Old Ruined Mill Building

Somewhere way up in the glens lies this ancient ruined mill building. I only realised it was originally a mill when I walked round the building and saw the old water pit and the space where the wheel once was. Sadly there is no wheel there now, its been taken away. The inside of this building is strewn with debris and the outside is unstable..........but it sits in the landscape perfectly and takes you back in time a hundred years or more. We were there for at least an hour, and in that time not one person or car passed us. Utter peace and tranquility.

The frogspawn has hatched

The Frogspawn has hatched. They are still so tiny, not recognisable as tadpoles, and they remain stuck to the outside of the empty sacks munching away on all that protein rich jelly until they are strong enough to swim free. I am so excited, I've watched over them every day..................
Every night I go outside, creep around to the pond and watch mummy frog and daddy frog suspended, spreadeagled out, floating near the surface of the water with just their heads fully out of the water. They seem to be mesmerised at night, you can gently touch them and they don't dive away. I've found its the best time to see them.

Painting class

I started my afternoon painting class last Thursday. It was great to get back to class, it seems forever since I attended art class. I went totally unprepared and as every one else started setting up their stuff and getting out their work, I sat there with pristine canvas on easel and box of newly opened acrylics beside me. In the end...........I realised we were supposed to be 'painting', we were not going to be told what to do, and off I wandered in search of inspiration which I found in the form of a stack of old national geographic photos. This is what I came up with. A landscape that reminds me of the glens but was in fact based on an old photo of some place in America. I painted my way through the three hour class only to be disappointed with the result. I've  spent the rest of the week reworking this painting until now, the evening before my next class, when I think I'm fairly satisfied with it. I'd forgotten how easy it is to lose all track of time day after day when absorbed in a painting.
So; this is the first one, and tomorrow I start on the second one, hopefully as the novelty wears off I will become lass obsessed. 

Another couple of songs

Leonard Cohen, another great songwriter and poet

just a couple of songs

There's a lot of Johnny Cash on TV recently, I'd forgotten how much I like him. In the youtube comments under this video some one has written..
'please take Justin Bieber and send Johnny back'...........now I know you can't go around wishing people dead.......but I kinda see their point :-)

Garden 2012 no 8

Garden 2012 no 8

The weather has been good and it’s light until after 6 which means I’m able to spend an hour out there most evenings. There is a bit of a lull in gardening activity at the moment, most things I can do, I’ve already done.  I’ve sown all the seeds I have space for. I would like more veg seeds in but until I can figure out a way to create more space it will have to wait. There is an area behind the pond I’m going to use once all the bulbs have finished, I hope it wont be too late, but even if it is at least if I do it this year it will be ready for planting next year. The snow drops have come and gone, the daffodils are in full bloom, there seems to be more of them every time I look, but the bluebells won’t be up for another month or so.


I’m hoping I will get that little patch dug over in time to plant veg this year but like I said, if not, it will be ready for next year.

At the moment I’m enjoying spring in the garden. I’ve stopped feeding the birds, they don’t seem too pleased  but it’s time they learn to fend for themselves over the summer. Dining will resume next winter.

 Even the periwinkle is starting to flower; I think it’s a little early this year.

This pink primula didn’t flower very well last year but this year it was  early and is still going strong.

This pretty pink blossom on the wild current bush is at its best right now. This grows on my neighbours side of the fence and he has mentioned cutting it down, I do hope he doesn't. 

Even the pond is in bloom.

One thing I have achieved is to separate my fruit bushes/ trees from the hedgerow bushes. I’ve re-sited the fruit in a row along the side of the veg garden and covered the area in bark chips.

I was told that its not good to allow the grass to grow around the fruit trees because the grass takes the goodness from the soil. Now they have sole use of this little bit of soil and I’m expecting bumper crops as thanks for my hard work.

Art Sunday; Mary Jane Ansell

Information from here

http://www.fairfaxgallery.com/mary_jane_ansellextrainfo.htm

Mary Jane Ansell graduated from Brighton University in 1994 and now works from her studio in the heart of Brighton's North Lane, England.

She originally chose to train as an illustrator because a narrative allowed her to focus. Since then her work has evolved far beyond illustrating other people words, she is now one of the most sought after young artists, both locally and internationally.  Her portraits of herself and others are sensitive, emotional, soft and full of detail, they are a snap shot in time.

She began to seriously exhibit in  2002, and has won many of the countries art award prizes.

In 2004 she began teaching portraiture to school children, the classes were very popular. Her first foray's into teaching portraiture with children, at Stanford Infant School during June's Big Arts Week led to her appearing on live TV, making a guest appearances on Uk's childrens TV to mark the National Gallery's exhibition Making Faces. During Brighton’s May Festival she was short listed for the Brighton Festival Fringe Art Prize 2004

In 2005 Mary Jane won the Painting Award in this years Sussex Open at Brighton and Hove Museum, she was selected for the Royal Society Of Portrait Painters annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London and a second selection for LondonArts ‘Art of Love’ competition held at the Oxo Tower Gallery, London.

