Bee Happy

Happy Mothers Day(in the UK) - For those who are Mothers and for those who are either (as I am) remembering Mums, or celebrating with their Mums!

 I have one last page to enter at Art Journal Journey for Jo's 'Hello Spring' theme.

This page celebrates the bees that we saw on the plants at Dunham the other day.
Made onto a background page in my journal!
Thanks Jo for such a cheerful theme, I had loads more pages in my head but sadly that's where they stayed!

There's also a reminder of the Hochanda Crafty Individuals show this afternoon 3.00pm BST.
Here is a sneaky peek of a couple of my cards

The new stamps really are amazing and my teamies have made the most wonderful samples!

Dashing off to church now and then for a picnic with my family!

Thanks for looking, Chris

I do it my way!!!

My caravan garden that is....as a daughter of a professional gardener I was brought up to keep borders neat and tidy. My Dad was forever weeding, planting, sewing seeds, pruning and many of the other jobs that kept our garden the one in the road that used to get admirers walking along for a look!

I remember when I got my first garden and my Dad came along to visit and threw his hands up in horror! Although I had neat rows of vegetables and a little flower bed, around the edges of the garden I had let the wild flowers run free!
He knew of my love of wild flowers as I had often pleaded with him to leave 'pretty' weeds alone in his garden!!!

I made a page for Jo's 'Hello Spring' theme at Art Journal Journey.

I used a Paper Artsy Hot Picks stamp onto some paper I had coloured using Distress Oxides as I didn't want the flowers lost on the background. I had made the background on the page using paint applied with my fingers then blended with the aid of a damp sponge, to this I added some grunge paste mixed with Fresco paint through a script stencil.
The little flowers are PA's Tracy Scott's and the little seed type stamps are JOFY ones as is the quote that I edited slightly!

As promised here are some pics of my garden at the weekend.
I was delighted to see the Glory of the Snow as we drove up. There seems to be even more this year.

I did manage to dead-head the hydrangea which I had wanted to do the last time we visited but it was too cold and rainy!

I also pulled out some ivy that is creeping from the hedge around the base of the plants.

 The lilac leaves are appearing - I hope there are lots of flowers!

17th March

24th March 

Hubby chopped the Buddleia back, as you can see in the previous pic, it was threatening to spoil our view.

There are still lots of daffodils and Hyacinth growing.

They are looking a bit wind battered now though!

We are lucky to have lots of bird visitors.

The Goldfinches love the Niger seeds..

The Blackbird and the starling had their eye on the coconut!

...and there are plenty of sparrows flying around the feeders!

We also had a little visitor eating the grass..

The flowers on the decking are still doing quite well too!

What you can't see, although if you click and see the pics enlarged, are the lack of tidying my borders, there are forget-me-nots, aquilegia, bluebells and poppies still to come and I will allow a few buttercups to flower too!

So, am I being lazy? I don't think so, I will cut back any straggling stems and keep the shrubs neat looking, but I do like my little wilderness! 

I am lucky that the warden will keep the grass down!!!

I hope you enjoyed this look at my pride and joy!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands For.........trying times!!

Hi everyone! Apologies if I didn't visit last T Day! I confess that there is no excuse just a succession of events that prevented me from getting organised! 
Last Tuesday we wanted to see 'Fisherman's Friends'(for those not in the UK, Fisherman's Friends are a folk group mainly comprised of fishermen) In the first of this couple of links you will see them at an awards ceremony. In this one you will also find a link to the film that has been made about their rise to fame as well as other links.
The journey was not as we planned and we ended up with some long waits for public transport, by the time we got back my leg was really hurting!

On Wednesday I had an Ultra-sound scan on my knee. 
It was the first sunny day we had had for a while so afterwards we decided to go to Dunham for lunch and a short stroll(about all my knee would let me do)It was lovely to be outdoors and without a coat!
Most of the following photos were taken by hubby who has allowed me to use them!!!

The Snakeshead Fritillary has the most amazing patterns on it's petals

 You may guess that these have been mine...hubby takes much better close ups than me!

