Behind the scenes

This blog is about what's going on in and around my studio . . . so I intended to blog about a busy day working in The Riverslade Gallery on Friday followed by a bit of Bank Holiday fun and relaxation . . .

"CUT!" Let' s start again.

Those things didn't happen, because on Thursday night I went down with a tummy bug and I didn't even begin to feel better until yesterday lunchtime – it wiped out three and a half days. But you don't want to know about that (and I'd rather forget about it!) and I'm now back in my studio drinking a cup of tea and easing myself back into a working week.

You all know that I focus on the positive on PPPs (and even on the busiest stressiest day I can usually find something fitting for a PPP-post) so here are tasters of things coming along later this month.


A happy looking box arrived at the weekend. Its contents . . .


. . . my smart new business cards :-) This is all part of my website makeover and my preparations for Saffron Walden Open Studios weekend on 19th and 20th June when I'll be exhibiting my work alongside Annette Jacob's textile creations at her studio at Duddenhoe End.


Meanwhile, preparations for our village fete are reaching a peak; one of the things I'd volunteered to do was to give the Bean-Bag game a new look (be careful when attending village meetings where wine is served!). Cliff had an inspired idea and left it to me to paint while he went to check out some footpath routes. So I spent yesterday afternoon in the garage painting and to the accompaniment of Classic FM. If you'd like to play iBean bag an app, come along to the village fete on 12th June.



PS: It's a new month, so voting over at the Little Blog Awards is starting for June's winner. If you'd like to vote for PPPs click on the link in the side bar.
Celia
x

Rain, beautiful rain

It has been over a month since we had the tiniest drop of rain – far too long even in this corner of Suffolk which is probably one of the driest spots in the UK. I know that when the heavens open day after day in July, we'll all be moaning and wishing for dry weather! But the past weeks have shown me that without rain we cannot have lush and green garden, seeds won't grow and newly planted out vegetables suffer and wilt.

Last night it rained. Walking through the garden this morning, I could hear dozens of honey bees buzzing in the wisteria blossoms on our garden wall and all around the plants were singing 'Thank you for the rain'.

Rain, Rain Beautiful Rain
sung by Ladysmith Black Mambazo

There is one garden resident who is slightly disappointed by the arrival of rain and cooler temperatures . . . Tarragon. He has spent the dry weeks working on a new landscaping UGP* – a cool shady dust-bath for his ladies. I'm sure he'll soon start work on his next project!



*UGP = Unauthorised Gardening Project

Sunny South Suffolk

This morning I had to drive over to The Jessica Muir Gallery in Long Melford to collect one of my framed prints for a customer. I found Jean, the owner, unpacking a box of the most wonderful quirky little hen, cockerel and cat ceramic and wire sculptures – if you would like to see them dash over to the gallery, I'm sure they'll be selling fast.


As you can see it's a glorious sunny day here in south-west Suffolk, my route between Long Melford and my studio follows the Stour Valley and the lovely villages which nestle in the gently sloping wide river valley. I needed to do some shopping, so decided to take the opportunity to stop at the small town of Clare and call in to some of the many small shops in the streets around the square and churchyard.

This unpretentious shop is the bakers, it uses Marriages flour to make its dough – and that means the bread is extra flavoursome (just ask my under-gardeners – they eat Marriages mixed corn and Layers Pellets).


After filling my big shopping bag with vegetables and fruit from the little open fronted Greengrocers, I headed around the corner to the ironmongers. I love this shop! It's much bigger than you expect as it extends on and on at the back. It's the sort of shop where you wouldn't be surprised to see Ronnie Corbett behind the counter. I bought one of the brushes you can see in the photo and a big ball of garden string, the sort that smells of garden sheds.


Suddenly we're here in the season and sunny days and fetes on the village greens, tourists in camper vans and on bikes . . . the Chelsea Flower Show is about to open and summer has begun – Hurrah!

PS: My garden desperately needs some rain, but I don't want to spoil the party atmosphere!

New web site... coming soon!

Earlier this year I made lots of improvements to my studio's computer system and the intention has been to give my website, online gallery and blog a makeover.

