Even the cat was sulking.

This morning I was woken, not by my alarm ( which I had set for the wrong time and day) but by a huge clap of thunder which shook the house and also woke Sara who needed to be on a train within the hour. Drawing the curtains revealed sideways snow and a fairly decent covering of white; good grief, what is going on with the weather this spring?! We did make it to the station and I waved goodbye to my lovely daughter as she embarks on the last few weeks of her Art Foundation Course. I am very proud of how hard she’s been working and even prouder that she has offers from both Bristol and Leicester to do a degree in Illustration.

I’ve been getting myself into a grumpy state, wondering why my attempts to drum up support by social networking never seem to reap the same rewards as others doing similar things. In fact I got home from work last night exhausted and sulked in the bath, planning a whole new (anonymous) blog called “Bitter Lemons” or something ,where I would rant about Damien Hirst, The National Park, the price of heating oil and the evils of craft fairs. And then I had an epiphany…I had set my painfully slow internet to load a page while I was in the bath, not Facebook or Twitter but a favorite blog written by a lovely creative person on the other side of the world …

Katy Keuter had been to something called Artfest where she took part in various workshops and generally had FUN being creative. The joy in her descriptions of Artfest were infectious and moving and by this morning I had come to the conclusion that what I value most is passion,originality and art with a soul. Give me Tracey Emin over Damien Hirst any day! I have therefore decided that I will draw the winner of my Giveaway on my birthday, April 23rd.In the spirit of Bilbo Baggins I shall GIVE gifts to celebrate rather than demanding anything in return ( except of course you have to leave a comment or I won’t know who you are). One of the things Katy was asked to do in her workshops was draw something from her childhood: it was quite revealing and I felt moved to show you this funny little etching I did when I was about 11…

I think I had become a bit obsessed with “The Moon Stallion”, a children’s TV series from the 1970s, so there are moon symbols everywhere( no horses weirdly) and what must have been my dream home back then. Like Katy it is quite eerie how my childhood drawings have some strong connections to my adult reality – the house looks just like Witchmountain, even down to the big oak tree.Spooky.
So,I’ve had a few setbacks this week ( the National Park aren’t keen on my plans) but I’ve also had lots of reasons to be cheerful; one of them being this…

Well, not quite this but one very much like it. Sometimes the generosity of people is humbling and I’d like to thank Graham and Toni again for giving me the beautiful Heartland Sweetheart woodburning stove that is sitting in the shed waiting to be brought back to life. I’m going to be taking inspiration from this blog I think, it looks like I may need some advice from a kindred spirit!When its fitted I shall welcome power cuts and fill the house with the smell of bread and woodsmoke, I shall look like this…

However mean the NYM National Park are with planning ( sticks bottom lip out) they at least have good taste in artists and I was excited to receive my invitation to this celebratory exhibition. It runs from May 13th- July 17th at the Danby Moors Center. Will you be going?

Conclusion:- Quality not Quantity, Soul not just Sales Talk, Generosity not Greed. I hereby swear to be less bitter and draw more bears. *******THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR EXTREMELY KIND COMMENTS **********

 

Are We There Yet?

Well goodness, I don’t know where to start with this week’s ramblings; its all been a bit of an epic struggle with moments of gallows humour thrown in! I had planned to pick Sara up from Leicester to take her down to Bristol for her art college interview at the university; a long drive but a good excuse to visit my brother and have a few days exploring the West Country with my lovely daughter. All went to plan on the first leg of the journey as I happily drove along, giggling to  a CD of “Just William” stories ; arriving in time for a quick browse around the museum (mostly this seemed to be about the sock industry)  before meeting small daughter and embarking on stage two…Leicester to Chippenham.

