Out of circulation

 I am not going to start with an apology. I've read too many blogs that people apologise for not posting on and I always want to say 'don't beat yourself up, that's fine, life happens' Some of my absence has been forced on me by a lack of internet access for most of the school holidays. It seems all the extra visitors to my part of the world nicked all my precious little bandwidth and left me with nothing unless I logged on at 3.00am when they were asleep. Some days I cursed them and on others it felt quite wonderful to know I couldn't spend so long online if I couldn't even get online.
 

 Elsewhere this summer my funding finished at the museum but I've carried on one day a week continuing the project as a volunteer because I've grown attached to my 'boys' and want to carry on researching their history. The WW1 centenary commemorations on August 4th brought me to tears and made me more committed than ever to tell their stories.  While I was doing that my own 'boy' was getting stung too often by a particularly aggressive hive he's had this year, resulting in visits to A&E and a suggestion from them that he gives up beekeeping before it gives him up. Sadly he has developed a sensitivity to bee stings and we are awaiting their departure to a new home any day now. We are both saddened by this turn of events but know it makes sense.

 So while we were wondering what else might get thrown our way I got the call to go into hospital to get rid of some leaky valves that have been giving my left leg some real issues this year. That operation happened on Saturday and I am now walking the prescribed 2 miles twice a day wearing those glamorous surgical stockings that you have to wear. To save embarassing looks I am walking round the old abandoned airfield up the road where I see nothing but sheep! I have become obsessed with the barbed wire that is everywhere up there likening it to my tortured veins and another type of circulation issue. I can't wait to get my bandages off but have to wear the stockings for 6 weeks. I am not looking forward to that at all, especially in the warmth of this wonderful 'indian summer' we are having, but needs must.

 So, to take my mind off the discomfort of my leg I am having what I'm calling a 'displacement therapy week'. I am  preparing lots of samples and lesson plans for my bookmaking workshops coming up this term and I've also picked up a needle and thread. I have lots of pieces of hand dyed fabric already torn into strips for a potential book project and I just started to make marks on the first one for something to occupy my hands and my mind in hospital.

 Whenever there's a lull in my energy levels I pick up the  spool of thread and just launch into another piece. I don't think about it beforehand. There's no plan and no rhyme or reason to what I'm stitching........

 ..... until my husband said he'd noticed that in the same way I was linking the barbed wire to my surgery and I was also sewing motifs that looked like veins, cuts and stitches........

I had not realised it but think he is right. Isn't it amazing where our unconscious thoughts lead us? I have enjoyed the sewing without thinking and have actually appreciated being forced to stop and do something else this week. Already I've noticed that the tourists have gone home and my internet signal has returned to normal so I feel I will be drawn back into catching up with all the blogs I've struggled to read this summer. I'm looking forward to that but hope I can also  keep up with my displacement activity sewing as I've really enjoyed doing that too and occupying my hands this way. It's not the best stitching in the world but I think there's a book or something else in what I've started and I want to see it realised. Watch this space.

Suits me perfectly!

 Whenever I turn up to my bookmaking workshops I am usually laden with lots of samples etc in a big crate. I've always hankered after a suitcase instead and then my lovely husband bought me one in a second hand shop. It wasn't great, but hey, it was a suitcase and so cheap that the fact that I might hack the innards out of it  made it perfect for me. In truth, the interior was falling to bits so it needed collaging with something to keep it in one piece!. I know the idea of collaging a suitcase is not original. I know using maps for it is not original and I know adding ships to it is not original either.... but I care not a jot because it is now varnished and ready for duty next term and I love it.

Waste not, want not

 In amongst lots of other things occupying my mind at the moment  I suddenly remembered that I had a lot of cyanotype solution left over from the workshop last month. It does not keep well for too long once mixed up so I just grabbed some old bits of sheeting already cut up and messed about for about an hour this morning. It was definitely not as strong as it should be but as I was just using it up for the sake of it I did not care and I quite like the results. Not bad for the first things that come to hand like the plastic dish drainer and the mesh I strain things through. It's all a bit slapdash and carefree but I'm now  looking forward to trying some toning experiments on them next week with a touch of bleach, soda ash and tannin. There's loads of solution left still so I might try using it almost like a blue dye with some resists on other types of fabric. Playdays with happy accidents. My sort of joy!

NB: As the first few comments mentioned the quote I realised I should attribute it. It's from 'Prodigal Summer' by Barbara Kingsolver,  handwritten on acetate for a demo in the recent workshop and luckily to hand yesterday. I do love the words. Must use them in something else.

Walking to work

 The other day my friend Sue wrote this post about her walk to work. I left a comment which disappeared somewhere in the ether about responding with my walk to work ... although strictly I only walk the last part of it as I have to drive 5 miles first but when I leave the car I walk along the road overlooking the North Beach in Tenby. On any day, in any weather, the view provides a lot to take in.

 I veer off the main road and down one of the many cobbled side streets

 It takes me down the hill , walking parallel to the harbour

 I'm heading for the gap between the houses and the small building in the middle

 To get to the museum I have to climb a small hill, best tackled if you take a run at it or if you stop and stare at intervals. Guess which is my preferred option?