The blog's new look as quick and easy, the website makeover has been the tricky part – the old files couldn't be updated on the new system, so I really needed to start with a clean sheet (and new software). Today I decided that the only way to test whether my new look for the site is going to work is to publish it . . . and then make corrections and additions over the weeks ahead.

The online gallery is in transition and will become a portfolio of work on the new website and my etsy shop will be re-launched.

I pressed the publish button a few minutes ago (eek!) and it's not working smoothly yet, so be patient until it all settles down. I'm sure it's going to make my life easier as soon as the teething problems have passed.


Have a lovely weekend – looks like it's going to be a scorcher here in Suffolk!

Celia
x

On the edge of The Wild Wood

A few weeks ago I noticed some unusual leaves unfurling in The Wild Wood. The plant grew bigger and bigger, buds appeared near the top, this week delicate custard yellow flowers opened . . .

The plant is Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus), readers in North American may know it by the old English name the first settlers brought with them: Swallow Wort. Confusingly Greater Celandine is in no way related to the Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) which flowers much earlier in the year and is a member of the Buttercup family and has small narrow shiny golden petals like this . . .


Look closely and you can see that the Greater Celandine is in fact a kind of wild poppy, and like other poppies it has a sticky poisonous sap in its stems. The sap of the Greater Celandine is yellowy orange and is very toxic – in fact it burns! So best to look and not touch! In the past it was used to burn away warts and rather alarmingly for burning away cataracts from the eye! It is associated with old walls and stony pathsides in places that have been inhabited for centuries – maybe a relic from an ancient physic garden.


Yesterday lunchtime I took my lunch over to the opposite bank of the stream behind our Wild Wood and sat in the corner of the field beyond, there is a wide uncultivated field margin which hopefully helps biodiversity and the local wildlife.

As I wandered through the garden on my way to The Wild Wood I'd picked herbs and salad leaves a and added them to my lunch – you can't get a much fresher salad . . .


It wasn't long before the ginger studio assistant sniffed out the aroma of paté and tracked me down!

"Have you left some for me?!"

Saffron Walden Open Studios

This summer, Essex will be buzzing with art festivals, exhibitions and trails – all part of Essex Summer of Art. Essex is a diverse county, it has an image of being on London's fringe inhabited by Jamie and Essex Girls, but there are seaside resorts, marshes, market towns and tranquil picturesque valleys too.

Artists in and around Saffron Walden have joined forces to put together a weekend of Open Studios on 19th and 20th June, this will follow on from the Saffron Walden Arts Festival taking place the previous weekend. Yesterday evening there was a launch party in The Riverslade Gallery, to unveil the smart new brochures.


My studio is just a little too far away from Saffron Walden and it's just over the border in Suffolk, but I had a very kind invitation from one of the Riverslade Gallery exhibitors, Annette Jacob – she suggested that I join her in the newly refurbished garden studio at her cottage in Duddenhoe End. So, on 19th and 20th June you can call in to see Annette's beautiful rag rugs, knitting and stitching alongside my linoprints and cards, in the lovely relaxed setting behind a traditional Essex thatched cottage. I'll tell you more about our plans for the weekend nearer the day, but it would be wonderful to see some of you in this beautiful north-west corner of Essex.

Our excitement about the Arts Festival was slightly dampened by the sight of the bandstand which is the centrepiece of the newly refurbished Jubilee Gardens – its lovely curved roof has been vandalised by metal thieves who have stripped off most of the lead. The little garden shelter in the opposite corner of the gardens suffered the same fate. What a sad reality of life, but I'm sure all the events planned to take place in Jubilee Gardens this summer will go ahead as planned and the bandstand and shelter will soon be repaired.

Yay! Summer toes at last!

The sandal-wearing season has started and the only 'Grey Skies' to be seen is the colour of my toenails!

I've won a prize!

A few weeks ago Matron celebrated her 600th blogpost by teaming up with The RHS for a competition to promote biodiversity in the garden. She asked her blog readers to write just 100 words on what you are doing in your garden to promote biodiversity. She said that she didn't want doom and gloom, neither did she want a political rant – just a nice, gentle, uplifting, innovative, clever, creative, inspiring 100 words.

