Lately: Car port, Oxford, and lunch at The Vaults, plus video!

Hello everyone,It's been quite the busy week round here. We've (when I say we, I mean Robert), have chopped down an apple tree.It was a hard decision to chop it down, mainly because it was such a hardy and healthy tree, but we planned to put a carport up against the garage and, as much as we loved the occasional apple crumble, the best thing for us was to remove the tree.So down it came. The wood will be used for fire wood plus a little of it will be handed out to friends for carving.And the best thing is that Robert won't have to pick up millions of apples from the ground.Speaking of the apples, I put out a great big bin full for anyone to help themselves and some people did.After several days of apple tree, clean up and building the foundations for our new carport, we took a trip into Oxford for the Thursday vintage and antique market.We were after a hat or two for our costumes for Saturday's Retro Festival.We were not very successful with the hats, so went to have lunch at one of our favourite cafes, The Vaults.The Vaults is a basement room under St Mary the Virgin church dating back to 1320. It served as the first ever library in Oxford belonging to the university of Oxford.Now our friend Will Pouget runs the space as the most amazing organic cafe.We ate our lunch on the patio and Will came for a lovely chat.Here is a little video of our day:https://youtu.be/m9n3ONuSrfEOn our way home we drove thru the neighbouring village of Appleton and I picked up enough beautiful dahlias from one of the roadside stands for four bouquets.The post and video from our Retro Festival day coming tomorrow. :D

Oxford! Video, the Thursday vintage market plus shopping in Oxford.

Once I'm out of the city I just love to stay in the country. Love it to pieces.But I'm also a working artist, and that means I need to buy vintage maps and ephemera to paint on. Thursdays in Oxford is a vintage market with a stall run by Gary my favourite vintage map seller from Oxford Maps, so an ideal day to make the trek into town.Other than that, Oxford is a beautiful, quirky town with loads of unique shops, as well as the old familiar...like Primark for cheap reading glasses, and Lush for bath treats.But the most wonderful store in Oxford has got to be Scriptum.Scriptum is a dream come true for anyone who loves paper and books and pens and inks as much as I do.Come with me and explore Oxford for the day. Come to the vintage market, have tea in a 15C building, brave the summer crowds, and shop for beautiful things in Scriptum:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi-H65FwOZE&feature=youtu.be

A steam rally visit

Do you guys know what a steam rally is?You probably do, but up until a few years ago, I didn't.It's a gathering of all sorts of historic steam-powered machines from the Industrial Revolution to modern times.There are machines that whir, and bump, and jiggle,and sizzle, and hiss, and steam,and splash, and spit, and pour......in interesting ways. :DThere are small machines...and ginormous ones, who take turns demonstrating their power in a central show ring.It's also a car show with all sorts of beautiful, vintage machines on offer.I found beautiful examples of my most loved Landies......and minis.And the exciting thing for a vintage lover like me, there's a jumble sale with wagons and wagons of junk and vintage car parts!!!!!Where I can make new friends. This is Penny, she was the cutest little pup.And find so much great stuff!Would you like to see what I came home with?Look at this! Ink bottles, an autograph book from 1954, a carpenter's pencil, (because some days you just want to draw with a carpenter's pencil), a crystal screw-in door knob, a small hammer and wooden mallet, and a piece of wood from a broken planer. Also, (not shown), a vintage Austin mini badge like the one I had on my stolen 1959 mini! It's going on my new mini Robert and I are building. The badge cost me £1 and would probably fetch £50 on Ebay. Now that's a deal.I'm so addicted to the ink bottles but will probably have to stop collecting them soon because my collection is bordering on ridiculous. :D

Found while walking: A Roman villa in the Oxfordshire countryside, plus video

Come with us down this country lane......ignoring this dodgy sign......in our bucolic Oxfordshire country......to find this Roman villa.https://youtu.be/6YHD2tXIywA

More from Art in Action 2015: Demonstrations, Nathan Ford, and the Best of the Best

