AUTUMN 2109 CAMPING TRIP

 

We had a good time in September camping close to home and our first stop was at St Cast le Guildo, not far from Dinard on the north coast of Brittany and only one and a half hours drive away.  The campsite was on terraces with lovely views across the bay towards the next headland. This is the view through our door on our plot where we spent a week, walking and getting together with our caravanning friends at the start of their own autumn holiday.

I usually gather a bunch of typical wild flowers to put on our table and here is the first selection.

There was a lovely coastal path around the beach at St Cast, lined with rocks and boulders, many of them covered with brightly coloured lichen.

The rock Samphire growing in the cracks was a lovely bright lime green that contrasted with the orange lichen and the dark grey of the granite rocks.

I decided to interpret them in a hand embroidered stitchpic, coloured with inktense crayons then stitched in various yarns.

This is a sprig of Eucalyptus I picked from a beautiful tree we came across in a park in the town.  The seed heads are an interesting shape, like little bells.

 

Our next stop was at Angers, a town we've often driven through but this was the first time we stopped to explore.  We found a handy campsite, only 3 kilometres from town with access to the wonderful cycle and footpaths that  lead along the rivers and through the countryside as well as into the town. We spent a couple of happy days exploring the banks of the river Maine where it joins the Loire .

 

The mistletoe covered trees have always fascinated me and after drawing them I just had to make this embroidery using various scraps collaged onto green linen.  There's nothing nicer than sitting in the sun after a tiring cycle ride stitching a new picture!

 

We had a brief stopover at Saumur and took a walk into town in the hot sunshine when we had to stop for a rest in the shade to admire the chateau.

Our final campsite was the municipal at Chinon where we've stayed many times before.  We were lucky enough to find our favourite pitch available with this lovely view of the castle clock tower above the trees.

 

I'll finish with this sunset view of the castle reflected in the river Vienne taken from the campsite, now you can understand why this is our favourite place!

 

2018 SUMMER HOLIDAY

 

We set off at the beginning of June only 65 kilometres down the road to Carantec where we met up with Stéphanie, my middle granddaughter who is studying geology at Cardiff uni.

We spent a lovely Sunday together which ended with this enormous cloud that covered the sky and started a 3 hour thunderstorm with torrential rain.

 

We had a delicious crepe lunch and then a walk along the shore collecting pebbles and learning about the rocks from Steph.

The view out to sea was beautiful with perfect blue sky and golden beaches edged with wild flowers.

 

I turned  the sketch into a stitch picture using organza and assorted yarns.

After waiting another 2 days for the weather to clear we decided to go home and re-start our holiday later. We studied the forecasts and  made the decision to go south to the Mediterranean coast where it was a lot warmer!

 

 

On the 8th of June we set off again southwards through the Massif Central with it's lovely views from the A75 free motorway  of the amazing wild flowers and the extinct volcanoes in the distance.

 

 

The sketch also became another stithpic which I worked on for several days when we reached our next destination.

 

 

We made a stopover for the weekend at Millau on on a peaceful wooded campsite by the river Tarn.

 

There was a gang of ducks that came by every day at the same tome on the scrounge for crumbs, quacking and wagging their tails.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

 

It is nearly Christmas so I can now share with you my cards for this year.

 

My daughter and her family are going skiing in Sweden this year so I decided to base their cards on a typical Swedish symbol.

 

The Dala horse has been made in Sweden for centuries, originally by carpenters for their children using up scraps of wood and then for sale to earn some extra money.

 

The traditional colour is red and they come in many sizes but I decided to use some of my fabric scraps to embroider using my own wooden horse as a model.  This mauve fabric is from a cashmere jumper Justine gave me a few years ago,  I love the contrast against the zigzags.

 

Although most of the horses are red or blue I had a lot of fun choosing suitable backgrounds for each person.  I gave Kirsty the hearts as I feel she's a romantic person.

 

Sarah loves trees so she got a scrap of silver birches, a favourite tree seen all over Sweden.

 

Steph got the blue sky as she loves geography and is a bit of a dreamer, often found staring into space!

 

 

And finally here's the card I made and printed to send to the rest of the family and friends, a drawing inspired by the Christmas tree mat my mother embroidered when I was a baby.  We were living in Sweden at the time, 1950, and I was the first of four children.  The mat has been used every year since then although for the first time it's now under Joanna's tree as I thought it was time to pass it down through the family.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo before I handed it over, maybe I'll have to ask her to take one for me.

Have a very Happy Christmas everyone and I'll be back soon. 

 

 

 

 

FLOWERSTITCHING

 

 

Ever since our holiday I've been in love with hand stitching flower pictures and this is the first, copied from my travel sketchbook.  I can still remember sitting by the river Loire, watching the heron feeding and listening to the raucous calls of the crows in the trees.

