Sunday 27 June 2010

Woolly and Wild

Woolfest is over for another year.
By the time I got there on Saturday afternoon there were only six of my brooches left.
 I added three pendants to them so this is all I could photograph.


















They were on the IFA stand and you can see the lovely hanging made by Lesley King to the left. She uses prefelts and makes amazing patterns. Her felt for this piece is on scrim and contains silk fibres and has a lovely sheen to it. Her website is here
You can see my vessels and 'The Bag' here.
Someone almost bought 'The Bag' but decided to be economical!
I told her there would never be another but it was no good...













So its still available.
Here's the opposite side of the IFA stand. as you can probably deduce the theme was vessels!

















The  hanging at the back is by Fiona who has a flickr set here.
I met another Fiona, lovely Fiona Dix who has a great blog called Love Fibre. She used to live a lot nearer to me and I didn't meet her then and now she lives about as far North as you can get and I met her yesterday!

We are dog sitting at the moment so Indi had to come with us. I think she enjoyed a few eyeball to eyeballs with sheep like this Herdwick.













She was a bit hot and demonstrated this on the way home when we stopped for a while on the shores of Bassenthwaite.














I wanted to join her I can tell you . It was idyllic and hot and peaceful. I won't break into song but indeed 'the fish were jumpin' , no cotton though!
Further on I saw a heron, and then a bird of prey gliding by and at this point we remembered that this is one of the few Osprey breeding places in the country and I think it was an Osprey. How lucky I was to see it.
Naturally we were quite tired when we got home so we slobbed out watching TV and I was was engrossed in facebook scrabble when suddenly my husband said 'Look out..there's a bat in room.













Indeed there was. It flew around for about two minutes, landed briefly on the curtains and we opened the doors and it flew out.
 How exciting.(I just told my Mum and she's horrified!)
Then my husband did his favourite TV thing ..flicking through the channels and stopped on a film called 'Phantoms' about some horrible giant moth like creatures that fly in through the window and eat your face off.....

I was glad I hadn't seen it earlier.

Driving back through the Lake District yesterday we couldn't help notice how low the water levels were in the lakes, particularly the one which supplies the drinking water for the Manchester area, Thirlmere. There are
islands were there were never islands and metres of dry exposed rock around the edges.
Quite worrying.
It really has been a dry June for which at the moment I am very grateful. A downpour or two would be welcome I suppose.
Its such a great time of year.
I took our canine visitor a short walk the other night and as I walked past the front of our house I noticed the remnants of a rose bush which I thought had been taken out during some work out next door neighbours had done. The branch was in danger of being trampled by the general public and it had lots of buds so I cut it off and put the buds in water. They opened into the most delicate and fragrant flowers and I want to identify the variety so I can get another. The flowers are  small and white (no not edelweiss) with a peachy hint and the gorgeous scent of geranium. Here's a picture.














I'll finish with a picture of some flowers I bought for a friend .
I had just been reading about paeonies on Alice's blog and there they were at the growers so I had to have some. I can't aspire to her turn of phrase and beautiful writing, but I can stick a few flowers in a vase!
I bought bunches of Sweet William , Blue Scabious, deep pink Virginia stock and pale pink paeonies. I added Ladies Mantle and yellow Loosestrife from my own garden.
Mmmm.

25 comments:

Karen said...

I would have been horrified too, just like your mum! as for this weather, I am far too polite and ladylike to express my true opinion!!

menopausalmusing said...

I would have loved to have seen the bat. We had a smell in one of our bedrooms a few years ago. That "something has died" smell....... it turned out to be a poor little bat that had got caught up on a bedspread. :O( Laughed out loud at the moth that eats your face off! You have quite made my day as we have the yellow plant in abundance here and I have never known what its name was, now I know it is Yellow Loosestrife. Thank you! Glad you had success with your work.

Allabitrandom said...

Thank you for sharing you day. Really good that you sold some of your lovely work. Where HAS all the water gone?! As I recall it was a wet winter, I really like warm weather , but a bit of rain would be welcome. ( At night please, just a gentle shower for a few hours - has anyone got any contacts to suggest that?)

Julie said...

Congratulations on your sales at Woolfest :o) Wonderful to have a close encounter with a bat but maybe not so good that it was in your lounge.

How lovely to meet Fiona, she seems a lovely lady and I envy her living on Tiree.

The flowers are truly beautiful.

lilylovekin said...

When I was little we had bats in our house it was always a time for great excitement!! Sounds like you've had a busy and fun week-end.

alice c said...

Thank you for your generous words ...mwah.

I think that your rose might be the Patio rose 'Cutie' or a related variety. Sometimes they are sports of a rambler so you might want to flick through the David Austin catalogue to see if you can identify it.

Elizabeth said...

