Follow the Herring

Had a couple of days in Hull this week to catch the Follow the Herring tour which is taking a play and exhibition round the coast from Musselborough to Margate, following the path of the 'Herring Lassies' who followed the shoals of herring around the coast each season. Each stop on the journey has produced 'herring' to augment the knitting covered fishing coble that travels too and also a community choir who play an integral role in the play. The choir in Hull has been in existence since 2010 but some communities have started a choir from scratch and I have to take my hat off to them - the music is amazing with complex harmonies - no simple ditties here , and must have taken hours of rehearsal . The exhibition was a joy and a revelation about the lives of the lassies and the fisher families - good stuff!
Herring in the font-

and on the pew ends-

the coble-

and inside -

even the boat's cat -

A group of women had worked with a professional knitter to produce a picture of the lassies which hung in the foyer of the theatre - unfortunately I used my tablet for the pic and (being a cheapie) it has no flash so the colour is a bit off !

A thoroughly enjoyable event !

I do like to be beside the seaside

Yesterday, in fabulous weather, I went to the RSPB reserve at Bempton Cliffs - totally lovely. We saw Puffins (but no pufflings - too early), Gannets (a few had chicks - gannetlings ?) plus masses of kittiwakes, razorbills, Guillemots etc - also a peregrine which flew over and temporarily moved hundreds of birds from the cliffs. The cliff tops are managed as wildflower meadows and have a large bird population - meadow pipits and larks etc as well as many small brown birds I couldn't identify. Also, around the carparking area, they are installing amphibian fencing as crested newts are breeding in the adjacent pond. There were several RSPB volunteers with scopes set up so that visitors without specialist equipment (like us) could get good views - I saw my first puffin with sandeels in his mouth - just like the postcards !
The day was rounded off with tea and cake at Burton Agnes plus a look around their courtyard shops where I accidentally acquired three new plants - two low growing thymes to fill a couple of niches plus a very lovely pale violet anemone which I have no need of at all but was so beautiful I couldn't resist it !
Photos not very good - rubbish camera - but her's a flavour -
Elephant rock

Gannets on the Neuk

(Filey Brigg in background)

Day Four (well early on day five)

Finished at last - hard to explain how much effort it takes to move small pieces of stone in anything resembling a controlled manner ! I left early on day four after spending a couple of hour smoothing my bird/seal - dog sitting then to the Cinema to see a live transmission of Der Rosenkavalier from Glyndebourne - lovely stuff even though it lasted from 4.30 till almost 9pm - well those poor folk slumming it actually at Glyndebourne had to have long intervals so they could finish up their picnics and champagne !
Anyway here is my creation sitting on the steps outside my back door - he probably won't stay there but at the moment I like admiring him when I look out of the window !

Stonecarving day three

In fact it is early on day four - I was so tired when I got back last night that I didn't have the energy to write my blog ! Yesterday we carved outside ( under a canvas roof) while the rain sheeted down for most of the day and turned our limestone dust into limestone mud. Progress was made though and visitors to the open studios came to look and speak and sometimes admire - though one lady did think I was carving a baby seal - can't really blame her ! My bird is a fat, almost beakless. short tailed suggestion of a bird and is easily mistaken for a seal, especially when lolling on a sandbag so that I can get under its neck.

Whatever it eventually turns out to be, it will look lovely in my garden I'm sure !

Stonecarving day two

Yesterday I showed you my stonecarving right at the beginning of the day when I had just riughly marked out my block. I meant to take a photo at the end of the day so that you could see my progress but I forgot !
I did though take a photo first thing this morning before I started which amounts to the same thing .

As you can see, it takes a long time to move quite small quantities of stone. We worked in the sunshine today while the studios were prepared for NY Open Studios.Four local artists are showing their work this weekend and are hoping for lots of visitors to come to look. There is a painter/screenprinter, a ceramicist, a mixed media artist and a papercutter all of whom have some brill things to display. ( There will of course be cakes by the dozen - hurrah ). Arty things aside, I have spent several more hours today moving an equally insignificant amount of stone, but I can , if I squint, see my bird emerging from the stone.

 The white bit which looks as if it might be a beak, is in fact a small piece of stone resting on the ground and is nothing to do with my carving ! I haven't yet finalised how I want my beak and tail to be angled - will it be a pigeon or a duck - only the stone will tell ! While we were having lunch, there was a lull in the conversation (probably exhaustion) and a partridge came and made such a noise with his calling that it made us laugh out loud. I think he had seen my emergent bird and was looking for a mate , so depending on my accuracy with the hammer and chisel, it may even turn out to be a partridge !

lazy blogger !

I can't believe it is almost a month since I posted - lazy blogger ! Not that I haven't been busy but generally I have been busy with the mundane -  plus of course, TJ's which I generally don't blog. Today however, I started a four day stone carving course at our local Arts place and thought I'd share the beginnings at least of what I'm doing. I decided that I would choose a more stylized subject so that if  (when!) it fails to live up to the picture in my head, I can pretend it was what I had intended all the time.
I chose for my inspiration a small ceramic I have of a pigeon.

It is about 20cm long and sits comfortably in my hand - I like it a lot and decided I would use its general form - upscaled to emerge from my 40cm x 20cm x 20cm block of Ancaster limestone.

Firstly, I roughly sketched the shape - sides,top, front and back on the block and then started to remove the unwanted stone . It is is not as easy as it sounds even though the limestone is (in terms of stone) quite soft.
Suffice to say, I came home with several small wounds - stone scrapes, hammer blows, blister from holding the hammer and a realisation that I had forgotten to take a photo of how far I had got ! I will take one first thing tomorrow so I can blog the day one progress and remember to take another photo at the end of the day as well .

Days away

I've had several days away over the last ten days or so - first a visit to friends in the Midlands which took in the Uttoxeter Quilt Show - a very jolly affair, then back home to meet up with friends from my 'other' TJ. We met for a journal exchange (plus tea and delicious scones) . This was my journal entry this time -

it was inspired by a tatty photo of my Grandmother which a wizard with PhotoShop turned into a lovely sepia study ( grotty bits all mended) within an oval fuzzy edged frame. I thought the Grandmothers flower garden pattern would be appropriate to go with it, though truth to tell, the only flowers I really remember from her garden apart from forget me nots were Golden Rod (everyone had this!) and a sort of Globe Campanula which I thought was very exotic.
The day after the exchange, DH and I travelled to North Wales for an overnight stop at Bangor. It was a glorious day and we took advantage of the sun to visit Bodnant Garden, an 80 acre NT garden that we had often passed but never visited before. It was stunningly beautiful with a huge collection of Rhododendrons and Azaleas in full bloom and a Dell carpeted with bluebells - lovely !

Next day was Ireland on a family visit. My DH's brother essentially lives in a two acre field ( well, in a house in a two acre field - gardeners they are not ) . The hedge however was brilliant - a swathe of Gorse that lit the whole place up !

I thought I was getting tired of yellow after the daffodils, the dandelions and the rape but this tickled my fancy.
I got home to find my tulips in full bloom and as we are away to Skye tomorrow and they will be over before I get back I thought you should have a look at them !