London Day 1

It is my birthday today (85) and we decided months ago to try and get up toLondon for the day. Well what with one thing and another we are at the Strand Palace hotel from Monday to Thursday. A major exercise in booking exhibitions has been accomplished and we started off today. Bus to Reading Station, train to Paddington, taxi to hotel. Unpack and set out for Victoria’s where we had lunch before walking to Buckingham Palace to see an exhibition of pictures and things bought by George IV. The artists on the whole are not first rate. There are two superb Dutch pictures and a couple of Rubens. The ‘things’ were extraordinary. Two umpteen storied pagodas.  reminded me of Kew except that these were six or seven feet high and with lots of gold ornamentation. And a wonderful gold dinner service of which the label said still in use today. That is one in the eye for Trump.

We returned to the hotel and set out later for Veraswamy’s restaurant. An Indian restaurant of the highest class and it has been in Regent street for decades. My dad took me there in the late 50s when  Indian restaurants were very rare. He was a professional soldier and in the Indian Army so he appreciated Indian food. Anyway it is still is exceptional food though not cheap. And stem ginger icecream to end with. That is definitely joining my lists of ice creams to make. 

Tomorrow we do the Zoo in the morning and Tate Modern after lunch. Our tickets are for Andy Warhol but that is just an excuse. They have a very fine bookshop. I highly recommend it for books on art including photography.

The warp end has appeared!

The end of the warp has appeared! I have perhaps 8 inches more warp before I finish this fabric. Then it will be inspection for repairs, hand wash and think about turning it into a jacket. As preparation I have been working on the colours of the stripes, based on what I have around the house in 8/2 cotton. At one point I had a complex pattern of stripes repeated three times but then decided no. So I have spent time today revamping it to use the same colours but across 24 inches not 8. So I am now already to wind the stripey warp.  The weft colour will be decided when I start weaving. I have allowed one metre for trials

I have signed up with the Online Gild to take part in a course on Echo and Iris weaving by  Marian Stubenitsky. That needs yarn for a warp and she has sent out instruction as to what is required. I checked my stash but no luck. So next week, I will visit Handweavers Studio and buy the four colours neded.

My giant zinnias have started flowering. Below is the first flower.

6.5 inches in diameter. Another has come out this afternoon, so dark a red as to be chestnut and just as big. I wonder if the breeder just crossed a zinnia with a sunflower, I am not enamoured. These are not what I expect from my zinnias. As soon as every one of the plants has flowered, they will be in the compost bin.

Back to Weaving

Yes I am back to weaving. Mainly because I want to get on to the next weaving (fabric for a vest by Daryl Lancaster).  I have bought a pattern from Daryl and also downloaded instructions for making one of her striped warps. I suspect I am going to have to buy more yarn! Not enough 8/2, 10/2 cotton in the stash. Oh well, I am going to do an OLG online course with Marian Stubenitski (echo and iris weave) and need some yarn for that.  But I am making good progress with my dyed silk/merino fabric on the Schacht. Getting near the end and the warp is not well put on so I have to keep stopping and make adjustments to the tension. 

I have cut lino blocks, taken delivery of waterbased inks (easier to clean up) and read several books on linocuts and have generally been crafty.

I am also revamping the garden and cursing. See photo.

This photo shows me (and Jerry) in front of a mound of green about 18 inches taller than me. They are not sunflowers, I only wish they were. I should have read the seed packet. What it said was Zinnia Giant mixed. I did not expect 7 feet, perhaps 3 to 4 feet. Instead it has taken the plants months to get to this size and flowers look as though they will be sunflower size. I will post photos when the flowers appear in a few days. I cannot complain. Fortunately I kept the seed packet so was able to read what it said. So my fault completely but  bah! all the same. I did plant some ordinary ones, about 2 foot high and lovely.  However on the plus side we are being swamped with tomato crop and I grew several different sorts this year, Gardeners Delight, Marmande, little plum tomatoes, Sungold (very tasty). I am bringing in two handfuls of ripe ones every day.

Time Out in Norfolk

The coronavirus has made everything very complicated We had intended to celebrate Dorothy`s 80th birthday is great get together near Chichester  but that had to be cancelled. We had booked the dogs into their favourite dogsitter, so we left that booking and organised ourselves to visit Cally Booker (Dorothy`s daughter in Dundee) but at the last moment entry into Scotland turned iffy and we cancelled that idea. Using a lot of searchig we found a large caravan for rent for a week in North Norfolk (one of my favorite bits of the UK). And we spent the other week pottering about, that is, visiting Kew and Wisley, both of which had to be booked. The rest of the week was  spent in `Arts and Crafts`. Dorothy was printing on fabric and I was doing linocuts. I have not done them at home before although I have the necessary gear, press, drying rack, sheets of glass, inks etc. I used a Burnisher rather than the press but not satisfactory. Next time - which will be a few days, I will use the press. But I got some acceptable prints.

