How to repair a Bumble Bee

Just a quick post for all you bee lovers. I came across this in my quest to identify bees in my garden, although they have all disappeared since I have been out with my chart. But you really must take a look at this remarkable lady's patience in helping bees laden with mites. I have fed bees to help them on their way, but never tried giving them a bath! Please click on the link and take a look.

Good bye April, hello May

What  glorious April we have had, after a chilly start let's hope May is too. 

I have left my May pages very simple using Brusho watercolours and bleach for the backgrounds and paper soaked in two colours of Brusho for the squares. This really intense watercolour powder is great for toning the paper and having bought a box for my book making I wanted to make good use of it.

I'm still enjoying filling these in, I often leave it several days and fill in a batch at once . As this is a working journal/sketchbook it is always around.

As always, thanks to everyone who leaves a comment, they mean so much - Jill x

April showers

It has been a typical April day of sunshine and showers. It was a beautiful morning and on my usual tour of the 'estate' with my first cuppa of the day I glanced up and saw a pair of swifts wheeling across the sky. I've been looking for them all week, they usually arrive here in the first weeks of May, so they are about on time. I haven't seen them since, but there will be more. The morning had another 'gift' for me, a parcel from my sister.  First I found this bag.

My sister lives on the Isle of Wight, and although in miles it is not very far to drive, only 100, it is considerably more when you add the hour on the ferry from Southampton, so  not only does it ages to get there, it is not cheap, I believe pound per mile the Solent is one of the most expensive expanses of water in the WORLD! So we exchange lots of e mails, phone calls and parcels instead. At the beginning of the year she said she was going to send a package each month - this is  the May one!  Inside the bag I found this rather lovely box, full of lace...

The box lid is covered with dyed pelmet vilene as are the forget-me-not flowers, with felt leaves, and stitched on beads and labels. Isn't is beautiful? 

Janet and I have been conducting a 'Frances Pickering correspondence  course' between us since I went to her workshop and Janet has been trying to work from her book.

The box also contained....

some vintage buttons and threads and....

vintage flower and vegetable labels.

I am sure you wish she was your sister too, but hands off, she's mine!

Now for a 'shower' after all this sunshine. I was sitting in the conservatory this afternoon when there was a great kerfuffle on the roof and our blackbird was to be seen diving at a magpie. Mrs Blackbird was seen emerging from the shrubbery followed by the magpie with one of her eggs in its beak. It's nature I know, but sad all the same. We seem to have more magpies than blackbirds. 

But a pretty shot to end with, I only wish I could post the scent of apple blossom,

This tree has been known to  have only three apples on it, we should do better this year

(it's a russet).

Wishing you all a great May Bank Holiday weekend.

PS. May calendar ready - posting soon

Beautiful Bedfordshire

Bluebells and primroses, who could ask for anything more?

from my visit to the Luton Hoo estate this afternoon.

In the Pink

Here is my latest book, all ready to fill. I love making them, I guess I can just take my time filling the pages

This is the cover and the lining before sticking them together with bond-a-web. The lining (top) is the original transfer dye painting enhanced with colour pencils and given a couple of coats of acrylic wax. The cover (bottom and below) has been stitched on all week.

A button and cord were stitched on as a fastener, the lining bonded on and the pages stitched in.

Front

Back

Open

That is three I have to work on now, and I have promised myself that I shall give myself time to work on some of my other projects.

Saturday

It has been very busy here so I am taking a break to do a quick catch-up whilst Mr T watches the IPL cricket which he recorded earlier. I had to give in and do some gardening today. Because of a very large hernia (awaiting surgery), Mr T is finding all bending down very difficult, and so the vegetables have come over to me, under strict supervision. We had to pay someone to prepare the beds - I am not up to digging, but they are now ready for the mange tout and sugar snap peas growing in the greenhouse. Then there will be further crops of beetroot, carrot and salad stuff.  I also weeded and mulched the raspberries and tayberries this afternoon. My end of the garden is looking a bit neglected, but bursting with flowers, we have robins and backbirds nesting and there is constant activity at the bird feeders.

Chives

Last week we went to see my in-laws. Jean had said she would look out her embroidery threads for me, but she hadn't found them. However she did bring down a drawer stuffed with sewing bits and pieces including more pieces of lace than I could imagine. I thought she was going to hand the lot over to me, but she wanted to keep most of it, just in case, and I don't blame her. But she cut me off half a metre or so of each piece. Some of it is absolutely gorgeous, what luck. Jean was a great sewer once, and made nearly all her own clothes. My in-laws are the worlds greatest hoarders and bargain seekers so there home is stuffed to the rafters. 

Jean's lace

Jean also had a great collection of braids  - enough to trim a 'flotilla' of lampshades - I did not say 'no' to a few feet of these. I  know you ladies who enjoy vintage lace and haberdashery will be intrigued.

Fringing and braids

Meanwhile I have been working on my handmade books. I thought I would show you the paper I have been experimenting with. I mentioned it before, but the results are wonderful. Using the Frances Pickering technique I have coloured this paper by soaking it in a Brusho water colour wash. You tear the paper and dampen it with plain water first. I used heavy duty lining paper here. I mixed three colours, two reds and a purple and generously slopped wash on both sides of each piece of paper stacking it in a higgledy-piggledy heap. I then sandwiched pieces of torn paper doily, lace, flowers and leaves in between the sheets, something my fellow course member. Paula Watkins had done previously. The pile of paper is then wrapped in a plastic bag and left for at least half an hour for the paint to soak in. I then dried it of with a hair-dryer and gave it a press with a hot iron.

The colours here are a bit brighter than the actual colour. Frances recommended Brusho colour as it is relatively cheap and the colours are very intense so you only need a little to make a strong wash. Also the pages do not stick together - having them stacked is what helps the patterning to develop. Unwrapping the paper and peeling the sheets apart is great as each page is different and a surprise.

Here are a couple of pages from my book of 'J'

The Joker card is a scan from a beautiful miniature double set of cards which belonged to my grandmother. I should think they date from the 1920s or 30s.

...and  here is Jezebel.

Hope you are having a great weekend too.

Hidden Gems on earth day

Today I went for a walk in a beautiful cowslip meadow which is a five minute from my home and I didn't realize it was there. I belong the the local U3A (University of the Third Age) natural history group and we had a guided walk round this site which I thought was just an area of waste ground. There are lots of small streams running through Luton which feed the River Lea which runs into the Thames. This site has lots of pools formed by springs and has a colony of rare crested newts as well as water voles. Kingfishers, herons and even little egrets have been seen at the site.

This is Trevor the local conservation office introducing us to the area which is surrounded by the A6, housing estates and an electricity sub-station. Those are cowslips we are standing in.

They are not quite fully out yet, Trevor reckoned they will be at their peak in a couple of weeks.

Here we are spotting the new leaves of the Greater Pignut which Trevor has shown us before on a different site. It is a rare plant which for some reasons enjoys growing around Luton, it is the chalk grassland it likes - it is a rather unprepossessing relative of the carrot.

One of the streams on the site. As the water is fresh from the chalk springs  it is lovely and clear.Later on there are  common and marsh orchids blooming in the meadow. I shall be back.

The pools are surrounded by several different species of willow - they will dry up later in the year.

These large marsh marigolds are probably a cultivar that has established  itself in the pool.

Luton has a rather poor reputation as a town, but it has a thriving and active conservation team working to preserve these little corners, I must get out more!