Showing posts with label foxglove. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foxglove. Show all posts

Friday, July 24, 2015

Hares, stone, water, foxglove, fell and Hill Top.

 Two more pieces on wood, that were finished recently.
'The story within' and 'I used to be an Alchemist'

These two have joined the other smaller hanging pieces that I showed in my last post at 'The names of the hare' exhibition at the New Brewery Arts in Cirencester Gloucestershire. Do pop along if you are in the area it's a real treat for lovers of hares and features work by 28 Artists including magical work by Jackie Morris, Catherine Hyde, Hannah Willow and many other talented folk that feature hares in their work.  I visited last Saturday and would have loved to have taken much of the exhibition home to live with me, including these hares by Sophie Ryder which were just outside the gallery and would be perfect and happy living in my garden of course. ;)
 I've been quiet on here, enjoying the summertime and being outdoors as much as I can. 
A couple of weeks ago I ventured up to northern parts on a short break to the Lake District.
 It was my first visit and of course I fell in love. So much green and stone and moss. Trickling stream, waterfall, mountain and foxglove. I think we chose the right time to visit because there were foxgloves everywhere. So pretty. I wish the spleenworts would grow on my small bit of wall here, but I think it is much drier here?
We did some fell walking.
Up the 'Old man of Coniston'. We were lucky as the sun shone down on us and it was warm!
I bid a good afternoon in my best Cumbrian accent, to the local beautiful sheep...
The views at all stages were glorious. 
And finally at the top! It was incredibly windy at the top although looking at this picture, you could never tell. 
Nearby was the home of Beatrix Potter.  Hill Top  a place I've been meaning to tick off my 'to visit' list for  a long while.  What a priveledge to quietly walk around this cottage, with the fire crackling, grandfather clock slowly ticking everything left just as it was. It was a step back in time to life of a slower pace. It's a beautiful cottage inside, quite dark, but very cosy, and looks older on the inside than it appears to be from outside. The perfect place to be on a dark and rainy day.  It was so interesting to see Beatrix's things, from the odd shells that she kept and tiny dolls house treasures, china, letters and sketches on her desk to her delightful bedroom with it's original William Morris wallpaper.  There is no photography allowed inside but the pictures below show the cottage and the gate to the garden.  

Afterwards we went into the village of Hawkshead and visited the Beatrix Potter gallery and saw her original work. What a treat indeed. :)
We only had a few days in the Lake district and there is so much to see and so many places to walk. I must go back.  My toes have only just been dipped on the shore of a sea of adventure. No wonder the poets and Artists loved this place so much.   

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

There And Back Again

I feel sure I walked in Middle Earth this weekend?
North Wales. Land of mountains, lakes, rock, greenest moss, twisted oak, foxglove edged. Where giants and dragons sleep and dream of  Elders, Princes, Queens and gold.  
 Where idyllic mountain streams and waterfalls burst through beautiful breathtaking valleys.
 Hmmm...did I glimpse an elf out of the corner of my eye just then? 
Or Tom Bombadil behind the wall?
In unexpected places, it seems that hobbits had left their mark.


"Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold"  
 ~ JRR Tolkien

We followed the path up into the mountains into stillness. Just the distant sound of water falling against ancient stone. No sound of cars or noise of the modern world. A gold more precious than the metal kind.

Higher, until, I could no longer use my camera as the rain and wind blew. 
No burden of magic ring did I carry, but at certain times it did feel a little like we were climbing Mount Doom not Mount Snowdon. ;-) High up in the clouds at the summit, icy rain stung skin, but a hot chocolate reward before the climb back down was much enjoyed.  
~*~

North Wales is filled with legend and myth. It's not surprising really that I felt I was in JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Oh and... sssssh!....I think I found a dragon!? 
There it was, washed up on the beach among the drift wood waiting to be found.
A dragon wizard's staff? 

And.... I also found
this strange wooden magic ring.


Who knows, they  may unlock a secret doorway into a mountain? But that I'm afraid we may never know as I brought them home with me to my shire.