M&Ms

This is my stitched self portrait required by next exhibition. I can't decide whether to add all the angry thoughts that are obviously whizzing round my mind!

probably I was thinking about my "novel" have to submit the first 1000 words by Thursday [to the OU, not an agent]. The story hasn't been too painful but writing the "commentary " as to why and how is a real pain.Only 1 more assignment to go [another 3000 words] and then I am free to spend as long as I like whittling about them, and never actually finishing, but it keeps me out of the kitchen and the cleaning cupboard and other useless activities so it has its value..

I guess I did know about Margaret MacDonald but I was quite bowled over when I saw her work on the gog on a programme about Art Nouveau. Much derided at the time apparently, critics called it spooky, which was not a good thing it seems. I guess it has been taken up and diminished by fantasy illustrators, but they would have to go some to match her draughts-womanship.

I am toying with ideas about Minerva and Medusa who had a moment, I hadn't realised. I like the Minerva mask lots of potential [but not the Victorian pushed back on back of her head]and of course the Medusa snakes, must be something in there for a series......................

Went to Kent.

Had a lovely week in Cranbrook, very gorgeous, didn't realise so many people owned such beautiful big old houses, many white clapboarded. Little sign of Credit crunch in this neighbourhood.

Gardens were all in Spring flower, daffies, forsythia, primulas and all the trees with delicate green buds. Sissinghurst wasn't covered in blooms as it will be later but neither was it deep in coach parties, so we enjoyed it.

Vita did her writing in the tower in the garden, I sneaked a pic. It was glorious sunshine all week, amazing.

Our cottage address was 2 Horse Entry, reached down a little passage way between shops leading to a mish mash collection of cottages and houses built every which way. Tiny old place, 3 floors, attic bedroom reached by a ladder, fortunately there was no falling out - [or off] requiring a separate bed.

Would have liked to visit Great Dixter too, but it didn't open until 1st April, totally ignoring our anniversary requirements.

Did make the trip to Hastings, [Retired Person again refused to let us move to the Old Town, so unreasonable] but we did get to see the new Art Gallery opened this week [better timing]. The fishermen still have their posters up agitating about losing their fresh fish trade on the Stade. One told me all he saw was people with cameras, not bags of money. The gallery fits well next to the tall black net huts and the views of the sea from the windows are even better than the work on display. they have a local artist Rose Wylie, and a general exhibition of paintings, including an Augustus John and Stanley Spencer so I was happy, even if the fishermen weren't.

code

I suspect those weird slanty letters codes we have to copy to sign into the computer to prove we are not one, are really to weed out the old and crumblies who can't quite see any more, one day soon that will be me.

Woodbridge library

TAGS one of the textile art groups I belong to put a small exhibition at Woodbridge library for this month.

These are some of the Artists directories we made, each page being for each artist in the group 20+ women, stitching away.
We had to make 4 books each. They didn't go too well at the summer show, so we are giving them another outing at the library, seemed appropriate, but at £15 each I think we may be pushing it a bit.

I put Shadow Dance up, and Sea horses, plus In the Night Garden, of which I have omitted to take a picture, and Hollyhocks , which I do not like - so I do hope somebody else does.

It was along afternoon, stretching and teetering putting the stuff up above the library shelves, of course the librarians moved some of it afterwards. Wish they had just put it all up in the first place.

We put up Lizzie's tea bag coat, which looks magnificent. She dyed and painted and stitched the tea bags onto a sacking coat after studying African designs. It truly is strange and wonderful.

It is also a very light and lovely little library so everything looks fresh and artistic in the main.

fortunate

Can avoid my short story this morning for reason no. 567, there are men in the garden.........putting in a new pipe for the water. Much noise and disruption and lots to look at through my window behind this computer.
The buildings here are originally Victorian and so are the pipes I guess. When they put the water meter in some years back, [which we refuse to have connected just cos we want to make a stand for expensive self defeating individualism], they showed me the connecting pipe, two thirds full of gunge. Yuk, explains our dribble of water pressure.
Some years later after losing continuous arguments with Water People, we have ganged up with the 2 neighbours and are paying for same Water Board sub-contractors to put in a new pipe privately.
Police, NHS, Education - private enterprise is all the rage.
Just fortunate that we can afford it.
Quite funny yesterday tho, we had agreed with church that it will be OK to dig pipe line across church yard. Yup, they checked, no funerals, christenings, weddings [no income at all] so we had the go ahead.
Sadly they had forgotten the Women's Day of Prayer.
Irate woman berating bemused pipe men as they drilled and dug right outside.
Just fortunate I was out.

work shop

Have been working on the flowery dell for some time. every Sunday mother comes to tea [but doesn't have a cup, "I'll wait till I get home"] and I sit and stitch another flower, as long as I am doing something I can keep my hands to myself.

