Tiny little dachshund

Max was almost finished a few weeks ago, but he was missing the perfect pull chain. I knew in my head what it should be and so I was pleased beyond anything when a kind blog friend - Vee of 'The Bearister Bookcase' - offered to send me some treasures (knowing that they would probably be pulled apart and used in various ways). In the packet that arrived was a lovely thin black chain, which was perfect and had a tiny clasp onto which I could fix the red vintage button I'd put to one side. So thank you very much to Vee, for all the little things which will be put to good use.

 

I am still tussling with my online course - with a grand total fifty photos, it just needs a few additional demo videos, which is a whole new territory for me. I made the mistake of looking at other online needle felt projects, most of which seemed to have all manner of perfectly groomed (and younger) presenters, bells, whistles and even music, which completely shook my confidence as my demo videos are very simple.  Just my hands, needle felting. Added to which my recorded voice sounds - odd. I can't work out if it sounds a bit posh, a bit West Country or a bit growly. Or a strange mixture of all three. However, I'm sure that's completely normal, and I will have to get over myself.

I don't think balancing a laptop on a precarious pile of DVDs is the standard way of shooting mini movies, but it seems to work, so long as there isn't a tractor rumbling by while I'm narrating.

 

From grey clouds to blue skies

I have been steadily working for some time, working on my first online needle felting project, which means a lot of time spent with my camera and computer. So last week I decided to get out and about, even if it was only for an hour or so. My poor bike, Marjorie, had flat tyres from languishing in the porch for months, but once they were pumped up, she was ready to go. 

 

The lane outside the cottage looks peaceful and idyllic here, but after taking this photo, a busy red car came up behind me, and a high sided lorry came up the road soon after, which is normal. So I was anxious to get onto a quieter side pathway, a mile further on.

The skies were a flood of brisk grey clouds, blowing over from the West. On the far horizon, the Shropshire hills were just visible, blue and brooding.

It was a gentle, pottering cycle ride, with many stops to take snapshots and take in the views. And rest my legs.

Autumn is the time of hedgerow treasure and I found shaggy parasols mushrooms. I have eaten these in the past, but they were so pretty I left them alone.

Brambles and hops draped themselves artistically along the road, still green as autumn has not yet changed the pallet of the countryside.

This is my favourite lane. It gently winds into the distance and slopes away uphill; I know exactly where it goes, and still it maintains a delicious mystery.

It is past harvest time and hay stacks are everywhere - some are so large that I wonder how they stand upright.

The odd thing about this lane is that I always anticipate a left hand turn to take me back to the nearby village. Yet it actually curves round so gently that before I realise I'm there, I am already in front of the imposing gates of what used to be 'the big house' of the village. It's still technically 'the big house' but is now a commercial venture. And this is where my return journey begins.

A few months ago, a large old oak tree blew down in a gale and already nature is taking over. I have a feeling this imposing fungus may be 'Chicken of the Woods', but I know it to be typically a yellowish colour, whereas this was mostly white. It was the size of a large cat. 

As I neared home, the fickle wind blew the cloud cover away to reveal a piercing blue sky.

 

Ahead and in the far distance was the blue hump of the Wrekin, which is the main view from my studio window. As the road twists and turns, it seems to be situated first to the left, then to the right, then to the left again; I like to think it is quietly shuffling around like a great, shy prehistoric creature, trying to hide unsuccessfully.

I am one of those  for whom home is never so beautiful as when I am leaving or returning to it and there, in the distance, to the right of the farm, is the dear cream wall of the cottage. A short journey, but with so much to see.

My first book

Tucked away on this shelf, which holds some of my old and antiquarian collection, is a humble (and not at all valuable) book. Despite that, it is one of my most precious.

This, as far as I know, was my very first book. It is made of cotton fabric which is now  frayed, stained and with faded colours. It would have been published around the time I was born, in the late 1960s.

It's not just the fact that it was my first book, in what would become a lifetime of collecting them; it holds a very dear, early memory.

I can remember being very small - a toddler - and sitting with my mum while she read every page out loud to me, in one of the two cheap rooms that my parents rented at the time. And that one particular memory is that every time we we got to this page...

...she would read it in a certain way - 'isn't he a clever dog', emphasizing the 'clever'. I have very few photographs of my mum, but I can still just about hear the echo of her voice, from those long ago days, reading that one, simple line in such a  way that I would never forget it.

Although my parents were poor, they knew the value of reading and I was encouraged to read and look at pictures almost as soon as I could walk. And even though I was to lose my mother and father when I was still a child, I will always be grateful for the gift of reading, of being read to, and for that very special memory.

