Fishy Beach Art

 I've mentioned on numerous occasions that I enjoy gathering stones, shells or found objects on the beach to create a simple picture or artwork. I like to think of people happening upon it and surprising or delighting them.

On my holiday in Norfolk, it was a bit too chilly to be swimming in the sea the day we went to Wells Next The Sea so I gathered stones to make this fish.

CBC interfered with the eye and was somewhat critical of it but hopefully it made someone smile!

What could I make next? 

Style Imitating Art: The Concert by Johannes Vermeer

 This week, I have remembered to join in with Style Imitating Art with Marsha. 

She has chosen a very interesting painting by Johannes Vermeer. He of The Girl with the Pearl Earring fame. 

She explained her reason for this choice: 

I chose this painting from a Substack post. I subscribe to James Lucas’ Substack called “Beauty is Truth.” I don’t pay for it so there are some posts I don’t get to read in their entirety. Anyhoo, he wrote this particular post about “Beautiful Paintings Lost to History.” You can click through that link to read about all five paintings. Long story short (I promise)…this post is about five paintings we will probably never see again. One was destroyed in a fire, but the other four were stolen. When I saw this painting, I was struck by the use of light, shapes, and all the items in the room. 

I saw Salazar posted her outfit for this and it prompted me to try and put something together. 

My fellow flautist took these photos for me at our orchestra rehearsal tonight during the break and it was very appropriate that one of the Double Bass players left their instrument by the piano. 

I started with this navy checked skirt from Nobody's Child which I purchased new in the Summer. I had to wear it tonight anyway as B, my photographer loves that shop and it's her fault I went in there originally and she'd demanded to see the skirt irl! 

It represents the floor. 

I added this fun white smock blouse which I bought from a London charity shop. It has a yoke neck which is quite vintage - looking. 

My Miss Patina jacket seemed to match the lady standing at the front of the painting. Oversized and similar in colours. 

I wore these Timberland shoes as the match the colour of the cello in the painting. 

Notice my musical necklace and earrings. Subtle but appropriate I hope. 

The backdrop is messy but appropriate! 

Head over to Marsha tomorrow night to see the round up of blog posts! 

Xx

Big old fashion parade!

I think this Summer is the one I've been most absent from blogging which is curious as I was definitely home for lots of holiday. I'm genuinely not sure where a lot of the holiday went!

However, over the course of the Summer, I took the off picture of outfits I really liked that I wore and I thought I'd bung them all together!

This first one is a curious pattern clashing combination.  All the outfit is charity-shopped, of course, except the hat.  The shirt was bought in a charity shop in Dolgellau in Wales in June and is a lovely Laura Ashley, lawn cotton. We were away and I needed another cover up shirt as what I had packed was very sweaty.  It's very light and I liked how it combined with this chintsy strawberry print skirt with its faded style print.

A TA at school told me she really liked this outfit.  I like the folk-loric feel of this.

Another Cath Kidston item here with the vest top and a cute tennis skirt!

I love gingham and checks! This Emily and Fin dress is slightly oversized which I really liked when it was SO hot!

The IT Monsoon dress of a few years ago. I learnt of this from a friend on Insta who, when I posted it was from a charity shop, told me it was sought after and had been sold for big profit on eBay!

One of my favourite maxi-skirts, handmade from a 60's cotton- charityshopped! The Monsoon linen knit cardigan was one of my favourite Summer cover ups. And of course, it was charity-shopped!

Not so sure this combo worked but it felt very cool! Am wearing this shirt today!

This & Other stories dress is lovely and lightweight!

This dress is some sort of vintage one and again, is very thin!

The checked Emily and Fin dress in a different print!

I really like this ditsy 90's dress. Reminds me of one I had as a teenager!

When I bought this Topshop skirt on Vinted, I really hoped it was going to be exactly the same gingham as the Primark sailor top. It isn't but do I get away with it?

CBC bought me these trousers from Hexham's hippy shop, Bohemia- they are so thin and lovely. Are you detecting a theme to my Heatwave choices?

Featuring my other favourite cover-up- the Miss Selfridge Broderie Anglaise shirt.

Which one is your favourite?

xx

 

Afternoon with Mum!

Yesterday started off a little uncertain. CBC had wanted to recreate a cycle adventure that he and I did in the holiday but with his brother and partner. I can't do any long distance cycling at the moment because my hand is still not right since the last one - something has happened to my Ulnar nerves where I have a combination of numbness, pins and needles, pain and discomfort in my 4th and 5th fingers down to the nerve.

Unfortunately, everyone was very much on indecision mode so there we were at 10 on Saturday, not sure if the cycling was going to happen and it was somewhat annoying (particularly as I later discovered there was a Children's book festival in Sudbury which was only a stop away from the cycling destination which I would totally have gone  to if I'd known.

Anyway, I did a few garden related tasks whilst C procrastinated about going out cycling alone (we've made a plan for next week).

Finally alone with certainty that I was not going to jump on a train to Sudbury, I phoned my Mum.

She had sent me messages about making bolognese sauce for the freezer throughout the day. I adore her bolognese so I joked that she could issue a dinner invite.

I phoned and asked if I could come over. She laughed and asked if I wanted Spaghetti Bolognese. I said no, but I wanted to see her.

So I threw a couple of things in a bag and cycled (short distances on my Brompton not my road bike are doable)  to the station, jumped on a train, cycled across town and got anothef train to her. I'd made it in an hour.

We had a cup of tea and her tabby cats were very excited to see me. In a very sing-song voice, I said, "Hello!" to girl cat and she hilariously matched my pitch change EXACTLY! She did it twice more in imitation but of course, as my mum tried to film her, she stopped being quite so vocal! 

