Spring is Coming!

 A dry day at last and I went for a wander around the garden and what a lot of plants are in flower. A welcome site after all the snow, ice and rain!

The weather is due to be good for February over the next few days so hopefully there will be more flowers soon.

Bread

 I like making bread as there is something almost magical about it and during lockdown it seemed a positive thing to do.

Using strong flour and dried yeast I mixed the ingredients in a bowl with warm water to make the dough.

The dough was kneaded for about 10 mins. and then put in a bowl and covered for the 1st proving in the warm airing cupboard.

After about 1 1/2 hours the dough had expanded to twice its size.

It was taken from the bowl and the air knocked out of it and kneaded again and then shaped into a cob loaf. It was then put back into the airing cupboard for the 2nd proving.

After about 1/2 hour the dough was cut across the top and put into a very hot oven to bake.

The loaf was then removed from the oven and allowed to cool. When cut it had a good texture and tasted good with some butter.

It was fun making bread but I had forgotten what hard work kneading was!!!

Snowy Weather

 We have had a lot of snowy weather this year often accompanied by ice. However none of it has lasted long but the temperature has been very up and down with heavy rain in between the cold weather.

The first two photos were taken while it was snowing!

The next four photos were taken after a hoar frost,

Everywhere looks beautiful after the ice and snow but it can be very dangerous for everyday living.

Meditative Stitching

Meditative Doodling

As part of our online embroidery meeting we were introduced to meditative doodling where you fill in a shape with lines and shapes.

I used a black pen on white paper and a white pen on black paper.

The method produces some pleasing patterns that can easily be converted to stitch.

I thought about what shape I would use and thought a fish might work well. I drew the outline on some green material and then reminded myself of the line stitches I knew so I could fill in the shape of the fish. I decided to make it a bright and cheerful fish using bright colours.

Sketchbook Work

 During lockdown I have been doing a lot of work in my sketchbooks. I have been  building layers using mixed media working into the pages over and over again. 

Sketchbook

Monoprinted leaves on painted background and over painted  stencil on deli paper.

Scraped paint background, block printed,  circle cut outs.

Water colour background, rubbed circles, crayon squares, traced pot.

Mosaic photo over painted background, painted square stencil on photo, dried leaf.

Printed background, hand drawn poppy seed heads, pen drawn lines and handwriting.

As above

Photos of blue material cut into triangles pasted onto print and painted background.

Scraped paint, printed wide vertical lines, pen drawn narrow red lines.

Painted background, felt pen writing,  circular photo.

Photo, ink background, block print.

Collage, mono printed leaves.

Photo, painted background, mono printed vase, brush shapes.

Painted and printed background, block printed, drawing, writing.

Collage, cut-out shapes, painted background, pen drawing.

Printed background, brush painted shapes, pen drawing.

Ink background, eco leaf print, mono printed vase, stencilling.

Amaryllis

 Just before Christmas I bought an Amaryllis bulb to grow in the hope that it would bring some cheery colourfulness into my home during the Winter. It has not disappointed as you can see below.