Hampton Court Flower Show and Bellowhead

On the weekend of 13 / 14 July,Ian's parents came to stay and Sheila and I went to Hampton Court Flower show. It was extremely hot so it was appropriate that there were several show garden featuring fire, the best in my opinion "Desolation to Regeneration which won a well deserved Gold in the Conceptual Gardens. I particularly liked how the transitions were managed and repetition of planting was used to good effect.

Also in the same category I like the clean lines of 'Clints and Grykes' referencing limestone pavement (thinking of the wild strawberries I've scoffed from Yorkshire examples)

Among the sculptural elements in gardens, the ones I coveted most were these metal artichokes and large colourful fibreglass leaves.

The colour of the moment seems to be black foliage, used in several gardens and I bought a black elder which I've long admired and hope to get some of the black angelica (above) which had spectacular flower heads.

This I bought (along with a 'hot lips' sage in the 'taste' marquee where besides lots of food items for sale they had cookery demonstations. Perhaps buttercream iceing wasn't the best thing to show on a hot day !! Lots of herbs and edible plants  like this'raised bed' .

On the Sunday we went with Sue and Peter to see 'Bellowhead' at 'Kew the Music' , taking food and wine for a shared picnic. It was a lovely atmosphere and we had  a very pleasant evening, Bellowhead were very lively and the support in Billy Bragg and a Scottish folk singer who's name escapes me were also excellent 

Sue took one of the nicest photos of Ian and I. Happy Days!

Orchid Events

Well here I am at Slapton at the start of my painting holiday, catching up with events from over a month ago so I can blog about my current work!
After a days indigo dyeing with Janice at Art Van Go , I went down to Bath and Gloucestershire for a couple of orchid related activities. Firstly to Writhlington School for the premiere screening of 'Plants Behaving Badly' for which I was filmed last year(wearing orchid earrings of course). Amazingly I hadn't ended up on the cutting room floor! The company is Panthenon, now Sky Vision and initially it's going to be shown in Germany where it was commissioned. Fancy dubbing David Attenborough who narrated it!

Writhlington is known for its orchid project, run by pupils , growing orchids for sale to fund trips to some amazing places where they train locals in propagation techniques. One of their most recent trips was to Rwanda (I couldn't resist supporting their work by buying some basketry) .

I was mainly interested in their lab facilities but they have a dedicated glasshouse where students were giving tours. I loved the colours of this Vanda.

After an excellent overnight stay in the Griffin Inn in Bath ( shame I didn't get back in time to sample the real ales , although when I mentioned that to the staff, they did offer me some beer for breakfast which I reluctantly declined) I headed off to see orchids of a different kind.

I spent a lovely morning in beautiful woodland pollinating flowers of the Red Helleborine and collecting leaf samples in bags of silica gel for DNA analysis.

Proms and Paper

Yesterday  we went to out first Prom of the season - a Saturday Matinee at the Cadogan Hall near Sloane Square . Sarah Connolly has an amazing mezzo voice,  singing in 'Pheadra's Frock' borrowed from the production at Glyndebourne.  Afterwards, as in previous years we went to the nearby  Saatchi Gallery, where Ian bought me a colourful pair of artists brush earrings to wear on my painting holiday next week! The exhibition on 'paper' was thought provoking: used in so many ways from large scale drawings of overlapping pieces;  collage; paintings  to puppets, papercuts and diverse sculptures

Trees featured heavily from 'branches' made of layers of newsprint to delicate paper-cuts from paper bags(  I'll never look at a McDonalds bag in quite the same way again)

The structure made of kites had the wow factor.

I would have liked to have had more time to look at the suspended city made of tracing paper but the gallery was closing  and we were racing round to have a glimpse of everything  before they chucked us out ( we have a bit of a track record in that regard!)

Strangest and most intriguing was this papier mache boulder attached to the wall suspending belief.

Garden Guests

With the  hot weather over the last few weeks, we've enjoyed eating out in the garden as much as possible, especially now we've bought a larger table. The garden is more and more jungle-like, the fig  has really taken off  now  the bay has been removed. Today we had  brunch with homemade potato cakes, bucks fizz and freshly roasted coffee ( green beans from Papua New Guinea roasted in a popcorn maker!)

I've been a bit puzzled why the Acanthus (bears breeches) has been doing so poorly, no flowers and full of holes. Early one morning I found out why - snailfest!! There were 10 snails on the plant, all quite different, all munching away!  They hadn't touched plants nearby like the strawberries and hellebores but obviously found these leaves delicious!

Other  visitors to our garden  are much more welcome! The oregano  flowered spectacularly this year and is attracting many types of insects: various bumble and honey bees, hover flies including this large hornet mimic. 

