Woodland pretties

We did one of our favourite walks this Sunday, one we can do from the front door. Our son was visiting for the day with his girlfriend and it's a pretty spot at this time of year, so was an ideal pre-lunch appetiser.

Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view. If your browser has the option to open the image in a new tab, you'll get to see them at the size I prepared them.

Added later: I finally got to identify this plant, it just didn't appear in any of my wildflower books - it would appear that it's Water Avens (Geum rivale) a member of the rose family - I was wrongly thinking it was a geranium/cranesbill variety.

My husband and I did the same walk last Saturday and then it was bitterly cold in a very brisk wind (and we were jolly glad of hats, scarves and gloves) and was threatening rain the entire time and did in fact make good on that threat as we walked the last 20 yards to the front door. We'd commented that there were likely to be a lot of bluebells and that they were only just starting to flower.

After a week of sunny spells and lots of rain, they've positively romped away this week, along with several other woodland pretties; there were splashes of blue, pink and yellow amongst the gorgeous vibrant spring green emerging foliage and unfurling fern fronds. It was significantly more colourful than a mere 8 days ago.

It's one of my very favourite things, to see woodland flowers at this time of year, before the greenery has really taken off and hides some of the more delicate ground-hugging species.

The walk was pretty dark initially, but as we returned, the sun came out again and I was able to grab a few photographs toward the end of the walk. If we get a nice spell this week, I'll walk that way on my own and spend more time getting some closer shots, there are some side paths that meander through the trees, so I can get deeper into the woodland and closer to the patches of bluebells.

The primroses are a slight cheat in that I took these photographs earlier in the week. I especially like this patch as they're growing on top of a wall, so I don't need to grovel in the mud to photograph them and I also get to smell them too - they have a lovely delicate fragrance, which we don't always get to appreciate as they grow so low.

My work this week:

I've finished several pieces - and that's the fun part - getting them all photographed and listed isn't quite as much fun - but something I will have to face in the next few days. I was in the mood for making something with beads - after I'd bought some very pretty colours on Etsy for use with copper. Although, as luck would have it, I didn't use as may of those as I started out expecting to - I veered off on a tangent somewhat.

I was looking for some components in my box of assorted things that didn't quite make it into a finished piece yet and a combination of shapes falling together in front of me gave me the idea for this wrapped wire loop bail - allowing me to combine a spiralled wire bail loop with a large eye to decorate with beaded dangles. The central focal bead is an odd colour, it looks very orange in daylight (and my daylight photography light) and yet quite a buttery yellow in artificial light - and in which light, the greens I accented with the faceted Czech glass donuts are rather more prominent too. I topped it with a copper clay bead cap and matched it with a pair of delicate green beads on some matching chain links.

These eye links are a shape I made often, early in my jewellery making career, as fancy headpins, but I was trying to fashion an art deco/nouveau stylised rose for a particular idea and these came back to mind. So I've put together 3 hammered links in these antiqued copper earrings.

Another variant of the wrapped loop bail eye, adorned with assorted purple glass and amethyst beads and a single flower-imprinted dangle, made in copper clay.

I used the same 'eye' links in these feature earwires for these copper clay spiral oval earrings.

My next blog . . .


. . . will be a work in progress (WIP) report on this necklace and earring set. They're made with copper clay and wire, then antiqued and coloured. I've taken a series of photographs as I made them and want to show the amount of work and processes involved in creating pieces like this.

Spring is tapping on the window

We had a lovely day yesterday. It started damp, misty and grey, but by 10:00am it was lifting and the sky brightening. By the time people were enjoying their elevensies, it was bright sunshine and pretty much clear blue sky.

Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

The trees still look bare, but there's activity brewing in them.

I wasn't going to waste it by being inside, so picked up my camera (I'm still extensively 'testing' my new one) and headed out for a walk - I wasn't going far, just one of my usual lunchtime walks of just over a mile. One route I do regularly has a steep hill, so offers more cardiovascular value, the other undulates much more gently, but has more scenic value. I opted for scenic enjoyment over workout in the sunshine, on this occasion.

I promised you some snowdrops.

There was very a very definite air of spring - I saw my first daffodils, heard birds singing like their lives depended on it, horses going daft being frisky, ducks canoodling and more people than usual out doing the same thing as me.

Not my best photograph, the ones flowering were in the middle of a large patch, so I had to take them from quite a distance. But it was lovely to see the first ones in bloom.

I chatted with the lady who lives adjacent to the memorial garden in one corner of the park and must maintain it - I think she thought as I bent to photographs the snowdrops that I was interfering with them, so sauntered over to check. She said it was official that spring had a arrived, as a pair of ducks that court in her pond before raising a brood, had arrived yesterday and tapped their beaks on the glass of her kitchen window to tell her that they've arrived and would like a welcoming snack please.

If you look closely you can see her husband nestled down behind the dead grass.

I remembered to take a drink this time and found a picnic table in the park in full sunshine and allowed myself the indulgence of 15 minutes sitting there doing nothing other than allowing the sun to soak into my face that was hungry for it and listening to birds and half-term children playing in t-shirts. It felt like spring, it looked like spring and it certainly sounded like spring.

The park is almost completely circled by mature trees.

I took this photograph at the weekend in damp, very cold, dark woodland, which seemed a world away today.

Christmas presents to enjoy some time later

Firstly, I hope you like the new look of the blog, I decided it was time I gave it a bit of attention and having passed 90 blogs, thought it needed some organisation, so I'll be working on that gradually in the next week or two, it's somewhat of a work in progress. But please do let me know if you have any problems with it after my tweaking.

Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

I'm still tinkering with my new camera and getting to know it and macro was the next thing I wanted to address, as it has a very long zoom range (30x) so needed some thought about how to get the best from the macro function. For this series of photos I was just thinking about abstract shapes and the gorgeous patterns you get to see when looking closer.

I've always had a particular fondness for spring flowers, I love to see bulbs emerging from the winter soil with their promise of warmer times and longer days to come; a welcome sight after a seemingly long, cold winter this year.

I'm especially fond of snowdrops, I love their delicate elegance and over the years I've planted more outside and they're now starting to naturalise and expand nicely - I'll get some photographs of those as soon as it stops raining and we get some light - as they're just about at their best now.

The structure of hyacinths has always fascinated me, the way all the little individual flowers bud and open and then curl back.

Each Christmas I am usually lucky to receive some of the bulb kits that you plant yourself and this year I have a pot of very delicate and paper-like white crocuses, some pink hyacinths and a scarlet red amaryllis - that has put out two flowers, but rather smaller than usual - but gorgeous nontheless - and each a slightly different colour too. They all seem to have peaked at the same time and I took the opportunity to grab some photographs before they fade.

I concentrated on this occasion on some abstract images from framing in tightly so that I could enjoy the lovely shapes and structures of the flowers. One of the aspects of photography that I enjoy is that you learn to see things differently and whilst working on a series of photographs like this, you simply look - and are therefore able to enjoy - that bit more. It gives you a legitimate excuse for doing so.

A promise of more yet to come - I love how the buds are all tightly packed together and gradually spread apart before opening. Their shape reflects how they were squashed together as they formed, before they relax and spread.