Oh, the joy of Satnav! After an hour or so we arrived back at our starting point and had to start again. Cheering with relief when we eventually got on the right road we promptly broke down in the middle of the biggest roundabout I’ve ever had the misfortune to go around. In fact this was junction 21 of the M1 and it was rush hour. I won’t bore you with the details but rescue involved being towed, terrifyingly, miles in the wrong direction (due to a “helpful” motorist pushing the car off the roundabout and on to the motorway slip road), abandoning the car at a garage in Leicester and rushing to the station where I spent the price of a small package holiday to Greece,on train tickets. Three trains and several million hours later we arrived in Bath where my lovely brother was waiting for us in a car that moves.

In the end we had a good time, Sara’s interview went well ; possibly due to some anti discrimination rule because the receptionist mistook me and Lisa ( my brother’s girlfriend) for Sara’s lesbian parents! And I have returned to Witchmountain feeling very proud and happy to have spent some quality time in the company of my family.This, and the unbelievably beautiful weather, is temporarily cushioning me from the horrendous financial implications of the trip.I have already warned Rupert that I can no longer afford razor blades,hair dye or moisturizer so he must prepare himself for the troll I shall soon become!

Poor in monetary terms but a millionaire in others. Look at the sun on those furry Pasque flowers and the light on those old glass bottles…( see, furry old things can be beautiful!!)   I also returned home to find this beautiful piece of original artwork had arrived by surprise, all the way from Australia. Jo had asked me for some hints on the techniques I use and this was her thank you card. Thank you Jo.

So, in all the chaos and excitement I almost forgot to mention that I am now a fully paid up member of From the Wilde and you can now buy these digitally printed purses as well as the cushions  there. I’m hoping to have a day at CCAD’s print club soon to print some new designs for baby shoes exclusively for From the Wilde.                                                                                                                        Well, its time I went and had a big bath after a day of seed planting and pumpkin potting. I hope the sun shone on you this weekend and that the week ahead is full of good things.Should you be traveling I wish you all the very best of luck x

Listening To:- Jesca Hoop ( sitting in for Guy Garvey on 6music) Reading :- I was reading Lisa’s copy of this at the weekend “Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee” its on my wishlist

Artistic Licence

The sun is streaming through the kitchen windows ( highlighting the fact that they need cleaning) and on the sill my blue coffee pot is full of the first daffodils and willow catkins of Spring. The moment between seasons has always excited and unsettled me ; as Winter deposits me,slightly dazed from semi hibernation, on the doorstep of Spring  it feels like a clunky old machine has shuddered into life,rusty cogs and levers setting in motion another trip around the sun.

Well, enough introspection. last week my dad gave me this very beautiful engraving, which he had originally bought for his parents on an art school trip,in minute letters ( honestly the artist’s eyesight must have been incredible)  it says “Borrowdale from the Bowder Stone“(actually looking closely I now realise it says “Burrowdale”).This weekend we went in search of the viewpoint from which it was drawn but could see only this…

A terrifying ladder lead to stone polished like glass where I sat, (I could not stand!) and took this picture. It shows Nitting Haws and no lake or river, so we decided it must be a composite landscape, invented by the artist. The rest of the day was not the best for photographs, flat ,milky skies and fine, misty drizzle ;but nothing can ever really spoil the beauty of it all, not even the second hand pair of boots that began to feel like wooden clogs and a biting wind on the summit of High Spy that meant people were fighting for shelter on the leeward side of the summit cairn.We huddled behind a rock overlooking beautiful Borrowdale and shared a pasty and a “brick” of flapjack from the market in Keswick.

Lately I find myself hankering after a good camera, after seeing some of the pictures taken by a school friend of my son. Jake has been experimenting with HDR photography and getting some really good results, partly inspired by Joe Burn and his amazing shots of VW camper vans and local landscapes;at the risk of sounding massively patronizing, its so good to see young people with creative talent.

So now it is time to fire up the coffee pot and start up a production line ,as I realise I don’t have long before the Baron’s Vintage Fair on the 11th of March. I’ve been getting in the mood by washing all my precious antique lace and styling this mini photoshoot to show off the newest bear cushion- this one features Ursa Major and some lovely blue cyanotype. The photograph is a collection of family heirlooms…the blanket made for my parents wedding by my Great Grandma, my mum’s copy of Alice in Wonderland and my daughter’s teddy wearing a jumper I made for her while I was pregnant!I hope these cushions will become somebody’s precious heirlooms one day.