Matron's blog Down on the Allotment is one of my favourites, it is down to earth with a good dollop of humour and her faithful dog Buddy is never far from the action. I hesitated for a week or so, then one evening I sat down and jotted down a few thoughts . . . 100 words isn't very many to describe my garden and all the plants, insects, birds and animals that live there. In the end, this is what I wrote:

"A newt doesn’t just need water – it needs bugs to feeds on; a water forget-me-not leaf to fold around its egg; and logs and stones to hide under in the winter.

So here’s my pact:

No weed-killers and pesticides;
Nectar rich flowering plants;
A half buried log pile and bundles of dry hollow stems;
Seed-heads left on the plants through the winter;
A small pond surrounded by log piles and a bog garden;
Wild-flowers mingling in the borders and lawn.

And the wildlife has moved in… hundreds of inter-connected life-cycles; we’re relying on each other to thrive."


To my utter amazement my entry was selected as the winner! Thank you Matron and thank you to The RHS . . . look at all the exciting things that fell out of the package that arrived in the post this morning! As well as a full year's membership of The RHS (which includes a free pass to all the RHS gardens and subscription to The Garden magazine) there were postcards, vouchers to spend in the RHS shops and at Thompson and Morgan and two packets of seeds. What a lovely way to start the day :-)

Zimni Ogrodnicy (Chilly Gardeners)

Last night at 9.15pm, saying goodbye to friends after the Pilates class, we remarked how chilly it was . . . "There's going to be proper frost tonight!" one friend called as I got into my car to drive home. On the way back along the dark country lanes joining Cambridgeshire to Suffolk, I could hear my Dad saying "Have you earthed up your potatoes and covered the strawberry flowers?" – for years I always checked with my Dad when I should sow seeds or plant things out; I didn't bother to remember for myself. Then one day he was no longer there to ask . . . over the past 10 years the wise gardening advice he gave has gradually re-surfaced in my memory.

I parked my car and remembered that months ago I'd bought a roll of protective fleece for a very cheap price at QD in Newmarket, it was in my office. In the dark I went out to the vegetable garden, after making sure I'd zipped up the cloche covering the courgettes, I unrolled the fleece and anchored it in place over the flowering strawberry plants.


I grabbed a handy trowel and flicked soil over any newly emerged potato leaves (the ginger studio assistant arrived and tried to help!). It felt cruel to cover lovely soft leaves with dirt – but without protection the leaves would be black and crinkled by morning.


I also moved our rather scruffy looking lemon tree into the greenhouse – there are lots of new tender leaves and flower buds appearing. One of the heated propogators is still plugged in, warming the germinating Achocha seeds, and giving just enough heat to the greenhouse to keep night-time temperatures well above freezing.


Early this morning I read in yesterday's Times about the 'Ice Saints' or "Eismänner": Saints Mamertus, Pancras, Servatius and Boniface whose feast days traditionally bring frost from May 11 to May 14. Farmers in Germany and Northern Europe knew that it was not safe to plant crops until the saints had done their work. I'd never heard of them before, although it fits with our proverb "Ne'er cast a clout 'til May be out" – don't take your vest off until the Hawthorn blossom (May) is blooming.

A search on the web unearthed the Chilly Gardeners or Zimni Ogrodnicy in Polish. Zimni Ogrodnicy, even the sound make you shiver! Four saints of the catholic church in Poland: St Pancras, (Pankracy 12 May), St Servatus (Serwacy 13 May), St Boniface (Bonifacy 14 May) and St Sophia (Zofia 15 May). Traditionally in Poland these four days are usually accompanied by a sudden cold snap after the first few weeks of beautiful spring weather.

I think I've got the message, I'll be out there tonight, rolling out the fleece and earthing up the spuds again. Zimni Ogrodnicy . . . the Icemen cometh!