This somewhat nightmarish scene involving the dancing ladies perhaps should speak for itself, goodness knows what it is saying.

The woodland scene is quieter and I am enjoying the seemingly endless task of hand stitching and whiffling around it. It came out of a workshop I led using gesso splodged on the calico and then scrim dragged across which gave me the trees. very enjoyable.

I am hoping to try a companion piece of the sea.

We were at Aldeburgh last week picking up the in-laws after their w/e away. sadly pa-in-law fell and the paramedic had to be called. Good old NHS, still functioning, hope it lasts till i start tripping.

It may seem I am working hard, but I suspect I am working hard at avoiding writing the 2,500 words my tutor is expecting in a couple of weeks.

It was interesting to see this embroidery by Boetti [or rather the Afghan women].

It was done in 1986 but I think Gavin Turk must have seen it recently as he is turning out many versions of the above, don't know if the Afghan women are accessible at the mo tho.

Very fuzzy head this morning, sun is shining ...................all I can see is dust and detritus; things that need doing, have to make a list. That might be scary. All lists are scary today, have a list of good books waiting to be read that just makes me feel over whelmed and under pressure, obviously I am over feeling all this.
Cape violet thingies are dying for need of repotting, obviously have to sort priorities, no good, every thing is jostling to be top.
Guilt most of all. I could be in Syria with real problems. Now I am really frozen.............

swimming against the tide

Meet my new friend ! Decided I haven't got time to delay..........downloaded the Brushes app for £5.99 [I think] - memory is hazy in these Last Few Days.........thinking in the 1000s! Just so few compared to what has gone before. And forgotten. Not fair.

Mother came up with a postcard my nana had written to a friend [Alf ] adding a note that I was away in a school camping trip on Isle of Man. 1959.

All I remember was the force 8 gale crossing and the TT riders face embedded in the telegraph pole [well the imprint if you see what I mean]. Can't remember anything about the 2 weeks camping at all.

Snow has gone, cold and sunny yesterday, the rowing boat was bobbing around, but firmly anchored.

If I wasn't so frightened by my OU tutor I might have tried a poem. She is very brisk. My last draft was dismissed as confusing, in fact she said the reader may feel sea=sick reading it. We were supposed to be splicing dialogue and I was obviously blowing at least a Force 8 in words.

Went to W*aterstones today and invested in several paper backs and Angela Carter's postcards book, I can't read magical realism but this little notebook looks very realistic. However she never allowed herself to become becalmed, so I shall keep paddling too.

Hockers

Still got the same snow, no more no less. Gets very boring tramping across the church yard to the car at the top of the hill. Had to move it from outside the house as the Lane is icy and ungritted. Unlike my teeth, it is so cold.


Heating keeps cutting out; drains blocked and had to pay the man and his rods £126 to free us.



Went up to London on Thursday to see the Hockney exhibition. Strange smell of candle wax throughout. Many many pictures of trees, painted "en plein air" at least three huge rooms full, Yorkshire trees, like looking out of a car window and seeing the trees go by.

The smaller water colours of farm land were quite good, nice light and sense of tranquility, maybe 20 or 30 of them; easy to see, exhibition wasn't crowded which was a surprise.

Lots of oil paintings, thick rather ugly daubs in lots of cases, wouldn't have passed muster at the local art group exhibition. Horrible glaring green.

Then there were the iPad pics, 52 of them, all beautifully blown up and mounted around one complete room, the changing seasons. Sunshine seems to suit him best, the shadows bought the pictures alive, the rest were ugly.

Then he retreated to a huge studio and did some from his imagination [based on years of study] these are the huge ones you see on the posters in California colours. Really much more attractive than i thought they would be

So - a varied response, plus an irresistible urge to get an iPad and have a go!

Up up & away

Snow arrived last night, should get wellies on and crunch out for a walk but can't bring myself to do it.

Have five jumpers on, in various thicknesses - and that's indoors, plus woolly tights and socks and the felt bootees daughter made me.

Daisy remains dressed as always and quite relaxed.

Finally bought tickets for the Hockney. R.A. suddenly opened the box office again and everyone piled in, mostly getting the dates and times they asked for, so they must have kept plenty back.

Ha, Pakistan finally all out for 3 million or something close. Doubtless England will score at least 3 in reply.