Have a lovely week every one, and don’t forget the competition on the previous post ends on March 1st;  your comments have been really useful so far, thank you.

Reading:”Goodbye to all That” Robert Graves   Listening To: Spring birdsong and something in the washing machine that shouldn’t be there……

Diamond Days in the North York Moors

I’ve been thinking about the importance of landscape recently, how surroundings affect mood, motivation and even character.So, while my latest creations rest, half finished , on the table next to me I thought I’d share a personal love story about the North York Moors. It may seem strange to those of you who know me as someone who lives in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by sheep and solitude, but I actually spent the first 14 years of my life in London. Visits to Grandparents in “The North Riding”  were idyllic and now seem tinted with that golden, over exposed hue of 1970′s photographs- Flying box kits on the moor, building dams in the River Esk, gritty picnics on Sandsend beach and jumping out of the car to drink icy water from a moorland spring and to breath in the sharp brackeny air at Goathland after a long , cramped, car journey from the South.

So the landscape kind of seeps into your bones and now, much as I love my trips to the city ,and proudly claim to be a Londoner, North Yorkshire has become a place of deep roots and family history, in the same way as  a tree grows angled by the prevailing wind I am now more more shaped by the North than the South!

This year is the 60th anniversary of the North York Moors National Park and I’m getting quite excited by a new exhibition this Summer that will include works by 5 artists including Joe Cornish, William Tillyer and Len Tabner whose work is all connected by a love of the North York Moors. Obviously ,for me, the work of William Tillyer has almost become my default way of seeing the moors around me, the atmospheric skies in particular, and is one reason why I never attempt to paint landscape!

The exhibition will include a re-issue of “The Furnished Landscape” , a  series of photographs which now document a lost way of life. Who can remember milk stands at the end of each farm lane? Some things don’t change though, the honey scented air when the heather is purple in August, the lichen covered drystone walls,wild garlic and bluebells in the woods in spring, curlews calling mournfully while the lapwings threaten to dive bomb anyone who comes too close to their nest.

Have I tempted you to visit this beautiful part of England? If you came between August 8th and September 16th you could also visit the Dutch House, where I will be having a little exhibition! And better still, my lovely friend Sam runs a fabulous website which gives you just about all the information you might need to plan your escape to the North in your very own North Yorkshire cottage!

So, it’s time to return to the sewing and the sketchbook after losing myself in a little journey around Gods Own Country. After singing its praises so much I think I’d better get my boots “Dubbined” and go for a bit of fresh air tomorrow!

A Girl in Winter

We are a funny lot, us English folk,we moan about the weather constantly, especially in Winter,yet I can’t ever remember snow causing so much excitement and anticipation. There was such an accurate advance warning and since it was the weekend there seemed to be hardly any of the usual doom and gloom about stranded motorists and travel chaos.Exchanging pine cones and seaweed for Twitter and Radio4,I was able to work out that I had just enough time to dash in to Helmsley for the paper and a quick rummage in the charity shops before getting back exactly as the first flakes drifted half heartedly down.

I  do so love being snowed-in  and with everyone away I was all alone in my little fantasy world…perhaps those footprints belong to a bear? Perhaps I will jump on his back and fly East of the Sun and West of the Moon? This stone in the field reminded me of a scene in The Owl Service and if I lined myself up properly my house was perfectly framed in the circle. The rest of the time I sewed and listened to murder mysteries on the radio, read the papers and baked bread, feeling all the while that I NEED this. In the same way that some seeds need to be left out in the frost in order to germinate, or that some people need to give up booze for a month; snowed-in-ness is my January detox ( in February).

Part of my feeling of outrageous contentment comes from working on something which I am actually really proud of. This cushion was a special commission and the brief was so open that I wasn’t really looking forward to it. I had to make a cushion that would really be a piece of art, for someone who wasn’t allowed to hang paintings on their walls.

