The end of blogging as we know it.

So here it is, the end of blogging as we know it. What a shame, I really like it here and I don’t want to move. I’ve not received my notice yet but I’m sure it’s on its way and for now, I’ve read plenty of yours.
Giving up the whole blog thing just isn’t an option for me, I would miss my very good friends and I would really miss the interaction with every one. I think I’ve already said; I started a Blogger page quite a while ago and my posts from here get sent over there automatically, but I don’t find the site very user friendly. I still haven’t figured out a way to post directly there with pictures and videos without doing it here first. If every one decides that Blogger is the way to go then I’ll try harder to learn how to use it but, it would be really nice if we could find somewhere similar to this and easier to use.
I guess what I want to say is;
I want to stay in touch,
I want to keep my online friends,
I want to carry on blogging and interacting with my online friends. In order to do all of that,  I’ll go where ever majority of my friends decide to go, AND I’ll do my very best to learn the new skills needed to start again somewhere else.
 So; maybe we can all start thinking about where we are going and please, please if at all possible, lets go as a group.

Garden 2012 no 15

I’ve spent the day alternating between sitting here and playing in the garden, and then sitting here, and then playing in the garden, etc etc etc…..
And considering I haven’t spent the WHOLE day out there, I think I achieved quiet a lot. I had a space in the veg garden where the first of the broad beans were. I’ve dug it over and removed a bucket full of stones. I’ve no idea where all these stones keep coming from because I keep removing them and they keep coming back. In my garden stones are more prolific than weeds. I dug in some pellets and fed the earth because I know the soil must be pretty tired by now but I want to try to get a little bit more done this season. I’ve sown a whole row of carrots. I know it’s a bit late but all the books and all the packets say you can sow up until the end of July and we are only a few days into August so I figured it would be OK. Also, my sister left her late carrots in over the winter and they were fine when she lifted them in the spring so maybe I’ll do the same.
I took the last of the radishes from this box, fed the soil and then sowed a few more beetroot. Again the books say you can sow up until the end of July so I figured it would be OK. These are the lettuce, radishes and rocket I sowed a couple of weeks ago. I’ve still got plenty of lettuce to last until they are ready but I’ve run out of radish until these grow. And I decided to use up the last of the carrot seed in the potato barrels. The potatoes came up a couple of weeks ago and the compost has been fed so I’m hoping it will be OK. Even if I get nothing from the seeds I’ve put in today I’ve not really lost any thing because I didn’t want to keep the seeds for next year anyway. All the books say you shouldn’t keep seeds from one season to the next because they are not as good if used the year after purchase. That could just be a ploy to get us all to buy more seeds but it could be true, so I like to get fresh seeds every season.  And this is today’s harvest. From left to right, tonight’s harvest is; a little lettuce, nasturtium leaves, spring onion and radish for tonight’s salad, the first of the beetroot, the first garlic and the first clump of shallots, more broad beans and dill for the freezer. Looks like I’m off to buy pickling spices tomorrow. I’ve left the rest of the shallots, garlic and beetroot in the ground because I think they will benefit from a little more time. I had to take these few, they were pushing their way out of the ground.
Oh and also………..a little more fruit that’s heading straight for the freezer ready for my jam making weekend sometime soon.
This rather out of focus picture is lavender and tansy. I’ve picked about half of what is there to make these years sachets for the draws. The smell is so very, very good. Decided to leave the out of focus photo, I quite like the effect.And…………..did you know that Buddleia blooms smell like hyacinths,  well even if that’s not normal, mine do.

Weekend Music

Music to relax and enjoy.............reminiscent of blue skies, the sound of the sea and song birds.

Art Sunday; Samuel John Poploe

This is the guy whose exhibition I went to see at St Andrews on Friday. Normally still life is not my favourite subject matter, but his are truly amazing. He is what I would call a ‘painterly’ painter, more than anything else he is into ‘paint’.
When you see his work in the flesh it’s alive, vibrant and above all, he loves paint. The actual medium is as important as any thing else. I think he is a paint worshiper.

Samuel John Peploe

(27 January 1871 – 11 October 1935) was a Scottish Post-Impressionist painter, noted for his still life works and for being one of the group of four painters that became known as the Scottish Colourists. The other colourists were John Duncan Fergusson, Francis Cadell and Leslie Hunter.

More of this  here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Peploe

The Scottish Colourists

The artists, Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935); John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961); George Leslie Hunter (1877-1931) and Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883-1937) have achieved international acclaim in recent years following major retrospective exhibitions at the Royal Academy in London and the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Despite the diversity of their work and their relatively independent careers, they are now recognised as an identifiable movement within the history of art and their influence is still apparent in painting today.

The four painters became known as the Scottish Colourists because they grafted their knowledge of contemporary French Art – Monet, Matisse, and Cezanne - onto the painterly traditions of Scotland, redefining the qualities of light and colour in their still life, landscapes, figurative paintings and drawings into their own singular styles.

