Memories of Norfolk - Earliest Memories

Inspired by reading Jane of Marigold Jam's wonderful memories of her childhood I thought I would start recording my memories of many summer holidays spent with my Norfolk grandparents. It is something I have wanted to do for many years, so now is a good time to start. When chatting to my sister we always end up having at least one conversation about our times there so I have decided to keep my memories in a journal which I shall illustrate with drawing and photographs. I will share my first chapter with you, and see how it goes, there is a lot more in there.

Coincidence?

Where to begin?

In June I received a lovely package from Amelia at 101 Bird Tales which was principally a guerrilla stitch kit.
I still haven't used it, but of course I had to share it with my sister Janet when she was here this week.  When she reached this page, she took a gasp and said ' look this map is of the Denbigh area!'

I don't know why I hadn't taken this in when I had looked at this page before,  perhaps it was because I was just taken up with the whole thing, but Janet used to live near Denbigh.  We peered more closely to spot names we knew, and there under the wing of the the bird you can see the name Llannefydd. The tiny hamlet where Janet used to live, this gave us a very shuddery feeling.

 Janet's life in Wales is very significant to us. When she got married her husband got a job in the Wirral and they decided to live in North Wales, Martin's job took him all over the place, so the long commute held no worries for him. They found a very large, rather rundown Victorian vicarage in Llannefydd at a bargain price. This was in 1985. Here is a photograph of our first visit there.

That is Janet and Mr T in the doorway.

It was a bit of a drive, but an easy one if you don't mind motorways, and certainly worth it. On a clear day you could see Snowdon in one direction and Blackpool tower in the other. It looked down on Rhyl where the sun was often shining whilst it was rather cloudy up in the mountains. It was never warm, in winter we used to sleep in fleecy joggers and thick socks but this snowy Christmas we spent there was magic.

The view from the back door.

Janet and her husband Martin worked hard on the house, decorating and furnishing it beautifully. Janet became a dab hand at wallpapering and curtain making with a 12 foot drop. I raced up the M1 and the M6 on a very foggy  December weekend when her eldest son was born - the first baby in the family, and then again a couple of years later when my second nephew arrived, this time more thoughtfully in May. But things were to change tragically when Martin was diagnosed with leukaemia and declined very rapidly. Janet left him behind in the churchyard at the bottom of the Vicarage garden. That was in 1997. 

Her boys are now young men of 16 and 18 and she is beginning to get a life beyond motherhood, but you can see why the Llannefydd means so much to us, and why this coincidence is particularly poignant. 

Something else which is also rather 'spooky' is that before she looked at the book Janet was telling me about a walk she took on Tennyson Down on the Isle of Wight last Sunday where she watched a pair of peregrine falcons flying along the cliffs - and that bird hovering over the map...well it could be.

forty-eight hour blog silence in force shortly

My lil' sister is arriving this evening for a brief visit

I have the throat lozengers ready...

see you on Thursday

Try, try again

Every year when the Japanese anemones come into flower I want to capture them on paper. Often my attempts are rather stiff and lifeless so instead of picking a flower to paint I had a little plein air session in the garden today. This is still not quite right, but better than previous attempts.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon and the air was buzzing with hover flies. I was too busy to get the camera set up but I will share these I took last August.

Unfortunately this year my lilies have succumb to lily beetle and the recent heavy rain finished them off ...

...and the eryngium is very disappointing this year...

but there are plenty of these iridescent green flies flitting around.  

There are still a few swifts around, but they will be off soon. Early in the morning there are a dozen or so young blue tits and great tits at the feeders and occasionally a flock of long-tailed tits passes through the garden. It looks as if I shall be spending the summer at home again so it is great to have an eye for an urban safari. 

News for give-away recipients - all gifts are in the post!

Happy to announce ...

... the winners of my Market research give-away

I allotted each commentator a number and then went to The Random Number Generator  here to select 5 numbers. The result are:-

No. 1 A Purse,  to Kate at  thekathrynwheel

No. 2 A Scented Heart, to  Linda at Blu-eyed girl

No. 3 A flower brooch, to Webb at fromthegardenbench

No. 4 A Lotus flower book, to Jane at jeeandme

and

No. 5 Gift Tags, to Cathy at menopausalmusing

I hope to get them posted off after the weekend if I hear from you (but realise you may be away).  Thank you everyone for your encouraging and useful comments. I am thinking seriously about setting up an etsy shop, but need things to be sorted out here first. However if you are interested in any of the items listed, do contact me via e mail on my profile.

(Mr T is now on his third lot of mega antibiotics, we've still got our fingers crossed.)

Wednesday

My give away draw will stop this evening - there is still room for one more! Meanwhile I will share with you my hand made books I made at the Frances Pickering workshop. They are nearly full now.

First J is for ....

Now 'Come into my garden'...

I have a lot of Euphorbia wulfenni, it fills in lots of spaces and always looks elegant. 

The darling buds of May were inspired by ...

clematis montana 'Elizabeth'  that fills the garden with perfume.

You may recognise the pink campion from the previous post.

Can there be any gardens without dandelions?

And finally the daisy, one of my favourite pages, at the moment.

The turning of the year

So it is August. How did that happen? July, been and gone. At least keeping a visual diary like this helps you look back and see what did happen.

Unfortunately I should have kept my mouth shut on my last post about Mr T as the next day he developed an infection and will probably have to return to hospital for some more work. He is on mega antibiotics and a district nurse is calling weekly to change dressings. What a wonderful service they provide - last year they were calling for seven months!! Goodness knows what that would cost if we had to pay. (PLEASE don't let it go on so long this time!!) Meanwhile we are keeping cheerful and busy.

I had an inspiration for my August page when I saw this picture in The Guardian from the Garima Gospel. You can read more about it here.

As I say on my journal page the colours remind me of Italian majolica ware which I love for its association with some great holidays so that was my inspiration for August.

What will August hold?

The summer seems to have peaked early this year. I do hope the brighter weather returns for all those who are forced to take their holidays within the school break. But I have been spending time in the garden this week. Not only tidying up, but doing some drawing. This year I have lots of Rose Campion - Lychnis coronaria. I love the way it brightens up the dullest corners.  I had lost all of mine, but seeds from a friend have brought them back to the borders. Only a process red acrylic ink would be bright enough for this flower.

The pinkest pink in the garden!

There are lost of great seed heads appearing and some leaves are turning red early so here is another composition from my A4 journal.

This is drawn with a waterproof pigment liner pen and coloured with Brusho powder watercolours. I have some jars of mixed up colours and I enjoy using the limited palette, mixing the colours only by layering them, some times dry and sometimes wet in wet. It certainly helps keep the piece loose and lively.

If you have been, thank you for 'listening'. I hope your weekend is turning out well and have a good August.