Monday, 6 June 2011

Scotland and back ...

Last week being half term we went off for a few days on the Scottish estate where it rained so hard that it nearly made our heads bleed.  We did get one day of sunshine and just to prove it ....

This is Oldshoremore Beach which, when the rain is not coming at you horizontally, is one of the best places in the world to be.   It is a beautiful walk to the beach from the ancestral home over the machair which is designated a SSSI.   It is home to wild orchids and the most peculiar coloured snails ... 

They range from deep honey yellow to lemon and dark pink to palest blush and live in the few hundred yards between the sand dunes and the grazing land.  There are so many of them this year that it took real effort not to step on them and sink them completely into the very boggy ground.  

When we got back my ticket for Kempton Park Antiques Fair on 14th June was waiting for me so I have lots of painting to do to get ready.  In the meantime here are some things someone else has painted ....



I love this tray, particularly the white flower at the centre.  I often try to reproduce it but so far my efforts have fallen far short of the original.  

I also wanted to show you these felt flowers ..


The inspiration for these came from a Dryad leaflet 128 'Felt Flowers'.  I bought this from ebay but not on its own - it was part of a volume containing leaflets covering all sorts of things including paper mache, canework, netting, rug weaving, spinning wool and many more wholesome pursuits to fill the evenings before television reached the sitting room.  So, if you are looking for a copy of the Felt Flowers leaflet, it might be worth looking at the bound volumes rather than for a single copy.   The leaflet doesn't actually contain a pattern for daffodils, although it does have daisies, marigolds, roses, freesias, etc, etc. But, undaunted, I used the outer petals from one design and the inner petals of another and on the whole I think they were a fairly successful effort.  I'll show you more designs as I get around to doing them.






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