A day at the farm

 

I spent the day at my friends farm in Dolphinholme and we played with willow, willow is amazing for building structures, we used Osier willow to make lanterns and I made an oblix for my ivy to grow up.

There is a local custom in Chediston, Suffolk, known as a 'willow stripping' ceremony. This is usually held at the first full moon in May. A Green George figure is dressed in willow strippings, dances around and is then ceremoniously thrown into the local pond.

Osier withies (strong, flexible willow stems) are traditionally used for basket-making and weaving, and are becoming increasingly popular for use as willow screens and sculptures.

Osier, like all willows, is also grown for its ability to absorb heavy metals, and is often planted to 'clean up' contaminated waste ground. (thank you Woodland Trust for this info)

We had a lot of fun and used wire to make tealight holders for the bottom of the lanterns, tissue and handmade paper for the sides and used PVA to keep it all in place.

I also saw the first born lamb of the season, only minutes old. Spring is such a wonderful time of year.

Lots of lovely woodland

I love nature it's where I feel at home the most

Wild swimming in River Hodder

 

 So my friend and I set off on a girls day out with the intention of wild swimming, well Shelli would be wild swimming I would be wild wading as I can't swim, this hopefully will be rectified over the next couple of weeks with river lessons, I'm pretty nervous about it but feel at 37 you should be able to swim and need to push through the nerves and learn something new. We droved for about an hour and found this wonderful place. The River Hodder is a river in Lancashire, England. The river is a County Biological Heritage Site. It rises on White Hill and flows for approximately 23 miles. We stopped under Cromwell's bridge, the water was clear and upon entering rather cold ( hence the shocked face second pic below)

 Once in though it warmed up and was such a lovely experience to be in the water, there were blue/green dragonflies hovering around, a heron stopped further up stream, fish were swimming around us, I was a bit worried about one going up my particulars!

 The water wasn't very deep but in a way we was glad as this was our first time in the river and it broke us in gently, it was such a brilliant feeling being so free and having a different perspective on the view. Our skin felt lovely afterwards with all the minerals in the water.

 We stayed in for quite a while then got out and dried off, we then led in the sunshine feeling so relaxed and listing to the sound of the tricking water and sheep now and then bleating in the field, after a while we went for a walk at the other side of the river to discover a deep area, it looks so inviting, can't wait to go back next week. In parts the scenery looked like France, with fields full of sweetcorn, high trees and a chateau type house, the area is so beautiful and green, I do love being in nature, Tolkien who wrote the lord of the rings was inspired by this part of UK, I can understand why, its magical.

We went for a drive and found ourselves at Longridge fell, what an amazing view, 2 old ladies stopped to talk to us and we asked if they could take our photo (hence the finger covering up part of the lens)

It was such a wonderful experience and I would recommend it to anyone, just don't go in canals, reservoirs or urban rivers. There has been much ado about drowning in UK but I think if you look at the statistics, its mainly young men, who probably have been showing off jumping in no doubt. As long as you are sensible, I see no harm in it.

Mister Finch

Scraps of thread, fabric and paper are stitched and pulled into fairytale creatures looking for new owners and worlds to inhabit. They hide in the woods, behind masks, some have died along the way and are buried under spoon lockets. Finch works alone and makes everything himself by hand in a studio full of books, glass jars and naughty cats.

This is the introduction on this amazing textile artists page, I saw a little snippet of his work in Mollie Makes March issue, the curiosity about this male designer got the better of me and I had to search him out. I urge you to do the same, unusual, lifelike and beautiful his creations are on par with Mother Nature herself.

http://www.mister-finch.com/