I like Thankful Thursday

I like my violas. Worth the pain of planting them around Holloween. In April, I showed what they had looked like all winter.

Here is what they look like now.

And next to them, the holly bushes.

I was delighted with the little flowers!

There should be plenty of berries, if the birds let them go red.

I like noticing Architecture and Design
I don't go into town very often, but a few weeks ago I did when I went for an eye exam. I noticed some of the improvements to that part of town which helps it to blend in a bit with the new regenerated town centre.

Looking up near Specsavers. They are quite high, so I don't think many people see the circles.

Along the ceiling on the lower part.

I like the way it meanders, even to the point of having very small light tubes matched with large ones to keep the look.

Looking along the street from the sky walk. I like the repetition of the banner/signs on the building contrasted with the repetition of the trees down the grass verge.
oops! forgot the photo!


And looking down to the landscaping, I spotted a plant which we have next to the front door.
Mahonia

Ours has been growing very slowly, but this is a good example of what size it could get to! We will have to keep it in hand.

4th Plinth - Forced to Flee - Nowhere to Hide

I have finished! (Last week) The little houses made with my adapted box template are stitched together and done!

Inspired by the Artwork: Model for a Hotel (Hotel for Birds) by Thomas Schutte
click on the link to see a variety of images of the sculpture from different sides.

Reason for choosing the art work as inspiration:
The transparent, overlapping colours and the impracticality attracted me.

Forced to Flee - Nowhere to Hide
I am burdened for refugees – South Sudan, Myanmar, etc.
“Here is a tarp and poles. Make your home.”

Documentaries show us people in their desperation. Focus camera on flimsy tents.
Yes, the story must be told!

So, what about their privacy?

Materials and Techniques:
Plastic Document folders used for colour and transparency. Hand quilting thread, hand stitch through layers of the plastic

Adapted box template to resemble my Ramshackle house series. Flimsy house joined together like refugee camps. Open to the elements, transparent. Hiding nothing, revealing all.

-I also added a piece of foam core under the foundation in order to keep the brilliance of the colours. Otherwise, the colour of tables, cloths and so on show through the transparent foundation.

Bead on 13-19 and 20-25 May

week 20 - 2018
catching up on posting, though the beading was up-to-date.

bead on fabric


trim - 351/2 in


close-up


week 21 - 2018

bead on fabric

with flash gives the true colour of the fabric
with ruler gives an idea of the size of the squares

trim - 40 in


close-up

Something on Saturday

cow 71

Another strange cow.
You can tell my thrill about receiving this one by the fact that the packaging is still there.

This one I leave in the cupboard in the kitchen. Only rarely get it out.  Why? When you squeeze the lever that is part of the handle, the head lifts up, like an open mouth, to shine out a torch/flashlight.🔦
OK, if it were just that, maybe. But she also says 🐄moo-ooo-ooo🐄 the whole time you are shining the light out in the garden after dark when you are trying to work out why the gate is making rattling noises.😒
So, no, not particularly my favourite! 😆

Something on Saturday

Cow 70

Not sure I would have bought this miniature fluff vacuum if it were my choice. But it is a funny thing, and it picks up a few threads around and about if need. The suction inlet is under her nose.

Thankful Thursday

Thankful for my Dad.

Thomas Gene Wolford

19 July 1935-2018

Love you very much Dad. Thanks for working so hard for us. Even for making us work hard.
For wanting us to have good values. For teaching me how to grow things.
and for showing how to use my own initiative.
For using your time and effort to be able to give. Not sure all the old ladies wanted a big huge fish to handle, but they got one!

I am glad you are with God now.

Little boxes

back to making progress on these little boxes.
some times you have to take a bit of time to get brave enough to take the next step!

so... now I am sewing things together.

Bead on 6-12 May

week 19 - 2018

beading on fabric

nearly to the end of the 4th row - going right to left.

the new pink and black trim

at 22 inches.

Something on Saturday

cow 69

A bit funny, these cows. Perhaps it is how their eyes were painted.


Somehow I have 3 or 4 of these. They breed in the cupboard, I think.

