Recycling

I don't know if any of you are like me but whenever I print something I keep every sample of it and put it in a pile on the desk. Sometimes I print on the back of it or scribble over it but the pile stays there... just growing. Throwing it away is a crime but you cannot recycle it all - or can you? Yesterday the pile seemed to dominate the desk so I thought I'd put it into a recycled notebook or sketchbook. For good measure I threw in some old book pages, some old maps, scraps of prints and painted pages that have not worked but that I could never bring myself to dispose of. I cut the pages the same depth but they are not all the same width. That's not important to me. Similarly I'm not worried about the different weights of paper. I can't use wet media on the copy paper but I can draw into the book if I wanted to with pencil, charcoal, pastel or pen or better still, use it as a base for collage ideas. Some of the pages are empty but at least 75% of them are already coloured on or printed. It eliminates the fear of the 'blank page'.

Because I have a lot of paper I made it a chunky 5 inch square and sewed it over some linen tape. If I made it larger I could use leather or felt strips to sew over. I used waxed linen thread but I could also use tough weaving threads or ribbons. The great thing about books like these is that the choice is entirely up to you and after I finished the text block I even rubber stamped a few pages just to break up the white space even more.

Of course all my scrap paper wasn't ready to fold into 5 inch squares for the signatures so I had to chop and crop. I have not wasted the scraps either. I threw them straight into a bucket of water to break down. Tomorrow I'm going to blitz them in the blender and either dry the pulp to later dye it and make sheets of paper or I will make it up into papier mache pulp as I fancy making something figurative with it. Not sure which way I'll go yet.

More pressing than the pulp is what to do for a cover? I should have thought of that before I started but did not. I always say if I had half a brain I'd be dangerous. Choosing the cover has now become difficult and I've made two choices. First up is this piece of felt made long ago and dyed in an experiment that didn't go to plan (plan? I've already admitted I don't plan so why be surprised it did not work!) If I sew this to the tapes it will be a lovely tactile book and I can sew or decorate the cover too.

But I think my preference is to take the recycling element right to the end of the project. These unprepossessing things are two pieces of board cut from an old collagraph plate that I long ago consigned to the back of the cupboard. It was made when I was doing something about St Davids Cathedral so it was all about church windows. I managed to salvage these two 5 inch square bits and I've coated them in shellac this evening to varnish them. If I use these I can keep the binding exposed and I quite like the stitching so wouldn't mind it showing at all. I think that's what I will do. I can finish this then tomorrow. Trouble is I have so much paper I could make many many more, however I won't fill this one in a hurry. I like to recycle but there are times when perhaps throwing things away might be less problematic!

Are you hearing the humming?

I know this isn't a honey bee. It's a wonderful Buff tailed Bumble Bee and there have been so many of them on our flowering quince that the air has just been heavy with constant buzzing and humming over these past few warm days. It has all put me in mind of a great poem by Mary Oliver called 'Hum' :

What is this dark hum among the roses?

The bees have gone simple, sipping,

that's all. What did you expect? Sophistication?

They're small creatures and they are

filling their bodies with sweetness, how could they not

moan in happiness? The little

worker bee lives, I have read, about three weeks.

Is that long? Long enough, I suppose, to understand

that life is a blessing. I have found them - haven't you? -

stopped in the very cup of the flowers, their wings

a little tattered - so much flying about, to the hive,

then out into the world, then back, and perhaps dancing,

should the task be to be a scout - sweet dancing bee.

I think there isn't anything in this world I don't

admire. If there is, I don't know what it is. I

haven't met it yet. Nor expect to. The bee is small,

and since I wear glasses, so I can see the traffic and

read books, I have to

take them off and bend close to study and

understand what is happening. It's not hard, it's in fact

as instructive as anything I've ever studied. Plus, too,

it's love too fierce to endure, the bee

nuzzling like that into the blouse

of the rose. And the fragrance, and the honey, and of course

the sun, the purely pure sun, shining, all the while, over

all of us.

As a PS, I spent most of today either in the garden or working in my shed. On my way in to get a cup of tea about 4.00pm I saw a swallow on our TV aerial. My first sight of one in the garden this year. On April 22nd. The same day they've appeared for the past three out of four years. Have they made it four out of five? I cannot truthfully say as the swallow flew off and I didn't see it enter the old nesting site so who knows? You'll think me fanciful but my heart skipped a beat. The sight of them cheers me so much. I shall be on the look out tomorrow to see if I shall see it again. I hope so. Fingers crossed. Any swallows anywhere else yet?

What a difference a week makes...

