A Spring bunch

Here's a spring bouquet for you. Primroses from our tiny garden.
Ricardo swears primroses have a scent but I don't seem to be able to smell anything from them. What say you fellow blog readers?

I've had a great week this past week with my second corset class on Monday (I promise I'll put up some photos really soon) then an exciting whirlwind trip to London to meet up with Ms Earwig sandwich herself Lulu Labonne.(Sorry about the blurr factor)
Here's Lulu's great shot that she took in the mirror at the V&A.
If you've never read her exciting exploits, get thee hence but get a cup of tea and a bikkie first, you'll be transfixed by her adventures. We met at the V & A and even though it's one of my most favourite places in the world, I was reluctant to explore as Lulu and I had a lifetimes worth of catching up to do. We did manage to see the Great Bed of Ware though.I also had a cushion sale at a private house in Norwich which went rather well and has inspired me to hop to it and MAKE MORE CUSHIONS. This fabulous Obi came last week and has been calling to me to make it up into new treasure.

Walsingham III

Today at the last minute, we had an outing to Walsingham with our friends David, Kate and Cuthbert (seen here with ladybird) and our Godson Humphrey.
It was bloody freezing but we soldiered on with our picnic.Every year they have a spectacular display of snowdrops in amongst the ruins of the Priory. We had the place almost to ourselves as the carpet of flowers usually only goes til the end of February but because it's been such a cold winter they are a couple of weeks late and are hanging on. Here's your first sight of them. Imagine trying to recreate this scene? Even if you had millions of pounds to spend, you could not replicate it.
I wonder can you use the inside of a crocus to colour risotto like saffron? It's SO yellow.
The ruins of the Abbey are like some fabulous folly. Someone had left a little 'Our Lady' in a niche.
This bridge called the Pack horse bridge was originally on the main road to Norwich. The stream underneath was crystal clear.

As far as you can see are snowdrops and the odd yellow Aconite. Occasionally you may get to see that rare bird, Ricardo (not feeling his usual self today though still as handsome as ever)


The perfect spot for a wood nymph.
Walsingham has a rare and strange air. This neglected windowsill sums it up really. It's one of the reasons I love going. It's like a tourist destination that time forgot.
After tea and toilets it was time for a quick look at the third "T" at Walsingham. TAT. There are a couple of shops which sell second hand ecclesiastical stuff and well worth a look, especially if you're with the Rev.

Look at this absolute beauty. Dark pink silk satin with padded gold embroidery.
Only £600. A bloody bargain if you ask me.

Kerry's stole

These are pictures of a stole I've just finished for our dear friend Kerry who lives in sunny Coogee in Sydney, Australia. Kerry has become an interfaith minister, so she can now hatch, match or dispatch anyone of any faith. Pretty cool huh. We ummed and ahhed about the design on the stole for ages, would we try to incorporate a whole lot of different symbols or would we try and find just one that covered everything. A hard task indeed. Then we hit upon the phoenix. Of course, it all suddenly made sense. Kerry sent me the gold kid leather and the beautiful silk satin in this fabulous red.
It took ages and a very sharp scalpel to cut out not one but two exactly matching birds.
I couldn't find a good fringe anywhere so decided to make my own. Then it needed some sparkle.
Here is the fringe taking shape with small clear crystal beads with gold interiors for that essential sparkle.
Here's the fringe on the windowsill, on what seemed like the first sunny day this decade, with my pincushion collection. (Does 2 count as a collection?) and some gorgeous pom poms that I bought last summer in France and can't decide what the hell to do with yet.
Carefully attaching the tassel strip to the stole

All done and dusted and now winging its way to Australia. Bon voyage my precious.

A walk in the woods

It's still freezing cold here, and even though we should be at the boat sanding and polishing on a Saturday, it was sunny and time for a long walk to try and bump up our vitamin D intake.There is always a huge display of yellow winter aconites on the way to one of our favourite spots. A carpet of spring promise and more than I've ever seen there before.
West Harling Church, stands in a field and is always peaceful and beautiful in any weather.
There are snowdrops appearing in tender spots.
this amazing fungus was growing on an old tree and bright pumpkin yellow in the sun.
After going round the Church we veered off on a path through the woods to find lots of snowdrops.
...and a slice of tree slightly older than me.
It was the middle of the day but every puddle was still frozen in a different design.
This collage of leaves and grass and frost would make a wonderful wallpaper.

Baby it's mighty cold out there.

Operation Buns-o-steel has begun again and I've been on a bike ride around my usual 8 mile circuit for the last 4 mornings and 2 last week. The first day I went out it seemed to be drizzling a bit but as I got further round I discovered it was snow! It's incredibly beautiful though and even though the thought of getting out there is horrendous, it's actually fine once you're riding. I've got my outfit down to a fine art, just the right amount of layers and some nice red gloves.
Yesterday I saw 6 deer, one of which stood in the middle of the road to watch me until I almost had to brake. There are two hares too that seem to be in the same spot every morning near the happy hens farm.

I took Ricardo's bike this morning, the trusty Jaque Anquetil as mine is a pile of crap (even though it was supposedly made by women for women!!!) and has been giving me a terribly sore neck.
There are not many colours in the landscape but what is there is subtle and beautiful.
The birds are all coming out now and as I took this shot I could hear the Skylarks burbling away.
Here's some mole action for all you Aussies who don't have them...

Ingres: purple and gold

Last year we went to France and spent part of the time staying with our friends Sally & John. One day we went to visit the Ingres museum in Montauban. Ingres is one of my favourite artists, partly because of his incredible ability to paint fabric.
In my workroom I have inspirational pictures blue tacked to the wall and for ages now I have had this picture by Ingres of the Duchesse de Broglie on my wall. It's from a magazine article about a book called "The society Portrait: Painting, prestige and the pursuit of elegance". I've never seen this portrait in real life but it looks a lot more purple in the magazine clipping than any other images I could find on the net. Darn, I may have to go back to Montauban to check the colour.
The colours have inspired me and I've been thinking of making cushions in this weird combination for a while. This is the other inspirational image with similar colours that sits next to it.
Today, I got my act together and found the right combination of fabrics to make up into some Exotic Ingres cushions.