Summer......

flying by.  My young friend came for her annual visit and we spent a week walking in Kent, along the River Thames,

by the sea

and through the countryside.

and we planned the walks we would take next year.

This week there was a visit to the British Folk Art exhibition at Tate Britain.  I did love the cockerel


but the star exhibit had to be the  Bellamy quilt on loan from the Carrow House Museum in Norwich.






It was made by Herbert Bellamy and Charlotte Alice Springall in the year before they married. Not the kind of thing young couples do now I think.  You can read the full story here .  You can stand for ages and keep finding new(and surprisingly modern) images.  Unfortunately you couldn't get close enough to examine the stitiches as it was surrounded by an alarm force field which went off everytime you leaned forward or even pointed.
On the way out of the Tate we paeesed through this unusual sight.

Some of the worlds most famous painting being unpacked and hung, with great precision I may add.
I am keeping up with Documented Life, just, and experimenting with weaving but lack the time to scan photograph etc at the moment as we are off on a short break next week. We are going to my home town Barrow in Furness and of course hope to visit the beautiful Lakes but after our scorching summer(so far) the weather is looking decidely iffy. 

August.....

is the month my young friend comes to stay and we go walking.  It was a bit delayed this year thanks to the fact that in July I missed the bottom step and ricked my ankle. I was worried that I would spoil her holiday by not being able to do long stints but it turned out I managed and in fact it seemed to make my ankle better.  Still not perfect but everything takes longer these days.
One of our first walks was to Hothfield Heathlands described as one of the few remaining fragments of open heath.  Land where, traditionally, cattle were grazed. We saw......
New trees growing from a fallen tree,

the longest horns I have every seen

and a grey horse in grass that looked like mist.

On other days we saw a sheep on a wall, in Sevenoaks

and in London a blue cockerel.

We found dream cottages in  Boughton under Blean and Dargate

 orchards,

 pub flowers

and a magnificent oak tree.

and what better way to end a day than with a sunset. London horizon from my bedroom window

 and fabulous every changing clouds.  I won't bore you with the other 20 odd shots I took.

It's been done before.....

but not by me.  Tuesday was the last day of our sunny weather so I prompted by a picture in the paper I took myself off to the nearest place to find bluebells to photograph.   I was a bit early the Ranger said but pointed me in the right direction and this is what I saw.

This magnificent tree is about 300 years old

It is home to many I'm sure

and it holds onto the earth with giant fingers

Come back in two weeks they said

Ah! Spring.