Plant Identification help needed.

After yesterday's post, I thought I would show you photos of the leaf of this plant by the back door.

I love the leaves. They remind me of the Mandlebrot set. (If you follow that link, scroll down past alot of the maths to see what a mandlebrot set looks like...very like my leaves!)

Somehow, they look like this when they are small (even newly grown wee small ones look like this, but I haven't a picture.)

and also when they are bigger.

this one was growing further up the plant.
The leaves can get very huge! and still look the same.

They grow very tall with grass like flowerheads. But it dangles like cornsilk with little tiny tags/seeds that rustle in the wind. It looks lovely with the sun behind it!
It grows very fast, and inspite of it being chopped back to the ground each year, it comes back just as vigorously.

Any clues? If not, maybe I will wait and ask again when I can take a photo of the flower/seedhead.

I like Thankful Thursday

I like watching the garden grow.

A few years ago, the Thoughtful Man came home with bush after bush, tree after tree mostly from plants at various grocery stores! Now our garden has a wide variety of things, but as, for some reason, he doesn't keep the labels...well, we don't know what a lot of them are!
Still they are all interesting! Lots of different flowers and lots of different leaf shapes.
Not sure what this is, but we have a row of them...or what is left of a row after last summer when a black dog removed about half of them in order to make a place to lay in the shade.

And then while I was trying to position this pink one, I broke it off...😕 We have mostly white and some pink.

An Acer

A blueberry bush in bud


The Bleeding Heart bush beginning to grow for this year.

detail

The heather is doing brilliantly this year


The Star Magnolia tree with flower buds

a closer look at the flowers. If you compare the bush behind it with the first photo in this post, you can see how the acer looks with leaf bud and up above in full leaf.

Now the flowers of the magnolia have blown away and it is also full leaf. Interestingly, the leaves have a similar shape to the petals of the flowers.

Just a couple weeks can make quite a difference.

This is a forest pansy. I looked it up and sometimes it is called Chinese Red Bud.

a week or so later - With and without flash. and now the flowers are gone and it is in full leaf.

I can't remember what this bush is called, but these photos were taken about 2 weeks apart.

The new leaves are a bright red, then they begin to change until they are green like the rest of the bush.

Eucalyptus tree
At the ends of the little branches, it has little buds that make you think they will be flowers...

But instead, they grow into more leaves!

The new grown leaves are slightly pink.

And to finish, a black tulip.

Up close  you can see it is very deep purple, but from a distance it looks black.
My Mom read a book one time about a search for a black tulip. She told me some of the story. So, when these tulips came up from one of the Thoughtful Man's bulb planting moments, it gave me quite a thrill that we have some! I shall have to look for the book, I think.
Edit: Wow! I just looked up the Black Tulip and found it is by Alexander Dumas! So, I am definitely going to look for it to read.

So, anyway, that is enough for today. This week, with the back door open to the glorious weather, I have enjoyed the smell of the lilacs by the shed wafting through. Ours is lilac colour (of course) but Next Door have a white one, so I can enjoy both when I open my curtains in the morning. Usually it comes before ours and then finishes before ours. But with the weird weather this spring, they have both come around the same time.

If you want to see what some of the other likes are, check them out at LeeAnna's blog.

Bead on 29 April -5 May

week 18 - 2018

bead on fabric

detail showing the beads marking the new month



new trim

sort of like a ladder stitch
pink small 3D hexagon shape with a black crystal
I will probably see if I can get the 40 inches with this. Then do something along the sides or one side.

Something on Saturday

Cow 68

ooh la la...

a French cow!

Actually, I just learned from the internet...

"Une vache is literally a cow, and c'est la vache would mean, “it's a cow.” But Oh, la vache would mean “Holy Cow!”"

And I also learned there was a film called La Vache (2016) - An Algerian man realises a lifelong dream when he receives an invitation to take his cow to the Paris International Agriculture Fair.

I think one of those ...this-is-not-actually-funny, funny films of which I am not particularly a fan. Can you tell?!

But, maybe a French Film about a cow? (shrugs shoulders)