 By mid morning this beach is crowded but at 8.30 no-one is around and I see very few people enjoying the best of the start of the day.

 Personally this is when I like it best. It's quiet - apart from the seagulls - and I can look over to Caldey Island where I imagine the monks also enjoying a contemplative start to the day.

 By the time I get to the door of the museum I am puffing a bit but I always, always stop for a few minutes and take in the view over to South Beach. I love the stillness of it all without lots of people and it helps me prepare for the day ahead. This is a daily ritual that I relish.

I look up at the sign every day I'm here and head on in to get cracking on the job in hand. I have five weeks of my contract left and the list to research seems to get longer rather than diminishing so it's heads down and work all day. I hear visitors coming in and telling the team what a fabulous museum it is - a hidden gem. They're right too and we've been longlisted for the Daily Telegraph Family Fun Museum of the year alongside the likes of the Ashmolean and the Natural History. Wonderful museums all .... resources for us all to cherish.

So, that's my walk to work added to the list. Anyone else want to share?

All shades of blue

 I delivered a cyanotype workshop today and was delighted with the variety of prints we achieved.In a small room with a darkish room to the side to work in, the group worked on paper and fabric as well as wood to experiment with this beautiful process. They found that the different types of paper created different effects and that the paper needs to be dried between coats to get an even print. Contact with the glass is crucial and accounted for a few white spots but knowledge is power and that mistake won't be made again I know. Different fabrics produced different images and the most crucial thing of all - the exposure to the sun was illustrated clearly. When we started it was overcast so exposure times should have been extended, shortening them when the sun started to break through at lunchtime. They worked solidly all day and must have produced upwards of 40+ prints using natural materials and digital negatives of their photographs. Using a transparency with their own handwriting proved popular as did cyanotyping on different materials like maps and old book pages.

I can't remember who did what so cannot put a name to all of these prints but place them here to enjoy! Thank you for another great day everyone. What shall we do next I wonder?

Doing our bit for the Bumblebee

 

If you go to the site for Bumblebee Conservation you can read all about Beewalk where you walk a transect on a regular basis to monitor the numbers and species and spread  of UK Bumblebees. There was an identification training day yesterday to sharpen our knowledge of each type of bee. It was a great day and my husband and I really felt much more knowledgeable by the end of it so I thought I'd make a foray into the garden today to monitor who is coming to feed off of our plants. As you can see they move a bit faster than my eyes can register.......

 They have the advantage over honey bees that they can take nectar from tubular flowers and even though our foxgloves are going over they're still swarming with bees...... not that you'd know it from my photos

 There's a tantalising glimpse here......

 .... and a constant hum and buzz in the air......

 ..... but if you're not quick, they're gone. That's why the training focussed on gently capturing the bee for close study, so I have to wait for some inspection pots to arrive before we can do the job with a bit more efficiency. We have 250 species of bee in the UK, 25 of them being bumblebees. These are split into 19 social species and 6 cuckoo species. Two species have become extinct within the last 8 years and 2 others are giving serious cause for concern. So, without doubt they need our help.

One of the most shocking things I learned yesterday is that tomatoes are exclusively pollinated by bumblebees so large UK growers buy in bumblebee nests from abroad to work their crops. These are not native species and have been bred specifically for commerce. Imagine the carbon footprint of importing bees! What's more, a large percentage of them have disease and what's worse, they've been fed on pollen stripped from honey bees that have been killed for the purpose. How can this be happening in today's world? Each bumblebee nest lasts a year until the Queen hibernates. She is the sole survivor. So, the imported nests are meant to be destroyed by the growers at each season's end but there is evidence that this does not happen. Who knows what these imported bees might do if they get into the gene pool of our native species. It was a salutary piece of knowledge and made me more determined than ever to continue to garden responsibly for all insects, especially bees. If you're interested in more info please follow the links and join up. All help gratefully received!

How times change

 I have reached the half way point in my Heritage Lottery Fund project at the museum researching the volunteers for the Great War. Every day throws up something to fascinate me and take me off exploring another avenue on the chase for detail. Amidst the sad stories I also come across stuff that just appeals to my sense of humour. Here is a perfect example.

Trawling through the back copies of the local paper for 1917 I found this call for help from the children of Tenby. Of course I understand that the desire then was to maximise crops for the war effort but the picture it conjures up of children running all over the place with nets and the paraphernalia to wipe out the Cabbage White in West Wales just makes me smile, especially as the following week's paper carried the report that 'Up to date 1350 white butterflies have been destroyed by Tenby schoolchildren'.  If they all collected their 2d they'd so far earned about 4 shillings and sixpence by my reckoning and probably decimated the populations of species like the Wood White or the Green Veined White that are in decline today. I doubt they stopped to check which white butterfly they were murdering for their 2d!

It's a great example of how times change and how our thinking is so different today, knowing what we now know. Today, because of the conversation that ensued from this article, I found out that the museum has an extensive moth and butterfly collection in trays stored away. I can't believe I didn't realise that until now and could kick myself for not finding out before. Still, there is a plan to show me everything next week sometime and I am excited already. I'm also off on a Bumblebee Identifcation training day on Friday and I'm excited about that too. So many things still to do. So little time.