 

Anyone who knows me knows I love buddlea ad I have several different varieties around the garden flowering at different times of the summer. This is just a little stitch sketch  of a few details of these fragrant flowers.

 

Every summer my herb garden delights me with the perennial herbs that grow with no effort on my part and I love to see the colour combinations that appear as they bloom and then go to seed.  This group of oregano buds and parsley seeds appears every year and just had to be recorded in stitch.

 

Many years ago Justine gave me some Nigella seeds from her own garden and they self seed every year now and in fact the flowers are gradually turning pink from the original blue... I wonder if the pink granite has anything to do with it? I just love those seedheads too, hence the re-seeding every year!

 

Another favourite is my lavender of which I have several varieties that flower at different times in the summer.  I collect the flowers from the common one on the right to dry for lavender bags but the others are too small to use and anyway I think the bees thank me for leaving them for their food, they certainly buzz very loudly when I come near the plants!

 

Another Love in a Mist flower, this time stitched on one of the sunprinting pieces I showed you last time.  I sat in the sun to sew it with one of the flowers at hand to make sure I did the feathery leaves correctly although the colour is probably a bit too yellow caused by the sun dazzling my eyes!

 

 

The other sunprints came out so well that I decided to stitch some more.

 

Those parsley seeds again, don't you just love the pale prints in the background?

 

I have only just found out the name of this shrub and I had to add it for it's peculiarity.  My neighbour came calling several years ago with a wheelbarrow full of plants she was clearing from her garden so I was delighted to take them off her hands.  Now I have at least 3 big shrubs, covered in flowers for most of the year and even the hardest pruning doesn't (thankfully) destroy them!

Right, now as a test to see who in my family actually reads this I'm asking those who have a birthday in the next few months to choose which picture they would like on their birthday card and let me know in the comments or on Facebook!!

Over to you sisters and brothers in law, niece and auntie.  You know who you are!

 

SUMMER 2017 TRIP PART 2

After 5 lovely days at Briare it was time to move on  and we decided to visit St Fargeau on the way to our next destination. We had been recommended by our neighbour as he had grown up in the town and his grandfather had worked in the chateau gardens.

We finally arrived at Decize late in the afternoon and set up camp by the Vielle Loire, a tributary that joins the main river at this point.  We were lucky enough to watch this heron from our chairs as he slowly walked searching for his supper while we sipped a glass of rosé.

The town of Decize is famous for the Promenade des Halles, a 985 metre long alley of Plane and Lime trees, protected by the inventory of historic monuments.  I couldn't resist sketching the trees, sitting in the shade in the afternoon.

I had decided before leaving home to bring some hand sewing materials with me to try my hand at embroidery while we were on holiday .  Here is my first attempt copying my sketch and inventing stitches as I went along.  Bob suggested appliqueing the 2 large trees as I would have had to spend far too long stitching those big trunks.

Here is the finished picture, it measures 14 x 19 cms and the colour is really much greener than it appears here.  What do you think, have I found another new medium to add to all the others?

Here's an aerial view of the alley and the confluence of the rivers so you can see what a beautiful place it is. The campsite was near the top of the island right by the water's edge.

Sadly some of the trees in the alley had become diseased and had to be cut down, leaving several gaps in the line.  When we arrived the workmen were busy cleaning up the large trunks and sweeping away the branches but I managed to pick up a wedge to take back to camp to draw on a rainy afternoon.

We left Decize on the Saturday morning as there was a motorbike festival planned for the weekend and we didn't really fancy being kept awake by the ZZ top tribute band or the sound of hundreds of bikers turning up at all times!



We moved on to another historic town, Paray le Monial, famous for it's basilica and of course on a canal so we could continue our biking experiences. I didn't do much drawing here as we were busy cycling about and exploring the town.

Next time we visit Annecy, a beautiful town with a fabulous turquoise lake.

A bientot!

INSPIRATION EXCHANGE

 

I had a wonderful surprise this week when Starr White of Wonderland Woods showed me what she has made of my tiny red mushroom sketch.  Here is her beautiful embroidery which really captures the shape and colour of the original. Above is a sketch I did yesterday using one of her lovely forest photos as inspiration. It is on the end papers at the front of my latest sketchbook, newly bound with papyrus inside the covers.

 

 

Starr loves mushrooms and we've both been delighted with our exchanges of inspiration. To see more of her work have a look at her blog Wonderland Woods

 

 

Here is my sketch and the photo below of the original mushroom which is the size of a Yew berry.

I was very lucky to see it hiding in the grass before it got trodden on!