In 2006 Mary Jane received an invitation to produce a portrait to be auctioned as part of The National Portrait Gallery's 150th Anniversary Gala celebrations raising money for future collections, and in 2009 Mary Jane was a finalist in the B.P. Portrait awards with her painting of ''Georgie' being used for national promotion of the exhibition and on the large banners outside the NPG.

I think this young woman is impressive, she is one of the very best contemporary oil painters I have come across. She is subtle, sensitive, emotional, realistic with just a touch of the surreal to make her stand out from the crowd.

Song Saturday; Lou Reed, Sad Song

For no reason I can think of, I’m feeling particularly melancholy, tired and even a little irritable………and the song seems to suite my mood.

Feedback needed from all American ladies

Feedback needed from all American ladies

I've just come from a hotly debated page of a political group and one of my contacts has just said to me....
''But I am curious - of your American contacts, what is the feeling about healthcare and the current contraceptive debate? If you have a mind to, ask them what their issues and priorities are. I don't know, but it might elucidate the issue. It has me baffled. ''...............
So ladies.........all  answers, opinions and thoughts gratefully received. Don't worry, I promise this is not where I or any one else jump on people we don't agree with, this is purely an opinion finding exercise. I'm just asking the questions that I have been asked to ask :-)

Thanks ladies.
ps.............the picture at the top is irrelevant to the post..........I just like it.

garden 2012 no 7, The Frog family is growing..........

Today the frogs were not as camera shy, they seem to be used to me hanging around in the garden. There are at least three frogs, two seem to be male because they were puffing out their cheeks and making a lot of noise. The other one, which I still think is female tends to stay closer to the frogspawn........

Art Sunday; Ancient Art for Rhodes.

Art Sunday; Ancient Art from Rhodes

This is late.............almost not Sunday any more.... and its different....
 but I hope you like it.


I’ve already said I’m in the process of sorting out literally hundreds of photographs taken during my holiday to Rhodes in 2004. I really should have done this before, now that I look at them, and try to make sense of them, I find I’m not always sure which artifact was found at which place. I thought I’d share a few more of these photos today because it really was a wonderful holiday, and there is so much art and history there it’s hard to take it all in. Rhodes is unique, all Greek Islands are special but this one is extra special. Rhodes has been inhabited from the Neolithic period and during the years between then and now, has been conquered and governed by just about every major civilization the world has ever known. It has been at the center of so many civilizations and all of these great civilizations have left their mark on this small Island.

This very brief version of the history of Rhodes shows why its such an exciting island and why there is still so much to see there.

1. The island was inhabited in the Neolithic period, although little remains of this culture.
2. In the 16th century BC, the Minoans came to Rhodes.
3. In the 15th century BC, Mycenaean Greeks invaded.
4. In the 8th century BC, the island's settlements started to form,
5. The Persians invaded and overran the island, but were in turn defeated by forces from Athens in 478 BC.
6. In 357 BC, the island was conquered by the king Mausolus of Caria,
7. It fell to the Persians in 340 BC.
8. Rhodes became a part of the growing empire of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, after he defeated the Persians.
9. In 164 BC, Rhodes signed a treaty with Rome. It became an educational center for Roman noble families, and was especially noted for its teachers of rhetoric,
10. In the 1st century AD, the Emperor Tiberius spent a brief term of exile on Rhodes.
11. Saint Paul brought Christianity to people on the island.
Rhodes reached her zenith in the 3rd century.
12. In 395, the long Byzantine Empire-period began for Rhodes, when the eastern half of the Roman empire became gradually more Greek.
13. Rhodes was occupied by the Muslim forces of Muawiyah I in 672.
14. In circa 1090, it was occupied by the Muslim forces of the Seljuk Turks,
15. Rhodes was recaptured by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus during the First Crusade.in 1309,
16. The Byzantine era came to an end when the island was occupied by forces of the Knights Hospitaller.  
17. The strong walls which the Knights had built withstood the attacks of the Sultan of Egypt in 1444,  and of Mehmed II in 1480.
18. Rhodes fell to the large army of Suleiman the Magnificent in December 1522, long after the rest of the Byzantine empire had been lost
19. The island was populated by ethnic groups from the surrounding nations, including Jews. Under the Ottoman Empire rule, they generally did fairly well, but discrimination and bigotry occasionally arose
20. In February 1840, the Jews of Rhodes were falsely accused of ritually murdering a Christian boy.
21. In 1912, Italy seized Rhodes from the Turks.
22. Following the Italian Armistice of 8 September 1943, the British attempted to get the Italian garrison on Rhodes to change sides.
23. This was anticipated by the German Army, which succeeded in occupying the island.
24. On 19 July 1944, the Gestapo rounded up the island's nearly 2,000 Jewish inhabitants to send them to extermination camps.
About 160 of the island's more than 600 Greek Jews survived.
25. In 1947, together with the other islands of the Dodecanese, Rhodes was united with Greece.
26. In 1949, Rhodes was the venue for negotiations between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, concluding with the 1949 Armistice Agreements.