The Romans were here

Yesterday afternoon, after a morning trying to catch up with overdue tasks in the vegetable patch (at long last the Purple Podded Peas have been planted out) I joined Cliff and the local walking group for the second half of their Sunday walk. Along the way we stopped to admire probably the most overlooked Roman landmark in England.

Bartlow Hills. Heard of them? Anyone?



These are Roman burial mounds. Not just any old piles of dirt, they were originally the largest group of Roman barrows in northern Europe – I wrote 'were' because 150 years ago, when the railway was built from Cambridge to London, some of the 1,750 year old mounds were flattened. There had been excavations of the main burial chambers in the early 1800s and beautiful treasures were found – jars of perfume, lamps which had been left burning after the tombs were closed and even a swanky folding chair. All of these antiquities were in a private collection and were destroyed in a house fire in 1847.

The remaining hills became hidden in the dense undergrowth but now in the care of Cambridgeshire Archaeology* the scrub has been cleared and an information board installed. Bartlow Hills are tucked away in woodland behind the 11th century round towered village church, it is still a secretive place, you're unlikely to find crowds of tourists and you can climb to the top of the largest mound.


Our walk also went past the lovingly restored windmill high on the ridge above Ashdon. This post mill dates from 1756 and over the past few years we've seen it transformed from a sad derelict pile to an (almost) working mill once again. Although it isn't yet in full working order, the whole mill can now be turned by one (or two) people with strong legs and backs. If some of the Friends of Ashdon Mill are around, you can have a guided tour right up inside the mill mechanism.


And over the wide rolling landscape of fields and woods along the Essex-Cambridgeshire border – click on the picture to enlarge and look at the narrow yellow strip of rape flowers . . . there are four hares in a high-speed, hormone-fueled chase over the furrows.


* If you live in the area and want to know more about Bartlow Hills there will be a free guided walk led by Cambridge Archaeology of the Roman barrows, and surrounding area, on Wednesday 19th May, meet outside the church at 7pm.

You can't hurry an egg

This is a short public information film about egg production . . .

Cast in order of appearance:
Phoebe, Saffron Spice, Silvie, Nutmeg Spice, Tarragon and Ginger Spice.

Sculptors in residence

In the shallow part of the Dragonfly Pond I spied some intriguing constructions in the water . . .


. . . was an elfin Andy Goldsworthy at work in our pond?


I remembered seeing tiny constructions, in a stream, that were made by caddis fly larvae – they build little underwater houses to live in. I looked on my bookshelf for an insect book for information . . .


Mmmm? This wasn't going to be easy! Nothing on the page looked exactly like the things in our pond.


I decided to ask BBC Springwatch, they had liked my newt photos when I added them to the Springwatch Flickr page. In a very short time an insect expert had pointed me in the direction of this book . . .


. . . and when it arrived in the post after a couple of days, I quickly found the name of our clever creative builders, Limnephilus flavicornis.


Another amazing creature living in our garden, eating our Duck Weed (they're welcome - chomp away L. flavicornis) and in due course emerging as delicate buff flying insects. Maybe some will lay eggs in the pond edge to start the life-cycle over again? Others might fly higher and become a night-time snack for the local bats? Their lives are part of the biodiversity of our little patch – and that makes me very happy.

Purple patches on the Devil's Dyke

On Saturday evening we strolled along the Devil's Dyke, you may have seen Silverpebble's post about the morning stroll from her cottage to the western end of the Dyke. We live nearer to the eastern end of the 7.5 mile Saxon ditch and bank, near the precious site where the Pasqueflowers (pulsatilla vulgaris) grow. Were they blooming once again? I blogged about them last year on 19th April, then there were many healthy plants; this year the plants are smaller from lack of moisture and many flowers are yet to open.

On the south facing chalk bank, in little scrapes made by the local bunnies, there were clusters of the purple flowers, they looked as if they were sheltering from the cold evening breeze.


Up close you can see the petals, sepals and stalk are covered with soft downy hairs.


The Pasqueflower wasn't the only purple patch on the grassy bank. Here is another special flower that is rare in our part of the world, the Hairy Violet (viola hirta). It is unscented and flowers slightly later than the Sweet Violet, it also likes to grow in open grassy places rather than shady hedgerows. The Hairy Violet makes beautiful tuffets of bright green leaves and blue-mauve flowers.