Led a good workshop [which I read in a magazine] where we take a source pic, place it below bondaweb and draw through, then turn over, paint pic on gluey side and then iron onto fabric. Worked pretty well, means I can transfer sketches quite simply, maybe.

Have lots of 10 min "gesture" sketches from the dreaded Life Drawing classes so am hoping to play with some of those..............actually have about 4 pieces of stitching work started plus proposal forming for my OU chapters and a 4,500 word short story.................feel quite unusually positive about it all, so obviously beginning to wonder if I am becoming bi-polar.

I am reading Pure by ? [won the Costa], about Paris in the 17th century when it was decided to empty les Invalides cemetery in the city [which over the years had grown and engulfed it] and having sorted the bones and bodies of the centuries, which were polluting the air, move them away. Weird flat story telling quite mesmeric but perhaps I shouldn't read it at night.I am hoping to get the new Leonard Cohen, but in the meantime got his "I'm your man" CD as only had it on cassette. The man is a genius.

add 1 drowner but she will be waving soon

Nearly done, just have to redo printing and make all tidy.

working on the women

Still working on my Waving or Drowning and have started on Monstreous Regiment of Women. That's the original spelling of the quote but may just be too tricksy ..........or peeps will enjoy correcting me .

I think sing and Shout Every Day may be finsihed but don't know how to mount it, as usual it is a funny shape ie long.

time for sons

Son sent me this image of these Big Bottomed Ladies from long ago, dug up in France.



Happy occurrence all round. Son doesn't find it easy to relate to his stitchey old ma, unlike Daughter with whom many chats and discussions are possible.



Son's father was an archaeologist, we spent many a summer in a caravan on a dig, son and daughter gathering shards of pottery and bone, laying them out on a plank in an attempt to sell them to visitors.
Somewhere there is a pic of Son sat on his potty in front of the Finds Hut. Mother was inside preferring to clean mud from finds rather than from Son's nether regions.
The photo was pre-computer so he may be saved from further exposure; at the time he was very exposed to a wind that seemed to blow straight from Siberia onto the Welsh coast. Have no idea of the geographical veracity of that statement, and could care less.


Son is fast approaching 40 now and looks somewhat like father, including the cigarette.
Of course we would have more to talk about if he collaborated with some lass and produced g'children.
Maybe I should be careful what I wish for.

back from hols

Cold but sunny, so a good week on North Norfolk coast. Missed Hattie tho; lots of dog walkers on the beach, no poo restrictions, a village full of dog walkers grinning behind their hats and scarves.

Having no doggy friend of our own we concentrated on staying upright in the wind looking for mermaid's purses and stones with holes in them.

Miles of sand and dunes, blue skies and flashing waves. The seals were gathered on the rocks as they were having thier babies and baby seals aren't water proof so mums and dads have to loll about in the sun waiting for them.

Village pub did huge meals with piles of chips, but

Fortunately all the beach combing seems to have kept the weight gain down to manageable proportions.

blue

Just coming down from mild hysteria, as I went to my first Life Drawing class for several centuries. I felt far more exposed than the model, I was so inadequate.

It was a small group arranged in a studio just down the hill. I have been moaning I should brush up my life drawing for ages, but every class I could find was on the wrong day, or too far away, or whatever excuse I could come up with.


Then I found one had been set up within 10 mins wander.


If I didn't sign up I would have to have wimp tattooed on my forehead.







Annabel was the artist mentoring, she is big and noisy and does some quite enjoyable paintings. These are two of hers, the second possibly expresses her personality more.


There are about 7 or 8 in the group, I was too nervous to count accurately. We started with 1 minute sketches, worked up to 5 mins and ended on 20 mins.


It was exhilarating to be drawing again and torture to be doing it so badly.


Everyone else drew big and bold, I was tight and small.


Annabel has a special pencil thingy called a clutch pencil which has a great big thick carbon lead, so I came straight home and ordered one. Pathetic.


Our model was a rather fine woman called Blue [yes Blue] she was very good at posing in interesting ways. She looked very strong and "noble".


Good to draw if only I could remember how.

shock & awe

Quite an eventful few days, starting with me machining [sewing] thru my my left hand middle finger. Shock and awe, rather than pain. Turned the wheel and pulled it out, followed [more like a bad joke] by the thread still threaded thru my finger. Happily I just missed my finger nail so clenched teeth and plasters, + hot sweet tea were all that was required.

My advice - don't try this at home.