 This Mistle Thrush was entertaining the whole garden - we heard him long before we saw him!

The Crown Imperial Fritillary seem to be little early (someone will know..wink!)

He didn't take this next one though!
This is my T day shot so that I can join Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T Stands For Tuesday!

We both had Tuna jacket potatoes with coleslaw...and water to drink.
He was just putting the bill away and as you can see I got THAT look!!!!

We went up to our caravan on Thursday and hubby has rather hogged the laptop trying to book our trains for the Summer!

More sheep were let out into the lower field yesterday - I think lambing time could be getting closer
I will show you some photos of the garden another time!

I did find that short alternate resting and gentle exercise has been helping my knee get better....I'm hoping it hurries up!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Believe that Spring is here!!

Hi everyone! Sorry about the long absence...everything seems to happen at once!!!

I have finished my samples for Crafty Individuals and made some little journal pages, and then yesterday we decided to stay an extra night at our caravan so I had time to make another page for Jo's 'Hello Spring' theme at Art Journal Journey.

I had some magazine bits and pieces, some images from ArtTeaLife and some birds and a butterfly cut from some charity shop books.

I stamped some wildflowers using a Crafty Individuals stamp and some words from a Lindsay Mason set. I also extended the branch on one of the trees. 'Believe' was stamped three times using a stamp that I can't credit!!

I'll be back soon for T Stands For Tuesday! Oh! and I'm back on catch up!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Say It With Flowers

We are starting our new topic at Try It On Tuesday just as the weather forecast says it's going to be warmer soon. We are going to 'Say It With Flowers' this time. 
Of course it will be Mothers Day here in the UK before the end of the challenge so I'm sure we will see lots of cards, but your entry can be any way you choose to represent this theme!

I have made a Get Well card. I used Crafty Individuals stamps, my favourite background stamp and some flowers and grasses.
I added a few more faux spatters from the stamp around the flowers.
I think the rain is getting to me!!!

I hope you will check out the DT's inspiration samples, we are all looking forward to seeing how you interpret this theme.

Thanks for Looking, Chris

T Stands For...the Mill at Farfield

Hi everyone! We spent some time at our caravan for a long weekend! It was wet and very windy so we decided to go somewhere where we could stay indoors! You may remember we have visited this mill before several times, I even attended a workshop there a few years ago.
It is a working mill but also has artist's studios, weaving looms set up to be used by a local group of weavers, a cafe and a museum.
There weren't many artist working on Friday but their spaces are often open for viewing.

 I have storage envy!!

In the centre are stands for local artists too! 

This space alone is enough to make me happy but I had read in the local paper that there were two exhibitions on that hubby might like too, fortunately  I was right, and he also found a video to watch about the local area.

The first was a collection of paintings by Andrew Burns Colwill.
He had some of his work painted onto old doors and abandoned pieces of wood but the most fascinating thing about his paintings were the hidden depths to his works. Here is a link to his website.

The there exhibition was by James Owen Thomas a young man who creates art by using discarded scratch cards. Here is a link to an article about him.

After talking to a lady who was setting up her loom we headed to the cafe and I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth for Tea Stands For Tuesday

Only just - you can see the edges of our glasses of water to the right of the pic! We had delicious Bean and Tomato Soup and shared some bread and some cheese and onion sandwiches.Hubby had just had a first taste!

Afterwards we went to visit the Museum floor. As we walked through to the lift(elevator)we stopped to watch the warping loom in action.The operator is only here on Fridays and Saturdays so we were lucky! 

I think more than one of you may spend some time looking at this!!!

Yes, Elizabeth and Kathy I do mean you!!! 

The following loom is behind glass and the photos I took are too dreadful to show anything!

The museum floor has lots of things still remaining from the mill's working days

Finally, in one of the display areas someone had a journal open...

... and some fantastic inspiration!!

As we left the sun was trying to shine but by the time we reached Killington Lake Services the skies were looking very moody so we pulled in to take some photos!

The next day, Saturday, it rained all day so I had some crafting time and we watched a couple of films - bliss!!

Thanks for looking, Chris