Ground Ivy (glechoma hederacea) is a common plant, we have lots in our lawn! On the Devil's Dyke the plants are stunted and nestle in the turf. It is a potent (and toxic) herb and over the centuries has been used to treat many conditions, it was used to curdle milk for cheese making and in Saxon times Ground Ivy leaves were used to add a bitter note to beer – that's a good a reason as any to find it growing on a Saxon defensive earthwork. The flowers have beautiful speckled throats and the leaves take on a rusty redness when they grow on the thin dry chalk soil.


This final purple splash is tiny, so teeny weeny you need to be very observant to spot it . . . Milkwort (glaux vulgaris). I had to crawl down the precipitous bank and cling on with my toes to take this photo! It's an exquisitely pretty flower that has a clean fresh appearance, the colour varies from white, pink and mauve to blue. This one reminded me of the pure blue pigments use on medieval illuminated manuscript pages.

Ruby

Ruby, one of our senior under-gardeners passed away this morning. You may remember that I wrote about Tarragon the Lavender Araucana cockerel's bullying of Ruby; for the past couple of months Ruby lived in her retirement bungalow (aka rabbit hutch) in our porch. She had access to the courtyard outside my studio's office window and to keep her company, Phoebe – one of the other senior hens, moved in with her.

It isn't unusual for a cockerel, or even a senior ranking hen, to ruthlessly bully another bird, but there is often method in their madness, and I suspected that Tarragon had the interests of his flock at heart and that Ruby wasn't a healthy hen. She hasn't laid eggs since October last year, in fact most of Ruby's eggs were a little strange . . . rough shelled, elongated and sometimes bent, once she laid a conjoined double egg with a twisted middle! Her diet was always verging on carnivorous, she loved catching and eating frogs, toads and snails. She learned to ambush the cats and steal the mice they had caught and often sneaked into the kitchen to eat the cat food. In fact Iam's cat biscuits were the only thing she would eat in her final weeks. Hens self medicate if there is a nutritional imbalance due to illness – inside Ruby something wasn't right.

Over the weeks Ruby put on weight but her breast bone stuck out and she was wasting away. She waddled like a duck and spent time just sitting still. One day I found her under a bush cold and almost lifeless – but after a day or so she was perkier. I suspected egg peritonitis, a very serious condition which is difficult to treat. Ruby was very, very poorly this week and we had to make a very difficult decision . . . but we knew it was the right one. So RIP Ruby, in the shade of an apple tree and under a carpet of primroses.

The power of four

Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae)
"A family of mostly annual or perennial herbs with alternate leaves and racemes of 4-sepalled, 4-petalled flowers, the petals being arranged in a cross. There are usually 2 outer stamens plus 4 larger, inner ones. The ovary consists of 2 carpels but produces dry fruits of various forms, either capsules or indehiscent. Crucifers provide many valuable vegetables and are sources of useful oils. No members of the family are poisonous. There are 390 genera, with nearly 3000 species, mainly northern temperate."

A Dictionary of Plant Sciences by M Allaby 1998

No! Don't run away!
A little botanical knowledge is a useful garden tool . . .

You sow your seeds in the garden, you water them and little teeny weeny leaves appear. But – are they the seed you sowed or are they weeds? Or are they seeds that got muddled about when the junior gardener 'helped'? Being able to ID your beets from your lettuces and your beans from your brassicas is a useful skill.

Here's my guide to Crucifers. Think cross-shaped, four-lobed and you'll soon get the idea. This group of plants (also known as Brassicas) includes cabbage, kale, radish, horseradish, mustard, rape, cress, swede, cauliflower, turnip and pak choi to name just a few. And the clever thing is, when all these plants first germinate, the seed leaves all look very similar – like this . . .

these are French Breakfast Radish seedlings

and these are Purple Sprouting Broccoli

See! Easy peasy botany!

While we're looking for Crucifers, here are some that I found flowering in the garden today . . .