And then we went to Norfolk and it is a nice place. We fond an art shop in Wells and I spent far too much money. My only excuse is that I did buy a few family Christmas presents but I fear that most of the money was on a rather fine linocut of the locality. On the last day, we went on a seal trip to Blakeney Point. We seemed to be moving too fast for photos so I just pointed in about the right direction and went click click click. I was surprised when I only had to throw out 4 photos out of 35. Two were terns flying across and two were people getting in the line of fire.

The photos are from top Wells fairground, beached boat and baby seal. Aren`t they podgy!!

So I need to end with a note about my health. The hospital visits culminated in an MRI scan of my brain which was very unpleasant because I am claustrophobic. And was a waste of time. Nothing at all wrong said the consultant and referred me to the heart people who I visit it next week. However at one such meeting, I was put on aspirin and ever since starting that, I have got better. I would say I am about 95% of what I used to be. Getting through crafts like I used to. Lots of linocuts and bookbinding and an awful lot of gardening because I did not do any from February to July. In fact I am currently planning to revamp the garden altogether, next year early. I am going to a course at West Dean later this year where my ideas should be finalised.

Reading Hospital

I am fed up with visiting Reading hospital (Royal Berks as locally called). They are as perplexed as my GP about what the problem is. However I am doing well and getting up earlier every morning and accomplishing a great deal. For example I could not find my lino inks on Thursday and decided I would have to turn out the bookbinding room. Now the bookbinding room is a very small room. We put a single bed in it when we moved here  five years ago and it was a tight fit. So it became `the bookbinding room (no bed). But it has a metal cupboard and a load of shelves and a desk to work on. Anyway I got only half way through yesterday. I got up at seven this morning and went to work on the room again and by 0830 it was finished. I was a bit scandalised by what I found. A number of totally unused sketchbooks!! A workman's carrying box full of graphite pencils, pastels and so on. and a very large number of unused lino blocks, boxes of paints Oh and my inks! Which I want anyway. So the moral has to be. If you want any art materials, search the metal cupboard before buying anything!!

I have managed to make  fabric covers for two books and create a concertina book on The Owl and the PussyCat. see below.

The illustrations for the concertina book are all photos, mostly taken by me. The idea was that this is a trial in making - actually the first version was awful and badly made. This is the second version but in fact, it is merely a dry run for the final version which will have lino cuts everywhere in place of the photos. That will keep me occupied over winter!!

The other bit of news is that my family and, I fear, the doctors at Royal Berks, are all adamant that I stop driving. Too dangerous - which I admit is true. So my nephew is taking it over and I am coming to terms with a very different lifestyle like giving up my linocut class on Friday because I do not want to wreck some family member`s Fridays. But actually I can do a great deal at home because I have a little press and a professional drying rack. The restriction will be on lino block size. A4 is too big but A5 is okay. I could, I suppose, buy a Columbia press (The Rolls-Royce of Victorian presses) but we  would   have to rebuild the garage to get it inside. I asked my nephew who knows about floor loading and such like topics and he listed the things we would have to do.

So what about weaving? I bought one of Daryl Lancaster's patterns for a gilet (she calls it a vest) but I really fancied using some of her striped fabric. So I got a copy of her instructions for weaving a striped length of fabric, hunted through my wool stash and got all sorts of lovely stuff and designed a stripey fabric. So now I need to finish the fabric on the Schacht. Silk dyed warp and wool weft. On that note, I will go and weave a few inches!!

Getting better - probably

I see it is some weeks since I blogged. Well I have been taken up with being ill. Things went being bad and eventually my GP got fed up and said `Hospital. Now. Let's see if they can work out  what`s wrong with you.`  And I got an ambulance and all! Anyway They got very excited and decided it was a brain problem so I got shot to the head of the queue and my brain was scanned. Unfortunately there is nothing wrong with my brain. So they decided that it had to be one of the many drugs I take. And there sent me home saying `stop all drugs`. And I think they are right because have had two days of normality (except for feeling a bit feeble). Monday Dorothy and I went to Wisley and Tuesday we went to Kew. Today I seem to have spent the morning potting up plants. WE have a greenhouse full of tomato plants now and I have actually done some weeding.

Not much weaving has happened but I am definitely thinking about it. I have developed a dreadful memory which is bothering me and Dorothy. But maybe that will recover a bit.

Better News

The rather startling news out of the CT scan was `There is absolutely nothing wrong inside. Absolutely clean` so I have to go through the whole thing again next week while they take tissue samples but they have prescribed a drug which will put a stop to everything. So there is much to be cheerful about.

The garden is blooming. I am frantically potting seedlings up and trying to find places in the garden for flourishing seedlings. This morning I found room for a wigwam of bamboo stakes in the front garden and planted out my sweet pea seedlings. I still have a load of seedings in the greenhouse to pot up. Man-yana!

 In spite of the need for gardening, I have done a lot of weaving and bookbinding. I am creating a fold out book of the Owl and the Pussycat. I started by intending to use linocuts to illustrate it but have ended up with photos. Not at all sure about this. But I have decided to finish it off and then look at it carefully. I am certain I will want to recreate it.

And in the meantime, the garden !