I couldn’t have wished for more perfect conditions to photograph my newly finished polar bear cushion and I’m so pleased with it, in all its recycled wool and soft pom-pom edged glory! Resting on a piece of lovely vintage linen I found in the charity shop (along with a huge bag of assorted lace, tapestry wool and teddy bear fur) I think it sums up all that I love about Winter and also put me in mind of some beautiful mood boards and photoshoots by What Katy Did Next and Vicky Trainor,as well as Issue 43 of Selvedge Magazine.

I must leave you now as I’m supposed to be trying to make stock for this fair in March and I already have two new bear cushions waiting for their embroidery details,as well as a pile of purses and prints to finish. I hope you enjoyed the snow, if any landed near you, and I wish you a very happy new week from Witchmountain.

Reading:- The last chapter of “IQ84 ” Haruki Murakami  Listening To:- ” New Blood” Peter Gabriel, ” Odelay” Beck. Singing:- “Oh England, My Lionheart” Kate Bush (because I can when I’m alone!).

Happy Wedding Anniversary this week to the Tillyer parents, inspirational, unusual and generally wonderful.

 

Drawing and Dreaming

Well its been an eventful few days. My wish came true and the fog was blown away by gales ; which also blew away chunks of peeling paint and bits of the window frames. Its ok, no real damage and anyway, the insides of the windows are all neat and freshly painted…you can’t even tell which bits are actually held together with scrumpled up Guardian newspapers and wood filler.

This weekend I helped Kev and Viv of ArtVanGo set up and take down, their stand at the Knitting &Stitching Show in Harrogate.It was hard work but even harder work resisting the urge to buy one of everything.Mountains of pristine sketchbooks and papers, racks of paints and dyes the colour of precious jewels, bottles of mysterious potions and brand new virgin silk screens. ArtVanGo also run a stand called Artists in Action where you can see …erm….artists in action, and talk to them about techniques, materials and so on. I was sorry to miss Dionne Swift ( who got me the job), but I did meet Ruth Issett who was demonstrating mixed media techniques ( here is a video from a previous year ) and who has written quite a few books on the subject. Jill Flower was another artist who specialises in textile applications on paper, making intricate lacey pieces inspired by Elizabethan ruffs.

Well, I was tempted in to buying the new issue of Selvedge Magazine , mostly because the cover fitted so perfectly with my idealised vision of Witchmountain, I would love to swan about in vintage lace and cozy wool with my pack of huskies and a few tame polar bears, before returning to my roaring fire to drink brandy coffee and eat turkish delight…oh hang on… I AM sitting by a roaring fire, drinking coffee and obviously when I next look in the mirror I’ll look just like the model in the pictures!

So, I’ve also been busy with this year’s Sketchbook Project and really enjoying using a combination of pen and ink with cyanotype.The subject is “Tears and Fears” but I’m being quite vague about it. I wish I had been able to afford some of those lovely inks and things from ArtVanGo but to be honest I don’t know what half of then are for! My other treat was a pack of inkjet printable cotton which will be used for making some more little wallets, probably, and a skein of beautiful orange wool which I’m trying to knit yoga socks with!!! ( no pattern and little patience)

Now I must leave you to do something productive, it is hard to set my mind to one task and tempting to go outside and do some strimming while the weather holds. This time last year I was snowed in, I feel quite nostalgic for those sparkly days of ice and isolation.

I’m sure there was more I wanted to tell you but it really is time to make more coffee and set up the sewing machine. Oh, but I just wondered, what is Cyber Monday?

A Stolen Day

Another week begins on Witchmountain and I’m feeling cautiously optimistic; actually I’m feeling on top of the world but I’m really superstitious about shouting about it.  Other times I’ve said “Hurray, things are great just now” only to almost immediately loose internet connection, stub my toe, dye all the washing blue or receive a huge pile of bills in the post. Well, anyway, I’m feeling inspired, I’ve been out for a walk and done some gardening and its still morning so I have an afternoon of making and hopefully drawing to look forward to.