Finally got to see the Gorgeous G'son, via Skype, he is growing up so fast. Daughter starts as a classroom assistant at a posh private kindergarten next week, GG starts in the tinies class. Last week they had a preview, daughter got on OK, only briefly distracted by flash out of corner of her eye of GG racing across the hall pursued by hapless tinies class teacher.

Fingers crossed that they both settle.

Went to my first two stitching groups of the new year and both were very convivial, Xmas spirit still surviving apparently, even I was cheery.

Did some printing making a stencil with plastic stuff ironed onto silk organza, using the result as a kind of screen print. Quite mucky, but got a result, as did we all, so good start to year.

Windiness has meant loss of electricity for friends; a tree down from our garden, into the lane below, for us.

Latter was alarming as RP entered from the wind, rain and darkness with the information and the look in his eye that he expected help.

Once I would have revelled proving I am as strong and able as any gent but I am an old girl now and we have our pensions to pay unemployed youngsters to do for me. However it seems he was concerned someone would imminently drive into it. What are headlights supposed to be for.

Snarky words ensued. I compromised by using my bad temper to stamp off the ivy clad branches and tugging out of the way. IMO the trunk was neatly aligned by the side of the lane and could wait till morning. RP felt as a good citizen he should tug it up the lane onto a grassy bit.

I left him to it.

Decided my rage was probably misplaced and would not cover me with glory so held my tongue about whatever it was that had upset me.

Silence often speaks loudly, even shouts.

getting a handle on it

Gertie decides she wants to go out. Not this time the handle is stiff, but she breaks into our bedroom repeatedly

Out and about

I am not sure if this will frighten the horses, however this is the result of an horrifically social week culminating in several gin and tonics.

Xmas was quiet, just me, him, mother, 2 cats, Miss Haversham [our Xmas tree drooping with fading garlands in the corner] and a large turkey.

The in-laws Diamond Wedding anniversary was ..........decorous, contained, respectable, mediocre food and forced chat. I could go on, but brother and sister in law did that ...went on endlessly, so i won't.Did you know you get a card from the Queen for your 60th anniversary, with a picture of the Queen on it and special instructions to the post man.?

New Years Eve was cheerier; we had a meal with friends on a gun boat in the harbour. It was built in Bruges in 1898, was interned in the First World War; sunk and seized by the Germans in WW2 in 1940, recovered and returned to Antwerp and became a hospital ship in the 50s...not sure which war, Korean? and then in the 70s fitted out as a "party ship". Rather degrading but maybe it enjoyed a bit of frippery.

Now it is a French restaurant.

crimble crumble

Our Christmas wasn't quite this jolly, tho it has the right number of contestants.

Ma sat stolidly in our new armchair for two days[not that anyone would notice as it was draped in the same scarlet fabric, but I knew that if it slipped it would no longer reveal dirty, worn arms.] Took 4 months to arrive, one would think, that needing the business, firms would get their hammer and nails out pronto, but no.

K [from Denmark] gave me some prints of some Danish? dancing ladies [maybe a calendar originally] which really tickled me so I have started making these, only hand sized .....actually more difficult than I thought to get something zingy. Dunno what to do with them, maybe make cards, maybe make a dancey pic a la Beryl Cook.

No Book Tokens so far! Outrageous. Ma decided she was down with the kids, and I wouldn't need them now I have a Kindle. Not true, a book is a book is a book. A Kindle is a convenience.

Son and daughter however were pleased with theirs and we got several extra phone calls as they fought to set them up. Daunting Daughter then complained she was up till 2.30 a.m. reading her first download Val McDermid.

RP knowing me better bought me the new Belinda Bauer in Hard back [at full price, there's dedication] which I am romping thru, wanting to go slower but also wanting to reach the denouement. Was reading Camomile Lawn as I have Mary Wesley's biography; it's a strange collision of the refreshingly but ultimately rather repetitious sex scenes, an un-nerving variety of couplings amongst somewhat priviledged the young people during WW2. Didn't see the TV series.

MW started late into authorship so maybe I should be encouraged. I have to write the outline and beginnings of a novel for my Open University................oh dear. It's like opening the gate onto a huge empty field and thinking which blade of grass do I need to pick. Or I can do a half hour film script/stage play. same problem tho.

Maybe as I get older I have lost the strength of belief./opinion/something. I would quite like to write a scenario involving an irascible old woman, Stephanie Plum's grandma, a grouchier Miss Marple..........dunno.

Have to go to Diamond wedding celebration of the in-laws this week, with associated family. That should mean I return twisted lipped with all the words I couldn't say marinating in bile. Mount that horse and ride it ............