Men and Women at Work II (+ dog)

Easter Sunday: cold but bright. A diminished family party meet at the Red House for what has become a traditional gathering of Wards and Jensens. This year, Anna and family were at a wedding, and Kate is due to come tonight with Ted and Shay while Anna and Martin fly to Tokyo for another wedding. Geoff and Amanda arrived on Friday with Ryan and Evie, Daniel working in a pub over the weekend.

Avril came, and everybody weighed in to help. Signs were put up (Ryan's ambition is to be the man who puts out the cones on the motorway), stones and logs were moved, with only a small amount of swearing, and various bits of anatomy were revealed!

Meanwhile, Evie was determined to read outside, despite the cold, and Amanda did a heroic job untangling a total scrow of wool I intend to knit (I did a bit too). If we paid ourselves the minimum wage for it, it would have beed cheaper to have chucked it in the bin and taken a first class train to London to buy some wool from the Queen's knitting shop! But once you start, it becomes obsessive, and Amanda's excitement as she wound the last few strands up was truly moving.

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!