I first met my friend Nathan Ford last year in the painting tent.I stood back in awe of his collaborative canvas, a brilliant idea, (one I've gently borrowed more than once; for which I hope he'll forgive me), and drew the tiniest ladybug on the edge of someone's heart.This year though, I stepped up to his canvas with a little more bravery and painted a large flower.And stood back.Being one of the first people on the grounds that morning, I could see the wonderful background on which I was drawing. Nathan has a brilliant way with shadow and light and imagery don't you think?By the middle of the day, when I checked back, that canvas was beginning to take on the Nathan Ford magic.Speaking of magic, here is Nathan's painting, "Road to the Arena", oil on linen, in the Best of the Best tent. Isn't it wonderful?Also in the Painting tent is David Curtis and his sun-filled works of art.And here is David's "Menorcan Evening" from the Best of the Best tent. He painted this in his studio from watercolour studies done en plein air in Menorca.Stepping out of the painting tent and into the illustrations and calligraphy tent, we find Mark L'Argent and his very steady hand. He illustrates the most beautiful traditional and original script.Here is a wonderful example of his scripted piece on old ephemera.Next we'll have a stroll thru the printmakers tent and find the lovely Helen Murgatroyd.Look here! Helen let me photograph some of her process from sketchbook idea to finished print.Tell you what. Pop over to her site and have a look at the little video she has posted about the making of her print. Go ahead, I'll wait. It'll make you smile.And here, from the Best of the Best clockwise from left: "Rain", original archival print made in pencil, iPad and Photoshop, by Jan Bowman, "Dancing Damsels and Brooding Bitterns" Mixed media illustration, by Shelly Perkins, and "Druidstone Haven" linocut by Susan Wheeler.One thing I'd really love to try to have a go with is mouth-blown glass. I loved this glass by Eliot Walker. The texture reminds me of an ancient Pompeii vase I have, a present from my mom. Some parts of that old glass vase are charred like this.The whole piece, including this beautiful glass camera, is called "I know how it all ends", and is described as "hot worked, sculpted and blown glass, cut and polished."There were so many beautiful glass pieces in the Best of the Best tent.And beautiful wooden pieces, like this exquisite folding box. I'm so sorry, I neglected to take note of the artist for this piece.And this lyre by Tobias Kaye. It is "Sounding Board in Sycamore (number 472, lyre style)." The artists describes his piece: "Tuned, so that a sweep of the (dry) hand releases a rich harmony. Every day, every night, music sets the heart alight. Turned from a single piece of Sycamore. Pegs are Laburnum and Boxwood. Strings are Phosphor bronze running through copper tubes in the bowl wall. If your hands are dry please feel free to swirl across the strings."On to ceramics.I loved this piece of two little wrens. It looked like taxidermy to me.Here is "In the Garden" by Anja Penger-OnyettAnd loved this beautiful piece, "Giselle", by Cliff Wright. Couldn't stop walking around it.It is a maquette in wax for a bronze sculpture for a commissioned piece. Wow!And this! This is felted! A needle felted study of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, by Eve Kelly.Here is a close-up of Spring. Isn't the attention to detail amazing? Look at her beautiful face, and the description of the flowers and whispy fabric in her dress.More fabric art. This is a woven ribbon. For some reason, the artist wasn't listed but the information on the card says, "'A book for a library of books' This weave takes the form of 7 'A4 pages', with red font and end boards." The pages of the book reference music, visual art, poetry and prose.This amazing piece is called "London on the Map" by Wendy Dolan. It's a freehand machine stitched piece combining transfer printing and textures.And I really loved this quilt. It's called "I am Home" by Ekta Kaul. It's embroidered silk, and the remarkable thing about this is that the back mirrors the front except black with white stitching.The last piece I'd like to show you is this fanciful beaded mask by Claire Crouchley. It has a fantastic name: "Snegurochka" which is Russian for Snow Maiden and a story I remember from my childhood, so relate. I keep thinking how wonderful it would look next to my leather batgirl mask...lol.That's my round up of the most fabulous from Art in Action 2015.I hope you liked my small, exquisite collection. There's so much more I wish I had time to photograph and talk about! With some 400 artists, craftsmen and performers, it's impossible to show you everything, but I hope you have a good idea and a few lovely links to wonderful new artists whose work you can explore.Stay tuned for some practical classes that anybody can try. :D

It's Art in Action 2015 time! Come join me. I'll show you all.

Hello everybody.I'm just back from two days at Art in Action 2015 and trying to formulate words in my mind, which is too full of incredible art, ideas and new disciplines all vying for attention, all wanting a share of the lime light RIGHT NOW!It was good and great, and exhausting and wonderful, and too much and never enough.I could have easily stayed the other two days while watching my head explode from all the amazing art.So much to learn, so much to take in, so many bargains to buy at the marketplace, so many demonstrations to see in the various tents, so much...too much...never enough.So come with me to beautiful Waterperry House while I bring you this year's finds and practical classes.I was practically the first in line in the morning so I would not miss a thing.I'll show you all sorts of different art......take you to practical classes,this year:Egg tempera paintingBasket weavingGlass etchingWatercolour botanical illustrationWooden spoon carvingPole lathe turningYou can join me in the big draw down......and we'll visit the Best of the Best tent to see the most brilliant pieces.Are you interested in looking thru artist's private journals? Peeking into pallets? Looking over shoulders?Are you ready? Then follow me. :D

Last post from home, next post from ... home!

Well here we are again. The summer is here and it's time for me to move countries for a couple of months. So I've cuddled our babies, hugged my children, and especially Chloe, who I hate to leave for two months, watered the garden, bought groceries, petted the cats, gave instructions, cleaned the house, and packed everything I can think of. Oxfordshire is waiting, Robbie is waiting, home and garden at West Cottage is waiting, and I'm on my way.

Night time, the Wordpress photo challenge

My two night times, the city and the country.For the Wordpress weekly photo challenge.

Time for one last walk. The Wychwood forest.

Very close to us at West Cottage is a forest called Wychwood. It used to stretch over 180 square miles and was counted as a Royal Forest of William the Conqueror in the 1086 Doomsday book.It's a mixed forest of pines, beech, oak, maple, and the most glorious, tall bracken undergrowth.It has a circular public path thru it and we chose to have a walk here today.At one point, the path wend out of the forest......and we stopped and looked over our beautiful Oxfordshire countryside......and the golden fields around us.Then we found a majestic oak and had a rest and listened to the forest.Summer is almost over and we can see autumn approaching fast.Tomorrow I have to leave the country and return to the city, but I'm glad we got to walk thru this magical forest before I had to go.Sharing with Judith and the mosaic bunch, and I'll come visit everyone after I land in Vancouver.

Friday night disaster...averted!

I have a Land Rover story to tell you, but rather than show you the gruesome happenings, I'm going to show you the lovely vintage things I bought the other day.So, I had to run into Oxford today and Robbie and I made a deal that I would undercoat the chassis of the Landi first thing this morning and then, while I'm in Oxford, R would put the floors back in.(lovely old tools and a little silver spoon)"Just get under the car," Robbie said, "I'll spread out a carpet remnant for you. It'll be easy. Half an hour and you'll have it done."Then he said, "Here, use this scrapper and this screwdriver and this wire brush to just brush off the loose bits before you paint it." :D(1920 commercial bread loaf pan and a small iron skillet)So I tied my two feet of hair into a braid, got into R's overalls, climbed under the car and started scraping the tar goop and loose rust off...which started falling all over the carper remnant, R's overalls, and my two feet of hair!!! And the more I moved under the car, the more it got into my hair.About an hour into it R came to see how I was getting on.And to help me with the job because we greatly underestimated the amount of work.About three hours later we were finally finished and I cleaned my hands with the turpentine and ran my fingers thru my fringe and my fingers wouldn't go thru it.OMG! How will I get tar and enamel latex out of my hair!No time for hair rescue, tied it up and drove into Oxford.(thread spools from a Victorian cloth factory and an old ruler)I love to walk the 3 miles into the town centre from the park and ride and today I had a beautiful walk in a strong wind...which blew my hair around and tangled the tar into it even more.Now I know that the theory is that one shouldn't have two feet of hair past their 30s but stuff that for a game of soldiers. I love having long hair and, what's more, I love being a brunette, so cutting the tar out and using solvents was not an option.So, back home, and I ran a really hot bubble bath, soaked in it for a very long time, washed my hair with R's strong detergent Pantene instead of my gentle organic shampoo, squidged an entire tube of thick, gloopy conditioner thru my hair in two treatments and combed thru it with a fine toothed comb. The resulting hairball would have made my long haired Morgan jealous, but, a final little comb thru with a bit of coconut oil detangler, and my hair is back to soft, lustrous, normal.(18 and 19C French fabric scraps)Disaster averted.And I have a beautiful, rust free Land Rover (Landi update to follow) :D