Then we went for the obligatory tour of the garden.  Her garden, esp in the peak of growing season, is a joy to behold! She is so very green-fingered and devotes so much time to her plants.

She has grown several sunflowers this year but this one is a giant! 

And it resembles a shower! 

The full length photo for idea of height and so you can admire my outfit! 

Top from Tesco, skirt from Zoe Mundo in Pollenca, Mallorca, sandals from Celtic & Co, necklace from Primark (ancient) and peach  earrings, if you can see them, from O O Bears @ Upstairs, Downstairs in Cromer. 

After our tea, we went for a walk down to the estuary which was looking beautiful eiyj brooding skies. It was lovely and breezy. 

I picked up a few pieces of sea glass. 

Back home, we are the Spaghetti bolognese (but with Northern Pasta's Spelt fusilli) which was divine. It was accompanied by Raspberry ferment and then a slice of Mint Vienetta for dessert. Mum found this in the corner shop a while back and had saved to share with me! 

After a final nod of respect to the Sunflower, it was time to go home. 

Mum sent me on my way with 8 homegrown peppers, a jar of Garden Ketchup, loose leaf tea (as I've run out and she has 2 kilos!) 

I'm so glad I popped round to see her.

Make the most of those you love.

Back home, CBC and I watched Last Night of the Proms and did a few chores!

Xx

Meal of pride

It looks messy, it's not the best photograph but there is pride in this photograph.

Firstly, I LOVE an omelette and it sounds a little arrogant to say it, but I like the way I make omelettes more than any I am served anywhere.  Cheddar cheese is all I need (plus chives).

Such an easy dinner to make.

The accompanying veg is the proud part for me though.

As well as the chives, apart from one Organic onion from Riverford, all the vegetables are homegrown!

A round courgette, Chard, a red pepper, tomatoes and then a healthy addition of marjoram, thyme and oregano.

CBC told me how wonderfully fresh it tasted!

A proud moment to have all these at the same time!

The tomatoes are coming thick and fast. Possibly the best crop I've ever had.  Not a patch on my Mum's harvest yield but great for me.  

I'm onto my 3rd pepper with 3 more still to come at least.  The chard is wonderful because it keeps self-seeding so I didn't do anything to earn it and it's come back after 2months without,  it definitely does not enjoy super hot weather!

I'm quite sad about my courgette yield as I've only had 2 large globe courgettes. Everything else just keeps rotting and never getting larger. Not sure what the problem is. My regular courgette has given me nothing but it IS in a pot.  Humph!

My Thyme is doing very well at the moment and the Oregano is growing  a new batch. The Marjoram is doing ok but not amazingly.  The rogue patio patch of Chives is up to its usual mark.

The feeling of having grown all that myself is amazing! Pity I don't have my own chickens!

xx

 

It's raining cats and dogs

I love those idioms we have in language! I remember, when learning German, I used to love looking at my massive dictionary for examples of uses of words. For some reason, I was looking up rain (which I knew anyway) and I saw that the German equivalent was something different. Can't remember what it was but it was something equally interesting.

Anyway, it's been really lovely having some rain these past few days!!! Haven't we needed it after the massive gap between having rain?!  We went to RHS Hyde Hall and I was happy walking in the rain!

First raincoat use in a while! 

It was wonderful to water the garden from the water-butt after having showered with buckets since May to reuse the water! I hope and pray we get the rain we need to fill reservoirs this year but without flooding.

It reminded me of a poem I wrote for the Toy Press prompt back in July.  I was a bit naughty as the word of the week was either rein or reign and I decided to take a homophone interpretation of it and use rain!

I took the well-known phrase and made a short little rhyme with.

I found out last week that another of my poems has been accepted by Little Thoughts Press in America for their next issue. You can see or purchase (at a pay what you can digital) or a print version of the current issue here.  I am really happy about this- this will be my third time in actual print this year!

Back to school tomorrow for 2 INSET days. I feel quite guilty as CBC and my sister both went back yesterday but very grateful.

As I'm feeling a bit gloomy, I will do my customary 10 things I am grateful for about this holiday.

1.  That I had a magical swim in the river Stour, and at my local pool, and in Hexham and in the local sea and at the Oasis Pool in London!

2.  Got to spend a lovely time taking my Dad out to lunch! And got to spend time with my Stepmum and sister too on a different occasion

3. Had a lovely anniversary walk in the Kent Downs with CBC on our anniversary.

4.  Got to see my lovely blog friend Ang TWICE this holiday!

5.  Made an absolute glut of Fruit Amber with free apples and blackberries (and in fact, honey too as my MiL was going to chuck it out!) to eat over the next week and to go in the freezer! There's about 14 portions in there at least!

6. FINALLY had a year with lots of tomatoes growing, even though I'm scared of cutting off branches! I forgot how much more tasty homegrown organic tomatoes are!

7.  Went back to wonderful Kentwell Hall and the Historic Guest House near Sudbury that we went to in May!

8.  Had a lovely time on holiday with my inlaw family!

9.   Had a jolly time with my niece, walking a beautiful route I've never done before, then surprised my Mum with a visit together! So grateful she got what she needed for her GCSEs (I know, it's hard to believe she was THAT old now!)

10.  I had an exciting cycling adventure with CBC (even if it has given me a hand injury/ssue- pray for me- I hope if it's Ulnar Tunnel/Cycling Neuropathy or Cubital Tunnel that it will go away!) 

There are many more reasons to be thankful but here they are for the moment!

Hope you are well! 

Xx