So very much to comment on !!! I would have been in the lake with the dog- for sure!! Not at all surprised aobut the sale of your fabulous brooches!!!!! WHOOO HOOOO!!!
Try to root that rose!! Take a cutting from a bit of the new growth - with no buds and stick several cuttings from it i a bit of rooting hormone, if you ahve it. Sometimes you can get rose cuttings to take even without the root stimulating hormone. Stick the cuttin in moist soil and then put the pts in the shade, or a sunny window and keep the soil moist. It may take 3 or 4 weeks but I bet that you can get one to root!!!
Let me know if you have any questions about this. the older roses are often much easier to root> this rose sounds so wonderful, wish I could get a cutting. It has been so very hot here that my roses have not lasted at aall- most of them rebloom but I am having to chase the Japanese Beetles off- I ahnd pick them off.
I hope that you get some rain!!!
Big hugs!

vintagerockchick said...

Well done for all your sales! Hate bats, love the sun, but the garden could do with a bit of a downpour (during the night!)
Why is it that the first year I DON'T go to Glasto the weather is brilliant???

artymess said...

i read your dog blog about the net curtains and couldn't stop laughing ......being a doggy person myself I could identify .....hilarious .....Lorna x

Lesley said...

After buying a brooch at Woolfest on Friday, I got home and decided that I had to have more, to give as presents (no, really!) So when I went back on Saturday, I did buy another, and yes, they were dwindling in number by then. I loved the bag, which i hadn't seen on Friday, for some reason, but managed not to be tempted by it. The bowls were lovely, too. It was a great show this year. and well-attended, I think, in spite of all the other things going on in the area this weekend.

Heather said...

Congrats on doing so well at Woolfest. I'd love to join Indi in the lake - that dog has the right idea. Good job the bat found it's way out again. Rain is forecast for later in the week, so the levels should recover. The rose is gorgeous as are the flowers you gave your friend - summer in a vase.

Twiglet said...

Great blog - love the flowers and the bat!!

LOVE STITCHING RED said...

Beautiful photos. Glad you did so well at the Show Jackie

xo

Helen Smith said...

Glad the bat found it's way out again! Sometimes we see them over our garden - I love watching them.

Sue said...

I too saw the reservoirs looking sorry for themselves last weekend as we came over the hills from Sheffield. Poor old Thirlmere - we are reliant on it here - I do hope we get some rain soon - and I NEVER thought I would hear myself saying that! I am desperate for there not to be a hosepipe ban as my garden gets no rain and no sun, being under the shade of a thousand trees. However, I fear the worst. Bathwater engineering will no doubt have to be rigged up.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Well at least your hubby isn't as paranoid about bats as mine is! He's convinced they will get in his hair (and the idiocy of it is...he doesn't HAVE any!!). The last bat episode we had involved the flailing of the broom which promptly parted company with the handle and sailed through the china cabinet window. We won't discuss WHO was flailing the broom but it wasn't me!

jennyflowerblue said...

Glad your brooches went well, of course. I am a big bat fan, how cool to have one as a visitor- I'm sure it's an excellent omen! xx

Unknown said...

it was lovely to meet you too, Jackie. i thought the IFA stand looked very good this year. It was nice to see your vessels outside of a photo. I love the pic of Indi in the lake - she had the right idea!

Victoria said...

I do not handle bats well, and commend you for sounding so calm! (What a hoot about the flesh eating moth!)

Congrats on your sales at the show!

Soggibottom said...

Passing through as I sometimes do, lovely to see you dog sitting X X X

ArtPropelled said...

Well done for the good sales at Woolfest! I've enjoyed your newsy post and have had quite a giggle over the face eating moths ..... so soon after the bat incident.

A time to dance said...

Just come up for air and a visit - can you believe my best friend went to the wool fest and forgot to tell me - so next year we are definately going - now that pete is spinning...and a dab hand at it too ...he loves his iphone case and shows it off to everyone..would love to see you in the holidays not long to go...love H

silverpebble said...

It sounds to me as though your brooches sell like hot cakes at these events. Perhaps you should celebrate with a hot cake or two?

How did the bat get in do you think? This happened to my Mum. Then she found two miniscule babies sitting on the dog's bed and yelling at him. The bigger one must have been their mother. A bat expert came and found a nursery roost up the flue! The babies kept dropping down onto the dog.

arlee said...

Send me some bats! We have been trying to entice them to our backyard, but so far no luck---necessary for bug control AND natural beauty.

Good to hear Woolfest was good for you--alas i wish we had something even remotely like the UK does in this area!

Lyn said...

Every year I peomise myself a trip to woolfest and again I have failed! Glad you did so well Jackie. I too think you could get a cutting going of the rose, have a go anyway.
Love
Lyn
xxx



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