More of this here

http://www.exploreart.co.uk/artistic_styles_details.asp?artistid=62&artisticstyleid=4

A Biography

For those who want it, A more in depth biography:

Peploe was a passionate and serious artist who devoted himself to work but also had powerful influence on a surprisingly wide circle of people, including many artists of the next generation. Born in Edinburgh and educated at the Collegate School in Charlotte Square, he had good academic ability but no interest in the professions, preferring to walk, sail or sketch.
By 1893 he was enrolled for classes at the Trustees Academy (the forerunner to Edinburgh School of Art) and the following year was in Paris at the Académie Julian under the neo classicist, William Bourgereau and later at the Académie Colarossi. A long period of study nurtured his natural ability and helped him perfect an early style based on Dutch masters, particularly Franz Hals, and Edouard Manet. He began a lifelong habit of taking painting trips to northern France and the Western Isles, accompanied by J D Fergusson whom he had met in Paris. He was successful in exhibiting his work and regularly submitted paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Glasgow Institute and the Society of Scottish Artists.
His first one-man show was held at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh in 1903. By 1906 his earlier still life and figure paintings, characterised by dark backgrounds, gave way to paler colours, greys and pinks. This was in part due to a move to a new lighter studio in the East end of Edinburgh at York Place, from his previous west-end base at Shandwick Place. His second exhibition in 1909 was successful but his eyes were turning to Paris and the next year, he moved there with his new wife, Margaret MacKay, whom he had met on a painting trip to the Isle of Barra in 1894. France liberated his palette and on his return to Edinburgh in 1912 with dozens of paintings and a young son, Willie, the new work proved to be much too advanced for the city’s audience and his original dealer. Unperturbed, Peploe put on his own show at the New Gallery in Shandwick Place, where the Society of Eight (including Cadell, John Lavery and James Paterson) had their inaugural exhibition in the same year.
For the next fifteen years Peploe retained a brilliant palette, evolving a mature style containing elements of Cezanne and Matisse. By the late 1920s he had reverted to a more sonorous tonal painting, still enlivened by brilliant colour chords, but weightier and cooler. In 1933 he taught two terms at Edinburgh College of Art making quite an impact. Best known for his still life paintings of roses or tulips, Peploe had a wide range of subjects including figure and landscape painting.
From 1914 he was a regular visitor to Dumfries and Galloway, particularly Kirkcudbright and also from 1919 onwards to the isles of Iona. On the recommendation of Cadell he visited Cassis in the South of France in 1924, and returned in 1928 and 1930. His landscapes have a conviction and a passion, which belie the rather diffident, shy public face of the artist. His family and closest friends knew a wickedly funny, compassionate and sincere man.
Text source: Samuel Peploe (Guy Peploe, S J Peploe’s grandson); the Dictionary of Scottish Painters, (Halsby & Harris) and The Scottish Colourists, (Philip Long).

The garden and other bits

My mouse broke during the week and I’ve not been able to get on the computer for a few days, it makes you realise what a big part of your life the computer is when its not there. Anyway……………..I have a new mouse now and every thing is back to normal.
We have had some fantastic weather here this week; in fact it’s probably the best weather we’ve had so far this year, which is not surprising because school holidays finish in other 10 days which means kids, teachers and I, will be cooped up indoors while the sun shines outside. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing this will be the last school holiday for me……..I shall be retired before the summer holidays start next year I will be free to enjoy the sunshine when ever it comes.

I’ve spent a few days in the garden enjoying the summer colours and continuing to harvest what I can.

As well as the fruit, salad and a little veg I’m working my way through the herb garden.
I freeze all my herbs now; I think they retain their taste better than dried herbs. This was one days harvest, more broad beans, rhubarb, spring onions and radish, plus a little fruit and some herbs.
From left to right the herbs are Fennel, Lovage and Chives.  I’m freezing the fruit as I collect it and eventually I will have a jam making weekend.
And some flowers, I like flowers indoors but prefer ones  a little on the wild side, especially if they were grown in my garden.

Friday was my big day out to St Andrews with a friend. The sun brought the sailing boats out and I just loved sitting watching, it was a riot of colour.

The little sailing boats were so many different colours and to add to the scene, the families of those sailing protected themselves from the wind on the beach by big, multi coloured, canvas wind breakers.
To finish off the perfect day, we went to the St Andrews Museum and saw the Samuel John Peploe art exhibition, what a great painter he was.

To round up the week there was a family BBQ at my daughters house to celebrate her birthday.
I just loved her chicken cake, it had little chicken candles and pictures of her chickens inside the chicken house. This is another cake made by my friend, her business is blooming now she is really busy and becoming quite well known around the town.
And when we came home, a perfect sunset through the trees.

St Andrews beach on a sunny day

It was a very sunny day, probably the sunniest and warmest day so far this year. Days like this are worth waiting for. :-))

St Andrews sailing boats

A visit to St Andrews on Friday, the weather was fantastic and the sailing club gave a memorable performance. Plenty of artistic inspiration here with so much colour every where.