Hairy Bitter Cress

it's an annoying weed, but like all Crucifers it is edible
and it actually tastes nice and peppery

You may have noticed that the Hairy Bitter Cress flower has four petals – and that's true for all Crucifers. A lot of Crucifer flowers have white petals (Crambe, Arabis, Rocket) probably most of them have yellow flowers (Oil Seed Rape, Mustard, Land Cress). But some have been selected for their richly vibrant coloured petals . . .

Honesty
remember to leave the seed heads so you can dry the papery 'moons'
and scatter the seeds for another year

Wallflower

not only beautiful colours, but a lovely warm peppery scent too,
these survived the winter and are flowering for a second year

From the earth came spears

It's no secret that I love asparagus, I've written before on PPPs about why this may be. So, you can imagine my excitement when I see this happening on my asparagus bed . . .


Oh yes! Forget the Party Leader debates and Icelandic volcanic ash closing most UK and European airports – this was the weekend I cut the first asparagus. Just a few modest sized spears, but enough to turn our lunchtime salad with poached eggs into a gourmet meal eaten outside in the sunshine, the sky a perfect blue with not a vapour trail or Stansted bound plane in sight.

Sing a song of Spring

"During 2010 I will record the seasons as I take time out to eat my lunch and read inspiring books as I sit on the seat made from Yew branches, overlooking the neighbouring farmland."

I have to confess to failing to keep to the plan since Easter, partly because I've been working hard to fulfill illustration deadlines and partly because there has been a bitingly chill wind blowing. The large part of our garden is within a high brick wall, originally a vegetable garden for an eighteenth century squire with grand designs, we can now appreciate his sensible construction. The sky may be blue, the sun may be shining, but outside the wall in The Wild Wood the wind chills the bones and sitting on the rustic bench (even wearing warm clothes) is not much fun.

Today the wind has dropped a little, during a break in the clouds I nipped out to The Wild Wood to update my record of the journey through the year . . .

The wild 'Cherry Plum' prunus cerasifera, is covered with white blossom. Plums seem to benefit from a period of cold weather before they break the winter dormancy, the coldest winter for more than thirty years has preceded a stunning burst of blossom. Fingers crossed for warmth and sun to bring out the pollinating insects.


The woodland floor is greening up – here is Dog's Mercury mercurialis perennis, in Suffolk it's presence in hedge bottoms and on road verges indicates the sites of ancient woodland. A botanical thread linking The Wild Wood with a wilder past.


But stand a while and listen . . . Spring has come to The Wild Wood in the chorus of birdsong. Listen carefully, some of you may be clever enough to identify the different bird species. About 11 seconds in, see if you can hear the Tawny Owl hoot – unusual to hear at mid-day but maybe he has young to feed?

In the sunshine

On Friday it was, once again, my turn to look after The Riverslade Gallery and Shop in Saffron Walden. Over the past six months on the days when I've been in charge of the gallery, the weather has been cold and grim and I've always driven home in rain, sleet or snow! What a difference a ray of sunshine makes! I opened the huge vintage wooden shutters to reveal the newly revamped Jubilee Gardens - they aren't re-opened to the public yet but the smart new path and flower borders look spick and span, just waiting for a lovely concert at the traditional bandstand and people chilling out on the lawn.

I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite things by a few of the other artist/makers at The Riverslade:

Here is the sunlight casting coloured patterns through one of Carole Gray's glass panels onto the wooden shutters . . .


Gill Howe creates beautiful mosaics, I love her colour combinations and how she incorporates vintage crockery into the designs . . .


A row of luxurious scarves and wraps in the richest of jewel colours, made from hand-dyed velvet by Lin Patterson . . .


The display of restrained white domestic ware by Susan Cupitt, all her ceramics have an air of simple calm beauty . . .


And finally, an irresistible row of pencils covered with marbled papers by Victoria Hall . . .


The Riverslade Gallery and Shop is open Wednesday to Saturday, look for the signs by the walkway to Waitrose just off Hill Street in Saffron Walden. Oh, and my prints and cards are for sale there too.