Earrings

When I met Margaret of forrestfishings.co.uk at Kirkcudbright, who makes the classy feather earrings, I told her I made earrings too and that I had a blog. BUT, there aren't many earrings on my blog, so I've made a new Earrings page (see the Pages list on the right).This some of my current stock, and I'll add more as I make new batches.

Grasmere

Joan from the Art club organised an outing to Grasmere, to see the annual Lake Artists exhibition.
Some really good paintings, none of which I'm allowed to reproduce, and I was glad to see some high-class ceramics too, from  Geoff and Christine Cox (the organisers of Potfest) and Annie Peaker.
It was a grey day, so I failed to get great photos of the magnificent surrounding scenery, but here's a flavour.

Oops, I managed to get in on a wedding!

I had a nice lunch here, friendly staff.

Jackdaws were everywhere.

Kircudbright Art & Crafts Trail

On August 5th I went with Marlene and Mo to Kirkcudbright for the annual Art and crafts trail (www.artandcraftstrail.co.uk).
The weather was good and we went to every venue that had jewellery and/or textiles.
While I was a bit disappointed with the quality of some of the jewellery and textiles, I had some good conversations, and there were some things that caught my eye.
I had good chats with Lizzie Farey (willow weaving), Robert Dabner (photography), two people from the Stewartry Camera club, and Margaret Forrest (feather earrings) and her cousin.
And a big thankyou to Joanna McLeman Gisbey (www.jocolour.com), for convincing me that it's OK to work in several different media rather than just one.
And an even bigger thankyou to Mo and Marlene for being patient when I stopped to chat . . .

In Broughton House garden

One of the many little alleyways

Potfest in the Park

On July 26th we made our annual visit to Potfest in the Park, at Hutton-in-the-Forest.

Richard Godfrey from Devon

Mary Kershaw http://www.rjamesstudio.co.uk/

Gwen Bainbridge http://www.gwenbceramics.co.uk

Sorry, can't remember who made this huge fish

I bought this raku pot from Chris Hawkins http://www.chris-hawkins.co.uk/

Aberdeenshire

On June 22nd to 29th we went for a week to Aberdeenshire, where there are a great many castles. We stayed in a very nice barn conversion on a farm, with glorious views of rolling farmland.

This ancient stone we came across during a walk in the Muir of Dinnet nature reserve:

We came across oystercatchers in all the castle gardens:

 

And it was the season for the Himalayan poppies:

This was a pretty paving pattern at Pitmedden Castle garden

 

Pitmedden has a famous and old formal garden with box hedging patterns:

 Crathes has a beautiful garden too, but very expensive as there isn't a garden-only ticket!

Vinca was not pleased!

Vinca left us on the Tuesday, from Stonehaven.

This is Stonehaven harbour.

More walking, in the Glen Tanar Nature reserve, with resident wildlife:

Then more castles with gardens.

 This is at Drum castle, which was lovely inside and out. 

Hugh liked the giant garden seat.

 Many aquilegias, and this interesting woven willow tunnel.

This is many-turreted Castle Fraser.

 On the way back we took the scenic route over Cairn O' Mount.

Some very fit cyclists were practising for the Tour de France?

And as usual we bought a plant on the way home, from Dobbies at Stirling.

This is a patio rose called Designer Sunset and has a strong perfume.

University of Cumbria Art degree show

On June 11th I went to the Brampton Road campus to see the degree show. As usual, I headed for the textiles. I was much taken with one graduate's rust dyeing:

 and the furniture in the same room:

while outside I spotted this floral pattern: