Frog blog

Discovered in the garden, just trying to hole up for the winter, possibly the fattest frog I've seen!

Swallows and Amazonite

Not long back from a mind blowing trip through the Rockies, and expecting the swallows gone, I was thrilled to see over thirty gathered on the wires above the garage this morning. They are obviously thinking of going, and who can blame them as the grey clouds gather over Skidder, and mist forms on the inside of the glass!



Visually, the trip was mind-blowing and gave me lots of ideas for painting and jewellery, so I can see a busy winter coming up. The amazing subtle colours of glacial ice and the astonishing blues and greens and greys of glacier fed rivers and lakes, to say nothing of the patterns, inspired jewellery ideas, so I looked for gemstones that could echo and reflect these colours. What I found was a stone I hadn't come across before: amazonite- it looks like chunks of ice.


And labradorite, with its elusive iridescence, watery moonstones, and ancient looking turquoise can also add their subtle notes. One pair of earrings made so far- watch this space!

More bird news

The last four baby swallows ventured out of the nest yesterday, and flew today.



Meanwhile, a baby blue tit took a shower... and was having a great time until a big boy came along, and pushed him out. Is the usurper looking around to see if Mum is going to tell him off?

Swallow Central Update

This is the latest nest, and the five eggs have produced four chicks- at least I can only see four. (You can only see three in these pics) However, the nest is so small that another one might be underneath! Mum and Dad have to sleep on the floor so to speak, or in this case on the end of the ladder which hangs right by their hastily thrown together homestead. As far as I can tell, the whole family crowds into the nest at night, sitting on each other's heads. At least, that is what family no 1 do. It looks like this lot will be ready to fly in a week or so. Watch this space!

The Constance Gardener- and the Michael

We are a three garden family. Other families have several cars, some even have second homes, but us, we have three gardens! We have a big stake in our daughters' gardens: there are many plants in theirs that originated from ours, and we frequently bomb off south to do a bit of a makeover. Having worked recently on the Southern Garden, and the Mid West Garden (in Swindon) we came back to the Northern Garden to find lots of weeds, but also many flowers. Our Garden Goddess, Avril, has done sterling work recently, and we are delighted with our replanted central bed with a mad mix of orange pink and red flowers. It shouldn't work, but it does!

The Southern Garden

The London garden. After a week of solid work, and a lot of luck with the weather, this was the result. A new bed created and one turfed over, a large number of new plants added to give summer colour as well as a tidy up of the existing beds. I am delighted with the result. More photos @ www.flickr.com/photos/amberimages/

Results from the Summer School

Well, Brian's Summer School is finished, he is off to America, we are off to Canada soon, and Anna is back to work. Anna has achieved a lot with a super painting of Izzy and Shay in Greece, Mike has started experimenting with oils, as can be seen fom his unfinished painting of a country road near here, and my painting of a young cow in Grasmere village is ok- but not at all the new start I wanted. I tend to paint with obsessive detail, crouching over the canvas with a tiny brush, and my glasses pushed up, while I long to paint big impressionistic canvases, full of light and colour, suggesting great sweeps of landscape and sky. So I am disappointed in myself, that I have stayed within my comfort zone, even putting in the stone wall in the foreground which has become a bit of a cliche with me. Must do better.... but that will have to wait until the new term in September.

First two days of Summer School

Got going in our first two painting classes: I blocked in my cow picture, and Mike did his first ever oil painting. We are now looking forward to next week when Anna joins us to paint. All we need is Kate to come and play for us!

Paintings of Maryport?

Might work on these two as a pair with similar shapes

Food for free

Found these in the garden, under the Bramley Apple tree. Picked the biggest and fried them in butter, waiting for the rest to grow. Perhaps if we leave one or two to go over and produce spores, we'll have a regular crop.

Baby Bird Production Line

For the last two years, we have had the privelege of swallows nesting in our carport. They have come back now for the third year, and have just raised their first brood of three. However, we were thrilled when another pair made an untidy nest under the eaves of the cabin- and their four are now zooming around after insects like mini flying hoovers, and screaming at us indignantly when we go in and out of the cabin! Now though, we have a third nest- under the carport again, but on top of a pile of pots. So far they have five eggs. Production figures are creeping up!

Painter's Block

For two or three years now, we have been attending regular weekly art classes, run by local artist Brian Campbell. The classes run through autumn, winter, spring and early summer, roughly corresponding with school terms, but when they end in May, there is a big hole in our week. That is, until Brian's Summer School starts, and we look forward to several days of concentrated painting. There is a real luxury in setting up all your gear and not packing it away at the end of a day, because you are going back to pick up where you left off the day before. Well, we are due to start in three days, and neither of us has a clue what we want to focus on: landscape, figures, portraits, still life, abstract, drawing media- pencil, ink, chalk, pen, oils, pastels, acrylics, watercolour- mixed media! We are both hoping inspiration will come some time in the next couple of days. perhaps getting out with a sketch book is the right thing to do..... or look through old and new photos.... has anybody else got any ideas?

Welcome

Welcome to the official Trifolium blog. This is the place to see all our latest pots, paintings and jewellery and keep up to date with our other projects.