Autumnal Easton

The sunshine this morning drew us out to a local garden for some autumn colour and lunch out.  Easton Walled Garden is just off the A1 about 8 miles south of Grantham and has been a work in progress  2001 and every visit brings something new.

Today the gardens were very quiet and the staff outnumbered the visitors which made it all the more pleasant to wander around with unhindered views.

 This lovely Virginia Creeper greeted us as we entered the gardens.

 I didn't know they flowered but I suppose logically they must!

We had lunch outside as it was quite warm and the light was catching trees in the distance.

 By the time we'd eaten the clouds had built up and veiled the sun.

 This border still looks very elegant as it slips delicately into Autumn.

 This espalier (pear?) had a magical quality to it.

 Looking back to where we had lunch.

 I'm sure the children will enjoy this display when the gardens open again on Sunday.  They'll also enjoy gathering lots of conkers in the carpark, they were falling everywhere.

 Not sure who this guy was, paparazzi no doubt 😜

 Beautiful mosses atop a low wall.

Just to taunt us the sun popped out again just as we made our way out.  Starting on 19th and running till the end of the month there's going to be a pumpkin rolling event to coincide with half-term.  I'm hoping we'll find time to pop out there again as it's bound to be a good photo opportunity.  I think they have 200 pumpkins for the children to roll.

Brittany

Have I really not blogged since July?  That'll be because I've been struggling with my poorly foot and I've stayed fairly close to home during that time.   I finally got to see a podiatrist who set me on the road to recovery so we were able to go on a planned holiday a couple of weeks ago.

Many years ago when I was a mere schoolgirl I had a French pen-friend who lived in Brittany and I spent 3 weeks enjoying all the beautiful country and culture that Brittany had to offer.  This month we went back courtesy of our local coach company and were able to visit Concarneau, Quimper, Benodet  and Pont Aven.  En route to our hotel at Concarneau we visited Mont St Michel, the sister to St Michael's Mount in Cornwall.

The last time I was here you could walk across to the Mont but recently a footbridge has been built across the sands and access is by foot, push-me-pull-you bus or horse drawn cart.

Looking back from the Mont to the mainland the footbridge feeds thousands of people across the sands.  The tide here moves at an alarming rate when it comes in and you wouldn't outrun it if caught out.  I heard that it comes under the sand and saturates it to the point where it breaks the surface and rushes on.

After a security check by police we had a bit of a wander.  We didn't get far because of my gammy foot but enjoyed this amazing structure.

I have my DH to thank for this photo of the beautiful turrets atop the abbey and the following ones too.

You can't see from this photo but the streets go up very steeply.

 We gave up trying to walk on cobbles and took to the walls for a short walk.

Our base for the week was the Hotel de l'Océan at Concarneau.  It is placed right on the bay and we were lucky to have a sea view.

We were treated to some lovely sunsets

Our first day was spent in Concarneau and we rode a little road train to get to the old town.

Behind the town walls are beautiful gardens, cobbled streets, town walls to walk round and interesting back yards.

Going back on the little train (let down by my foot again for a longer visit) I took a chance pic of the beautiful flower beds in the centre of the road,

My pen-friend came from Quimper and we paid a visit here the next day.  Blustery showers took us into the cathedral which had some amazing stained glass, some of it from the 20th century.

This window was designed and made in 1993 by Hungarian Anna Stein and recalls the life of Santik Du (The little black saint) or Jean Discalceat a local Franciscan who looked after the poor and plague-ridden residents in the 14th century and died of plague himself.  

 This building above is the Cafe Des Cariatides with its beautiful stone carvings.

The Anna Stein window in full above and below a part of a window by Hubert de Sainte-Marie which is dedicated to the life of the Breton missionary Maunoir. (Dates from the 1950's I think).  I really like the style of this window.  The figures have a primitive look to them.

I'll have to come back and add links for the glass artists. (now added).

It was lovely to be in Quimper again and the area around the cathedral certainly brought back memories.  It was lovely to be able to speak some French for a while too and mostly I was understood and understood what was said to me.  I'll be back with the rest of the trip in a few days.

Stitch Retreat Workshop

Following so closely on the heels of my Susan Denton workshop you will think I am always doing workshops.  This weekend I have had a tiring but fabulous time at a workshop with Angie Hughes organised by Nichola Keeble who runs the new(ish) company Stitch Retreats.  The Retreat was held at Stoke Rochford Hall which used to be my old stomping ground 40 years ago when it was a teacher training college.

Hard to believe this beautiful building had been almost destroyed by fire about 10 years ago.

 This beautiful Christmas tree in what used to be called the Crush Hall smelt beautiful.

We were so lucky with the weather all weekend and this was the distracting view from our seminar room.

Stoke Rochford sits in a beautiful parkland adjacent to a golf course and it was this rural location that attracted me when I was looking for a college in the 70's.
 

A lunchtime walk in the gardens revealed sculptural teasels and beautiful leaf shapes.

This fascinating glass fireplace dates to the early 20th century and must be beautiful with firelight flickering through the glass plates.

There were two classes running at the Retreat, our group with Angie Hughes and a second group with Mandy Pattullo.  Our group was 7 strong including Angie so we were very select, compact and bijou as they say.  It was lovely to have plenty of room to work and also to have lots of support from Angie who is a very relaxed and generous tutor.  

Our workshop centred on exploring velvet and that proved to be in an exciting and interesting way.  We worked with light coloured velvet and applied dyes, ink, bleach and stamps to it to gradually build up a base on which to work.

I explored several techniques that I havn't worked with much before and it was fascinating to see how different everyone's pieces were by the end of the weekend.

You can see that I was the rebel of the group, working in a landscape format instead of portrait and I chose to interpret an underwater theme rather than a garden.  By this time we had added machine embroidery and I had cut back some of my sheer top layer as I wanted to see where I needed to add more stitch and maybe some more stamps.  Just by coincidence, and probably because this venue was local to me, I had met 4 of the participants before, such is the small world of textile arts.  It was fun to spend time with new people and to receive tuition from a lovely lady.  I am going to do my best to finish my piece this week. Angie's piece is top left and was unfinished.

All of the work is beautiful and I loved seeing the way people combined the stencilled designs, stamps and colourways.  You can see the fabulous and exotic flower forms and colours that were used.  I hope I get to see some of the finished pieces some time.

You can see a short video of Angie's technique on Youtube and hear her beautiful singing voice.





We worked really hard over the weekend and enjoyed every minute of it.  The other group with Mandy Pattullo worked equally hard, maybe even harder, and produced some fabulous work.  We were invited to view their handiwork this afternoon.

Aren't these all fabulous?  They must have worked very hard as this was all collaged tiny scraps of old clothing and was all worked by hand.  If you know Mandy Pattullo's work you will recognise some of the creatures depicted.  I particularly liked the fox (by Liz Hands, fancy her being there :-)  ), the kingfisher and the blue hare. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend and it was wonderful to share this creative time with friendly people.  Many thanks to Angie for all the information and techniques she shared with us and for making it a hardworking but relaxing and rewarding time.  Thank you too to Nichola for all her hard work and her great sense of fun throughout the weekend.  She worked really hard to ensure the hotel did everything to keep us happy and comfortable, not to mention well fed and watered.  Keep your eye on Stitch Retreats, Nichola has not been trading long but she is working hard to provide satisfying stitchy breaks with excellent tutors.