Branching Out - Along the Ise

At this time of year it is always difficult to judge what kind of weather we may encounter the photo above is from a day in August and rains continued intermittently for most of summer and autumn.

This resulted in our route along the Ise being both overgrown with brambles, nettles and weeds as well being rutted and muddy in places which made walking an interesting proposition, especially for those who had forgotten their boots (again)!

The weather was kind to us with the December sun casting a lovely, yet melancholy glow through the leafless branches. We thought back to other walks in different seasons as we stopped to sit and enjoy our Mindfulness meditation. We allowed our breathing to slow and felt the warm on our faces, we felt calm now the muddy puddles were behind us and glad that our way was easier to navigate. 

We crossed the bridge and remembered Allan the Storyteller from our last project telling us a tale on the very bridge in a heavy downpour. We felt glad that we were warm and dry, we felt glad to have walked successfully towards another lunch with friends.

As it was a Monday we had the 

Green Patch, where some 

of our group are volunteer gardeners, 

we had the site to ourselves.

We fed the chickens and ducks in the hopes of finding some eggs and looked at these optimistic little plants

Back in the cabin Carole had arranged our fired and glazed

clay stars, birds and trees. We kept the ones we had

made to take home as gifts for friends and family.

We also wanted to leave a gift

for Sue, Nigel, Vicky and all 

the other groups and volunteers

as they are all stars!

So we hung the remaining

decorations on a tree

outside the cabin

to wish everyone all good 

things for the coming year.

After we had eaten, we all got busy tidying.

What an enjoyable walk! What a fabulous team!

Solar Print Bags

Sue had found some small pillow cases at the local scrap store and suggested to Carole that they might make good eco friendly shopping bags. Carole had some solar paints in her box of tricks and sent the group out to collect interesting leaves, flowers and grasses to make our solar prints from. 

The fabric was dampened and the pint was applied 

the leaves and flowers were laid on top and the pieces were carefully taken out into the sun so the paint could work it's photo magic! There were a few tricky moments, the wind kept twitching at the fabric, moving the carefully places stencils, the sun rain in and out of the clouds and finally everything had to be brought back inside as it began to rain!

After the shower passed and the sun returned the bags to be were taken out again to complete the developing process. We managed to create some beautiful, almost under water images and it was intriguing to see which leaves worked best.

we attached handles

stamped on The Green Patch

and left them ready to be fixed with a hot iron.

Great work everyone!

Puddle Jumping - Filling in the Figures

Carole spent Monday and Tuesday working 

on the figures in the Puddle Jumping panel

Hats on - Here Comes the Sun!

In contrast to the photo above - the inspiration for the Puddle Jumping panel - this was a day of glorious sunshine so we were able to work outside Carole's studio between the ripening cherries and the two budlea.

 

The unusually strong sunlight lead to 

some creative approaches to headgear 

from Sonja Wilson who niftily 

converted her bag into a sunhat

and Phiona Richards who pressed her 

Transported hat into good service.

Whilst working, we also had the 

company of many butterflies and bees

and we're happy to report that the panel 

is progressing well!