blethering in belgium

a last few images from my 'day off' in London...those above from an architectural salvage firm near the old Cremorne pumping station

here's my mudlarking haul. that spotted egg is a nice addition to my collection of darning stones

after London i went to Belgium, a place i'd only ever shot through on a fast train. now that i've discovered just how delightful it is i'll be back often, i hope. travelling to London City Airport [arguably the nicest airport i've yet graced with my presence] on the Docklands Light Railway i spotted this splendid sinuous structure...is there someone out there who'd care to tell me what it is, please?

these friendly furries allowed us to collect leaves in their domain

my friend Marina organised a workshop to be held in her lovely garden...a labyrinth of delight full of trees and flowers, ponds and hidden corners

not to mention luscious weathered paintwork [which reminded me of the Rosalie Gascoigne exhibition in Melbourne a few months ago]

 

hard to believe this garden was coaxed from piles of rubble and metal left by a former ironmonger

the usual suspects, bundles full of promise...

we discovered that my oft-repeated phrase "time is your friend" was particularly relevant to strawberry leaf prints when they'd been made in the presence of iron. without any mordants they printed bright green, with iron [scrap, NOT ferrous sulphate] present they were first a gentle gold, but if kept moist would develop this lovely purple after a couple of hours

here's Wieteke, inspecting her woollen scarf [click on her name to visit her website, a wonderland of possibilities]

eucalyptus looking particularly gorgeous against the verdant green

and that lovely teal emerging in the dyepot is what happens to the dye made from red hazelnut leaves when it's allowed to lurk in an aluminium pot for an hour or so...

loitering in London

on Monday i escaped the broom closet at the Anchor [VERY different to the light and airy room they use to illustrate their website]

felt a bit Potterish

but the proprietess [?] kindly brought me onion skins for the class

so tis mostly forgiven

unusually i had a day "off"

so i decided to wander

somehow i found myself at the Garden Museum

[near the Lambeth Bridge]

 

there i discovered the tomb of the Tradescant family, famous gardeners and collectors of plants

the Museum garden was home to the flowers that had been popular in their time

i sat on a bench amidst a fragrant cloud of lily-of-the-valley and happily painted splodgy watercolours

[mind you, no splodgier than those of Le Corbusier whose life is presently under examination in an exhibition at the Barbican centre ]

after a time i wandered on heading west along the Thames. near the Vauxhall bridge i came upon a small ramp where access to the shingle was possible

my feathered friends watched as i collected fragments of flint, blue-and-white porcelain, blue glass, perfect pocket pebbles and [oh delight] a pearl button

 

maybe it's because...

it's dawned on me [yet again] that you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl...in more ways than one.

even though i was born in Australia and have lived there on and off for the greater part of my life and love my home dearly

there's something about the European flora that brings a rush of memory

hardly surprising given my DNA is almost entirely European

i say almost because it's clear my brownish outer layer has been influenced by the same dash of Khazak that gave my maternal grandfather his distinctive colouring

after years of the Big Dry back home i'd completely forgotten just how wonderful the northern spring can be

and when a student gave me a bunch of lily-of-the-valley [picked from her garden] yesterday i was almost overcome and had to have a little quiet moment in a corner

burying my nose in them like a deprived addict

the colours that emerged from this spring workshop reflect the green and pleasant land...can you spot the elephant in the room

the wild colonial boy dyed in Eucalyptus cinerea

 

the delicious colour above came from a black tulip much like the one below

and there's someone else in that photo above who is also far from home...

Kia Ora, my friend Harakeke!

one doesn't think of London as having woods...usually Bond Street, the V & A and Paddington Station are the things that spring to mind.

staying at Golders Green has revealed the delights of Hampstead Heath - which i had always imagined as a barren treeless plain

it's more the Wild Wood of Wind in the Willows [but without the river]

somewhere on this pond there are ducks...

and this is one for Petrus.

in case you're watching, Ma

my dawn walk took me through Golders Hill Park where i found many old friends...

created by hand

i've been given a very kind write up over at 'created by hand'...well worth a visit to see all the other artists' work 

on the loose in London

it's quite surreal, being in London again after 26 years.  you can find the big picture easily enough, just google "London images"

here are some little details that may have escaped general notice...

for absolutely luscious fabrics [and a warm welcome] visit 

The Silk Society

44Berwick Street

London W1F 8SE

it's a wee shop-on-the-corner with rack upon rack of sumptuous and seductive dress fabrics

not so far away from the ragtrader is Liberty's of London. tis a gorgeous building that is a sensory delight to explore...from the wee carved frogs on the balustrades to the [and this was a big surprise] lovely felt carpets rolled up in bundles.

wandering along a road in Golders Green i found an old friend

Berberis darwinii

a noxious weed in New Zealand, it was being cultivated in a front garden. it's a most rewarding dye plant, giving yellow from the flowers and roots and lovely purples and blues from the berries

tumut-too

the water at the Gilmore Hall [rain] was pretty good stuff...gave us some very nice colour from the local eucalypts

Phyllis [i hope i've spelled your name correctly] made her very first piece of felt and explained that the image [she is Koori] shows the elder positioned around the perimeter, keeping watch over country, and the waterholes, linked by tracks

a lovely piece, made using the reverse inlay method

 

and a bit later, on the way to Canberra airport...the Australian National Botanic Gardens is one of my favourite places, full of visual and sensory delights