 If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it. All of these museums and artifacts are found within the walls of the ancient walled city of Rhodes.

The Palace of Grand Masters in Rhodes: The Palace of Grand Masters is ideally located at the end of the Street of the Knights. It is conspicuous by its spherical towers as well as a gate with a sharp arch.

The Palace of Grand Masters is a citadel which was built by the Knights of St John in the 14th century. The palace boasts of numerous grandiose rooms with antique furniture, exquisite polychrome marbles, sculptures, carpets and fine Oriental vases.

 Museum of Decorative Arts, which contains finely made objects and crafts from Rhodes and other islands, most notably Simi.

The Museum of the Decorative Arts is to be found within a building that once served as the Knight's arsenal and is home to an extensive array of artifacts and treasures.

These include many old and hard-carved wooden vessels, along with pottery, folk costumes and some very well-preserved embroideries, from the 17th century onwards.

Muslim Library
Founded towards the end of the 18th century.
The library itself was created at the request of Ahmed Hasuf, a local Rhodian originating from Turkey.
Inside the library there are a large collection of both Arabic and Persian scripts, along with some historic handwritten Korans.

 The building itself is beautifully preserved has a pattern of gold stars across the ceiling.

Archaeological Museum

The inner courtyard of the Archaeological Museum is surrounded by a colonnade, which spans two floors.


Mandraki harbor was the main as and military harbor of ancient Rhodes for almost 2,500 years,and its mouth could be shut off by chains. Now the mouth of the harbour has  statues of a male and female deer ( Elafos and Elafina) symbols of the island - which stand on columns. It is believed that the Colossus of Rhodes stood here. The deer is supposed to occupy the very spot where the foot of the great colossus once stood.

Song Saturday Sunshine

My ‘project’ for this week has been printing off and mounting some of the hundreds of photographs I took when I went to Rhodes in 2004. I have albums and albums of photographs charting the kids growing up, family holidays, birthdays Christmases’ etc, (as I’m sure has every one else). And then, about ten or so years ago, I bought my first digital camera and suddenly…………..the family albums stop. Now I’m missing the photograph albums and I’ve decided to sort out the photographs, print some of them,  and make up new albums. And.....… first on my list was Rhodes.

To me this was the holiday of a lifetime. I loved it, apart from the unlimited culture, history, art, architecture, an intact medieval walled town, ancient archeology sites on every corner, sea food like no other and many ,many more delights, what  I think of more than any thing else, is the SUNSHINE. I kid you not; the weather was wonderful, all day, every day. The skies were blue, the seas were blue and the sun was hot. This music doesn’t have very much to do with Rhodes……………but its all about the sunshine……….

Garden 2012 no 6

Garden 2012 no 6

We have a little bit of an evening now. Sunset is around 6 and by 6.30 it s too dark to see and I have to come indoors but; I finish my work at 4 and most days this week I’ve been able to have an hour or maybe two in the garden. Oh bliss…………..working away in the garden makes me feel so good. 

This picture is nothing to do with my garden, but he sits on my windowsill in my bedroom and every morning he smiles at me and makes me feel good. I like to think he is there keeping an eye on things at the back of the house.
The wild garlic is doing well. It’s a completely different plant to the cultivated garlic and has a delicious subtle taste. It’s taken me a couple of years to get the plant to this point. In previous years I’ve not used any of it, I wanted this little tub to become established before using it. This year it looks well and truly established and I’m looking forward to sampling some..

The radishes are the first of my seeds to sprout. The packet said they would be ready for harvest between 6 and 8 weeks after sowing but I think mine are going to take longer than that.
The broad beans, garlic and shallots all seem to be on track.

THE BEST BIT OF THE GARDEN THIS YEAR.

This morning I found a nice big clump of frogspawn in the pond. This is the first year frogspawn has appeared spontaneously, I guess now I really can call it a wild life pond. There is what I presume to be the ‘mummy’ frog and she can be seen sitting guard over her spawn with just her eyes and mouth above the water and there is a darker chap who I’m presuming is the ‘daddy’ frog, and he seems to spend the day lazing around under the plants at the other end of the pond. They are both incredibly shy and disappear with a splash and loud ‘plop’ if I attempt to go any where near… hence the awful quality of the pictures, they are both very camera shy.

The pond plants are starting to bloom; I don’t think they bloomed at all last year. There was still ice around this time last year and I think the extreme cold killed off the flowers. I’m just grateful the plant itself survived.

I’ve not been able to take many photos because the light goes so quickly, this was taken at 5.30 and by then it was time to start packing away and too dark to take any more photos. 


By 6.30 it was completely dark and all I could do was look at the beautiful moon from the kitchen window.  I quite like this photo; its taken from inside and the moon is reflected in the window making it look as if there are two moons out there.