Everyone is commenting on blogs about this wonderful shift in the British weather. At last we are having some long awaited sunshine and genuine warmth. I took the above photo exactly a week ago after I noticed this little cherry outside my back door had started to shoot -

and here it is exactly one week later. I am amazed at how much it has grown but the change is noticeable everywhere isn't it? All of a sudden the plants in the garden have taken on that 'fresh' green tint and things are shooting up. My attention has been drawn to all the natural activity taking place as well - great tits have taken up residence in one of the two boxes on our little pig cott, robins are nesting down by the compost heap , blue tits are building a nest in our front garden wall, a pair of goldfinches look like they've returned to nest with us for another year and that pair of long tailed tits are still about , usually tapping on the window every time my husband goes into the garage!

Thanks to everyone for all their feedback about the swallows. I saw my first yesterday on a drive up to North Pembrokeshire . It was in the same place on a wire on the homeward trip as well but nothing here as yet. Before I started this blog I used to keep a notebook of their comings and goings and I looked at it yesterday morning just checking on the dates. For the past three out of four years they have returned on April 22nd. Now, how they can do that I do not know but I am holding my breath for Thursday to come. In truth I don't care about the date but I shall be so disappointed if we do not see them at all this year.

At Tales from a Cottage Garden Jeanne selects a poem every Monday and her choices are always so 'right' for the moment. Today she has chosen 'Home Thoughts from Abroad' by Robert Browning. Please take a look and take in the lines -' And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows....'

I am always leaving Jeanne comments about how apt her poetry choices are. I wish I had her sense of style. I can only leave you with a poem I found in that notebook I was reading again yesterday. In my notes about the swallows for 2006 I'd written down a copy of 'The Twelve Months' by George Ellis (1753 -1815).Thinking about Browning talking of April followed by May how about this offering from George as a way to record the year:

Snowy, Flowy, Blowy

Showery, Flowery, Bowery,

Hoppy, Croppy, Droppy,

Breezy, Sneezy, Freezy

I'm so glad it's not Showery and I'm looking forward to Flowery! Hope the sun is shining on you wherever you are.

Magnificent Maps

I am grateful to Cathy over at Menopausal Musings. She kindly let me know that there is a new series starting on BBC 4 tonight called 'Maps; Power, Plunder and Possession'. It's followed tomorrow night by another series called 'The Beauty of Maps' which is on for four nights. If that wasn't enough for a little cartophiliac (!) like me, through reading about these programmes I then found out about a new exhibition opening on April 30th at the British Library called 'Magnificent Maps'. It's like buses - everything comes at once!

This exhibition runs until September 19th and showcases the British Library's unique collection of large scale display maps, many of which have never been exhibited before. There will be over 100 maps on show , considered some of the greatest in the world. One will be the Klencke Atlas, above, never shown with its pages open before.

Presented to Charles the Second on his restoration and now 350 years old, it takes 6 people to lift it - so not for light reading then! I cannot fit in a trip to visit London to take in all the current exhibitions I want to see so how I will fit this one in as well I do not know.

Easier to access is an opportunity to join the 'Collective Atlas ' project. I found out about this via a book arts newsletter I receive . Go over to the Somethink Collective blog to find out more and see the work already submitted. In essence the idea is " to create a representation of the world through the people who know the places. Think of a village/town/city that you have spent time in. The task is to try and represent it the best way you can in one simple book"

Once the books have been sent in the idea is to try and find an exhibition space to showcase them in. Could be a really interesting thing to do and the book has to be made from one A4 sheet of paper so not a large project. Have a look at the ones already submitted. I'm going to have a go when a good idea comes to me.

Haven't got the time this week though because there's too much telly to watch. Thanks Cathy!

A garden lost in time

Every so often you have one of those magical days when everything goes right. I had one of those yesterday when I went to Aberglasney. I was in the company of 4 great friends, the weather was warm, the sun was bright, the food was delicious and the garden was just plain beautiful. This wonderful place has been restored over the last decade or so from a lost garden into a very special place , a lot of the work being done by dedicated volunteers. It's not too far from the National Botanic Garden of Wales but where they have scale, Aberglasney has intimacy. Even though it is not a small garden there are many intimate areas and it has something to offer all year round. Out in force yesterday were the fabulous magnolias undercarpeted with the beauty of simple wood anemones and primroses. We all went camera happy and these are only a fraction of what I took....

There is a wonderful 'hot house' full of beautiful orchids, clivias and carnivorous plants. I just got lost in the colour and textures of the whole place.

On the way home we called in to a community recycling project where I'm a member and we all bought things to create something with. I picked up a lovely piece of soft burgundy leather for £1. It says 'make me into a book cover' so I'm going to take some of my photos ,choose the right format and then print and bind a small memento of a very special day out.

Papercut animation

Another office... but not one I'd like to work in this time.

Post it note experiment

I used to work in an office. I never had this much fun! Perhaps that's why I don't work in one any longer?

Sticky Note Experiment by EepyBird from Eepybird on Vimeo.