Even butterflies and moths. My herb bed is an endless source of pleasure - lovely to look at, marvellous smells , delicious ingredients and beloved of wildlife.

 

 

Book Bag and ipad mini cover

I usually make a card or quilted item each year for the College based sandwich student when they leave. This year Helen received 2 items using images based on her project work on endangered Madagascan orchid Angraecum protensum .
A few weeks ago during 'adult learners' week I did a talk at work  on printing on fabric using computer and as giveaways  ironed some images backed with bondaweb onto some cotton bags which proved very popular. So I used one of Helens own  SEM ( Scanning Electron Microscope) photos of orchid seeds, adding colour in Photoshop.

Building on my experience making  bookwraps, I also made a  slip cover for her ipad mini, using photos I'd taken of her plants in the lab as well as more colourised  SEM images.

I'd modelled it using my Google Nexus 7 , adding a bit extra in width and  it fits perfectly. I'm going to make one for myself now  with a pocket  for the keyboard and holder for my 'alupen' stylus.

Finally getting to grips with the Nexus - most of this post was written with it - the keyboard is a great help and I managed not to delete anything this time.
I'm hoping to do some blog posts on it when I'm down in Devon next week for my painting course at Slapton

Dusk Watercolours Week 1 - the struggle with materials

 After the hottest day of the year  spent stitching close to a fan, I nearly  finished my 'Mudflats' piece for FoQ and headed into town on a packed sweaty tube train to Central London for the first of my 'Dusk Watercolours' classes at City Lit. We spent most of the time practising colour mixing and mark making in  room 109 which appropriately had  interesting marks along the wall ( above). Although I'm pretty experienced in watercolours  it's good to have a refresher  and try different colour combinations (I've rather set in my ways!) and there's always something new: 'aquapasto' is now on my shopping list. Interesting work from the tutor Hilary Rosen too.

The next  day I got up at 5 to sew the facings, went into work for a meeting and connectivity testing of new finance system , returned home to pack up my quilts and took them to Islington to hand in. Then back on the tube to Embankment where the class met up for some 'pleine aire' painting. We walked over the bridge to the South Bank and  went up to the roof garden for a   views over the Thames.

I started painting the view down towards the Festival Pier  but the combination of tiredness after a long day; painting standing up; struggling with  the new large palette we'd been given up and not having enough water to rinse my brushes (we'd been told not to bring any as there would be plenty available) meant I was rather miserable and couldn't concentrate. There were masses of loud people around too, several peering over my shoulder at the disasters I was creating. The final straw was taking the top off a paint tube which spurted out coating my hands in a vile yellow colour. Luckily I'd brought baby wipes but I  took that as a sign to go to find the loo , wash my hands , fill up my water containers and find a more congenial spot.

 Such a different atmosphere down by the river - lots of  Window gardens  with benches and seating, gentle murmur of jazz and people talking quietly.  A half of Moor Black IPA and a piece of walnut cake  assisted in my mood and I spent the rest the evening comfortably painting badly

Next week Embankment Gardens and the Barbican. I'll be better prepared then!

PS - It's 11 pm and I'm writing this to the sounds of 'Silent Night' drifting in through the windows.  There's a film crew further down the road  finishing filming an Xmas episode of 'Citizen Khan' (Brentford standing in for Birmingham) . Supposedly minimum disruption limited to a small section of the road but it's affected the whole street with zealous security guards  restricting access . I think many of us will be complaining to Hounslow Council.

Sweltering Stitching

 

You'd have thought I'd learnt my lessons stitching to  a deadline in a heatwave in 2003 when  the temperature was the highest ever recorded in the UK at 38.1 C. But here I am again, stitching my FOQ entry in front of a fan so I can  deliver it  tomorrow (or maybe Tuesday....) . Most of the stitching  so far was done 2 weeks ago  listening to R5 commentary of Wimbledon Mens Final. Now it's 'My Family and Other Animals' on Audiobook . Finding indigo and sweat don't mix!!! At least  my other entry is finished, labelled, rolled, waiting it's bag.

Normal service on blogging will resume shortly -  lots to catch up with after a very busy few weeks: orchid site visits( and a film premiere); Hampton Court Flower show; Bellowhead; more indigo dyeing; international moss conference.
I've also  been getting to grips with my new tablet - have worked out how to load and reduce size of photos but my attempts at blogging resulted in deleting my post on RA Summer exhibition!!
Tomorrow I start my 'Dusk Watercolours' class at City Lit -preparation for another week of painting seascapes at Slapton in 2 weeks time.
Stay chilled!