Relocating and Getting Married.

Dew on Red Rose in our garden

My blog is being ignored again.

But I am resolved to change that, even though life is going to get a little frantic in the forthcoming weeks.

Firstly, we are relocating - again!
It will be the third time in under 4 years but it should be the last for a while (famous last words) and opens up a host of new opportunities. The reason for my optimism is that we are moving to Sheffield where there seems to be a vibrant art and craft scene. I've already been looking at galleries in the area and have a couple in mind to approach.

Secondly, 20 years since I was divorced, I am getting married again. I always said I never would a second time, but I met the perfect person to share the rest of my life with and it just seems like the right thing.

And all this before the year moves into it's second half. Hopefully the latter part of the year will be less eventful :-)
( I'm crossing fingers and touching wood :-))

Of course, there will be quite a lot of crafting to do - jewellery, invites, buttonholes and even a little something for my granddaughter who will be just over a year old by then. Not to mention growing flowers for the bouquet.
I have lots of plans
but don't want to give too much away just yet :-)

Did you craft anything for your wedding? I'd love to hear about it.
Did you marry later in life or on a budget? Would love to hear your experiences as there is going to be quite a bit of that at our wedding ( you wouldn't believe how much my wedding dress has cost, but more of that later ;) )

People either love or hate abstract painting.

As an artist I find it very liberating. It's like music without words. The colours create harmonies, ebb and flow and can be very evocative.

They can convey an emotion without grounding it to a particular instance. Anger can be demonstrated without showing a particular face, serenity without a place. It allows the viewer to become engaged on a much more personal level without the artists reality getting in the way.

I like to think that there is an abstract painting out there that will speak to anyone who thinks they don't like abstract art and bring about that "eureka" moment.

Home from TT holiday :)

I have never been to the Isle of Man before much less to the TT race week.
It was great fun despite the weather.
Sports photography is hard work though, I am much more accustomed to a subject that, if it isn't stationary, doesn't move very fast. At least not compared with 160 miles an hour!
Guy Martin seemed to be the people's favourite with lots of people hoping for a win for him.
He had a couple of podium finishes but a wheel nut flying off put stop to his Superstock race. Unbelievably we captured the moment. Our group found the offending nut, reported it to the Marshals and Guy was stopped a little further round the course.

You can see the nut against the white line just behind the rise at the back of the bike.

Garden Border

I know, no posts for ages then 2 come along at once :)
Just to let you all know, I have a shop on Artfinder (Janice Ayers). I will be having a 48 hour sale tomorrow and Thursday. The shop will then be closed for a week while we go on holiday :)
This is one of the pictures on there showing the view of my garden border a couple of weeks ago. The forget-me-nots lasted for ages and are just going over now.

Bees in the Garden

It was lovely to have a long weekend and be able to slow down a bit :)

Bees are having a hard time at the moment so I like to keep a good range of flowers they like in my border. At the moment they are particularly keen on the pale Aquilegia (Columbine). I noticed some holes in the spur of the petals and suspected a pest of some sort. In this case however, it was the bumble bees. In the photograph you can see where the bee has punctured the petal to get at the nectaries designed for an insect with a longer tongue. It doesn't help pollinate the flower this way, but as these are such prolific seeders I think we will still get plenty of new plants.

In the garden - Mother Squirrel

On the conservatory window we have one of those stick on bird feeders. It's great for watching the robins pop in and out and the pigeons can't get at at it.
The other day we were surprised to see a squirrel shimmy up the drain and try to get at it from the roof. It didn't do very well so we took pity and put some food out at ground level. Sure enough it came back and spent quite a lot of time eating. Somehow it seemed desperate.

 After we looked closely at some of the pictures we took, we realised why. It was a nursing squirrel and probably very hungry. We have taken pity and put a little food out each day. She deserved it for the bravery she showed - I was sat inches away to take this photos with just a pane of glass between us.

Wordless Wednesday