A local walk.

My new pain killers are working well so I decided to walk to the chemist to pick up another prescription rather than go by car. On the way back I went a different route and passed this house which I knew was around here somewhere but I don't think I'd noticed the plaque before.

As I was still feeling OK I decided to have a walk round Addiscombe Recreation Ground, which I haven't visited for years because I found it so uninspiring. I wondered if it had changed - or maybe I've changed and I might be able to find something to inspire.

This end of the park certainly wasn't very inspiring at first glance

but I like the patterns the bent wire, old cracked wood and peeling paint make

 

and the colours in the old layers of weather-worn paint 

Some areas were a bit grim

 and I began to think my low opinion of the park hadn't really changed since I last went there.


















As I passed the courts surrounded by wire fences there was a young dad playing football with a toddler. It lifted my spirits to hear the encouragement he was calling out to the youngster.

Then I saw the snowdrops. 

and crocuses 

and they made me smile

There is almost always something beautiful to find if you look for it.

Before I go here's a quick peep at my daily anything-that-grabs-my-attention mini drawings and the weekly something-from-Coombe-Wood drawings. 

Sorry but I appear to be having some issues with layout today - I moved one thing and all sorts of other things moved leaving gaps everywhere - very irritating. 

Thank you very much for joining me. 

PROGRESS.

Yesterday my walk was slow and painful but the sun was shining and the sky was blue, which always does me good.

I love the contrast of last year's faded papery hydrangea flowers next to the new purple shoots.

This morning I saw the doctor and he changed my pain medication. The list of side effects is among the worst I've seen so far - I'm praying that I don't get any of them. This afternoon after only one tablet my walk was less painful. 

Yesterday as I was photographing moss on a corrugated roof a man came quite close behind me and said he was wondering what I was photographing. He said he could see on my camera screen that the moss looked like a landscape. The moss photos I took yesterday had sun flares and blotches on so I tried to get some better ones today - much easier as it was quite cloudy.

My Winter book has a proper cover now - a fluffy white knitted outside and paper-laminated organza inside front and back, with snowdrops on, tinted with gels pens and water-colour pencils.

There's a 15 minute demonstration of the paper lamination technique here by Claire Benn from Committed to Cloth if you'd like to know more about it.

Thank you very much for joining me. 

Little steps

A short Coombe Wood walk.

Frost flowers again. I've only ever seen these this winter, on the cut stems of one kind of plant. I must remember to ask the gardener what it is. 

Korean pine tree cones disintegrating on the tree as they drop their seeds, leaving a core. 

Gorse - vicious spikes, delicate little flowers

Hopefully I've learnt the difference between rhododendron and camelia buds now - I think this is a rhododendron

 and this is a camelia

Rhododendron

  Rhododendrons - what an amazing colour

Camelia

The remnants of last year's hydrangeas with gorgeous purple leaf buds

It's such a shame that hellibores hide their faces 

 This one has lovely pink freckles

I must keep an eye on these - and see what the cluster in the middle does next (no idea what it is).

It has lovely red stems

A bud in the middle of a "nest" of leaves (not sure what this is either).

Partially skeletonised holly leaves

Altered books.

I usually like to plan ahead and know exactly what I'm going to do before I start but this is unfolding gradually as I take little each step. It began with the paper-bead-making the other day, then an idea of what to use some of them for began to emerge. I searched a couple of charity shops for small, children's board books and found four identical sized books for 25p each. I stripped off the pictures and then coated the pages with gesso. I was only going to do one - it was going to be something about winter - but I have four - I'll have to do all four seasons then.

I've knitted a white fluffy snowy cover for the winter book and will probably fasten it with a bead somehow. That's all so far but ideas about what to do on the pages are slowly developing. 

Thank you very much for joining me. 

A WALK AND SOME PAPER BEADS

The walk

It was a short walk because the pain is quite bad today. It was lovely to see the bank of snowdrops, with so many more flowers bursting into life, in front of the shelter at Coombe Wood .

Blue sky and sunshine was a bonus after the sleet earlier 

 Low winter sun on the magnolia and the bench

on the broken sundial

and the trees beside the pond

Two fish swimming past an old flower head
(could be a Primula Bulleyana) 

Another journey

Apart from my photography most other expressions of creativity feel pretty dried up - life has knocked all the stuffing out of me physically and emotionally but, thanks to the art group I belong to, I'm often able to take some tiny steps towards greater creativity again. At our get together on Tuesday Cath (see her lovely artwork here) showed us how to make paper beads. It's a long time since I tried making these - without any great success. Cath makes gorgeous paper beads. My first attempts on Tuesday weren't very good but since then I've made some more and discovered that I like them better when they're made with my own papers (old artwork etc.) rather than magazine pages and I prefer them with a smaller hole in them.

I wrote to my art group friends the following day saying "I suppose I'd better stop making paper beads now till I find a use for the ones I've made so far..." but this morning I made some more and discovered that while I was working on them an idea came to me about what I'd like to do with them. Sometimes it helps to take some little steps before you have any idea of where you're going.

Thank you for joining me.

A snowy walk

An early trip to Coombe Wood was necessary this morning - because it was snowing and I didn't want to miss it.

I must try and get a white umbrella or a clear one
you'll see why later

This is why I need a white umbrella or a clear one
when photographing close ups of snow 

 

A friend said it looks like candy floss

Thank you for joining me.