Little wheely animals and things

I've been very remiss in posting any needle felt work here, which is strange, as I certainly haven't stopped working. While we've had a stressful few months, needle felting has been one thing that has calmed my anxiety down. Perhaps it is because I use my Instagram account to post  work in progress and pieces for sale, and once that's done I forget about showing it on my blog. Anyhow, my latest 'thing' has been making miniature vintage style toys on wheels. Obviously not toy toys, but models of toys, such as these little rabbits - 

As you can see from the photo with my fingers showing, they really are very small (which strangely does not make them any quicker to make). I've used antique sewing machine bobbins to represent the wheels and added some parts of an old silver and moonstone necklace to make the pull chains with. It's always lovely when work sells immediately and these two have long been sent to their new homes. 

Then there is Bertie, again on bobbin spools and with a vintage other of pearl button to finish his pull chain with.

 'Bertie', available for sale on Etsy

And Walter, who is larger and with vintage buttons to represent wheels. The frame is my own hand twisted affair and the old brass button at the end of the gilt chain is one I've had since I was a teenager and used to adorn a nice felt burgundy waistcoat (until the moths got it).

      'Walter', available for sale on Etsy

Earlier this year I made my first foray into adding 'things' to my work with this button moon fox - it took some time to get it all to balance and so that the fox appeared to be gazing into a full moon without toppling over.

 'Fox and the Moon' available for sale on Etsy

And finally, in 'other news', I have only held one workshop this year, in nearby Ludlow at the Loudwater Studio. With three people attending, it's possibly the smallest class I've ever had, but very enjoyable nonetheless. 

 

I have made the decision this year to cut back on workshops, as I find the worry of whether they will happen or not and the travelling,  a bit much to cope with nowadays. While I really enjoy the actual events, I find they wipe me out mentally and physically. So I'm really quite excited to be entering the world of internet craft courses and later this year hope to be able to offer my first online workshop - maybe with videos!

Taming Granny Elder

This corner of the garden has been a dead zone since day one. The kindest thing I can say about the previous owners is that they were not gardeners.  With the exception of a couple of random roses, everything in here has to go. One day I would like to have it clear and plant a proper border. But in the meantime, there was the dilemma of Granny Elder. 

  

To the left is a nice pear tree, which I've managed to keep tidy, but Granny Elder has been left to her own devices and needed a good trim. My initial thought was to take her out completely, but the birds like her and although I am not remotely superstitious, it is common folk-lore that it is bad luck to chop down an elder tree.  Do I believe this? No. Did I feel uneasy about chopping her down? Yes.

So Joe and I set about cutting her down to a respectable size. She was full of dead branches and straggly growth, so it was really just what she needed. Elder tree wood is tricksy stuff, liable to break easily and if you find yourself climbing up - or down - a bank, don't grab an elder branch as it will more likely than not snap off in your grasp, leaving you in the lurch and scrabbling for safety. 

We reduced her to half her original height, opening up the corner and letting in the light. Her new growth will be bushier and healthier for the trim; I'm a devotee of hard pruning. If something survives being cut right back, it will come back all the better for it. 

Now I am steadily hand cutting the big pile of cuttings, as council regulations state that garden waste bits must be no more than 8 inches in length if they are to go in the green recycling bin. I am not using a tape measure.

Recycling an old friend

Thank you to for all the kind comments and good wishes. We are still here and after a difficult few months, life seems to be - at  last - starting to move in the right direction. A small piece of administration held Joe's new job up for three months, so as you can imagine, it has been a particularly stressful time. I have been in the cottage for nearly six years and in all that time I have lived with an uncertain future here. Much of that time has been used recovering from losing Andy so suddenly and suffice to say that gardening and home improvement have not been high on my priority list. And it is hard to make a house a home or start to establish a garden with no idea of whether one will be here in a year's time to enjoy it. This is not a plea for pity, but my roundabout way of explaining why blogging has been sparse and sporadic.

However, now there seems to be a point to it all and so last week I tackled the nasty little shed at the top of the garden. It is part of the complex of rotten old dog kennels left behind by the previous owners and quoted as an 'asset' in the estate agent's blurb when Andy and I were viewing the cottage. When we moved in, this shed became the dumping ground for anything useless and it's been lurking there ever since. Time to clear it out.

In the end, nearly everything went. The front yard began to resemble a junkyard. Brian-next-door gave me a lift to the recycling centre, several miles away near town; I had not realised that this space age looking development takes practically anything from rubble to old timber to the usual metal, electrical appliances, clothes and anything that can be re-used.

I was very happy to see the back of most of my bits, with the exception of what remained of my old bike, Hercules. Hercules and I spent many happy hours pottering about at a placid pace around my old home in the Cotswolds and he was a regular character in some of my early blog posts. Until  he was stolen one night and eventually found beaten up and wrecked in a hedge by the village green. Andy bought me a new bike in secret ('the Best Surprise Ever') and so everything was lovely in the end. But I hung on Hercules for years out of silly sentiment. Now, with what is hopefully a new and more certain future, I felt it was time for him to be put to good use. Although I could not resist one last photo.