I’m really hoping those chemicals for making cyanotypes arrive today, and the labels to sew into my new wallets. Then I need to sort out my tax return and give some more thought to “target markets” and new places to sell things.

We went to the Lake District this weekend. At last, after a summer of disappointing weather we caught a near perfect day, stolen from fast approaching winter and as usual I have returned with cobwebs blown away and some lovely memories to inspire me.

The first thing that I wanted to show you is this amazing house, Rigg Beck . The  original Purple House  burned down in 2008 after a facinating history which included visits from poets, artists and actors. I’m not sure whether the new building is a private house or not but it certainly fits perfectly within its surroundings, even the flat roof is planted with moorland and alpine plants, while the curve of the main slate roof echos the summit of Causey Pike beyond.Proof that new buildings needn’t clash with the landscape in such sensitive and beautiful areas as the Lakes.

After our  attack on the summits of Causey Pike and Scar Crags I stumbled back to the car feeling like I had one leg shorter than the other and was desperate for tea and a cosy sit down. Rupert was probably desperate for me to stop moaning about all my various aches and pains too, so we made hot foot to Temporary Measure in Keswick . I just LOVE this place and it made my day to meet Emma and finally get to have that tea and cake I’ve been promising myself since I first saw the shop last year.

Have a look at the website and you will see the squashy sofa we sat on while enjoying this huge floral pot full of tea and the most delicious ginger fudge cake ( I’d earned it after all that walking and no butter for a week!) Then of course, being a sucker for bears I had to buy this small canvass which means I now have to stop typing and get back to the drawing board, or the sewing machine or whatever will be most likely to bring home the (veggie) bacon.

Oh, I almost forgot, I signed up for the Sketchbook Project again yesterday; late as usual so I’ll be panicking, but really looking forward to when it comes to London for the first time next year. Who else is taking part? Send me a link to your profile so we can compare notes ?

 

Red Shoes

The Red Shoes

Day Three of my new leaf thing finds me up and about EARLY IN THE MORNING and already I’ve been for a walk! A sparkling October morning, dotted with berry jewels and gauzy spider webs.Finding my neighbour’s postbox too small to fit the egg box in, I had to go right down to the house and take the track through the fields ,immediately cursing that I’d decided not to bring my phone and therefore had no camera. Oh, and when I had to do a spot of impromptu bouldering , clinging to a drystone wall, I wished I’d brought my wellies and could just trudge through the muddy slurry that was threatening to be my morning bath!

Sneaking up on Basil

So, I must admit I’m feeling much more positive than I was on Monday and not a drop of butter has crossed my lips! My kitchen table is set out with the components of several new wallets, ready to be sewn up and printed as soon as I’ve stopped waffling on to you. Three small canvasses with cyanotype prints and stitch are drying on the windowsill and the coffee pot is beckoning.

Owl Box and Reflected Light

Yesterday I ordered some chemicals to make cyanotypes on fabric and I’m really excited about trying out the process when the package arrives. At the moment I’m collaging the paper prints I’ve made using Sun Print Paper but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to use the chemicals not only on fabric but directly on to canvasses.

Hedgerow Flowers, Shadows and Reflections

At the risk of sounding like a compulsive shopper I’m also waiting excitedly for the postman to bring my copy of the shiny new Haruki Murakami novel “1Q84″.Murakami famously gets up at 4am, writes until 9am and then spends the rest of the day relaxing and training for marathons! Obviously he is my new role model!

Now I have to confess, I spent ages writing this, this morning, only for WordPress to go a bit crazy and refuse to recognise me or let me publish it. I’ve also ruined my best and favorite shirt and got in a bad mood with the sewing machine….oh dear, sometimes I think you can start the day TOO positive.

I hope Autumn is good where you are and you have a good book to read?

Reading: “Moomin Papa at Sea” Tove Jansson   Listening to: Radio4 and a very loud buzzing coming from this computer……