August.....

is the month my young friend comes to stay and we go walking.  It was a bit delayed this year thanks to the fact that in July I missed the bottom step and ricked my ankle. I was worried that I would spoil her holiday by not being able to do long stints but it turned out I managed and in fact it seemed to make my ankle better.  Still not perfect but everything takes longer these days.
One of our first walks was to Hothfield Heathlands described as one of the few remaining fragments of open heath.  Land where, traditionally, cattle were grazed. We saw......
New trees growing from a fallen tree,

the longest horns I have every seen

and a grey horse in grass that looked like mist.

On other days we saw a sheep on a wall, in Sevenoaks

and in London a blue cockerel.

We found dream cottages in  Boughton under Blean and Dargate

 orchards,

 pub flowers

and a magnificent oak tree.

and what better way to end a day than with a sunset. London horizon from my bedroom window

 and fabulous every changing clouds.  I won't bore you with the other 20 odd shots I took.

O.....

August nearly over...and my goodness these Craft Barn Challenges seem to come round even more quickly.
 Some very strange words in my dictionary but finally, because of my love of maps, I decided on ORIENTATE.

I found a map of Italy from about 15 years ago, so probably out of date..I painted it with my favourite Quin. Azo Gold.and then set about making the compass. I used a stencil/mask of a compass and  fussy cut it out of black card.  Added a layer of Fresco paint and some Treasure gold and some very ancient peel offs. I abandoned the idea of making it turn, summer laziness.

Memo to self:  I must do a catch up post of the places I have been in the last few weeks.

D..

It's been a busy week but thanks to some long walks to gestate ideas and a couple of early mornings I have been able to complete my Craft Barn Alphabet Challenge.  The letter D.  My dictionary(temptation) yielded DIORAMA. "a dissolving view, a building for dioramic exhibition".I think one of the reasons it jumped out at me was I had recently seen the pretty summer windows of Fortnum and Mason in London. They are representations of the old 18th century pleasure gardens of London. 

So.......
Here is my view of "ships at sea".  I gave myself some problems because a diorama is usually three dimensional and I want this as a book page but with a bit of help from sticky pads I managed to get a bit of dimension in it.

 I made doors to add a bit more depth. The ships are cut from some paper I bought in a tiny little shop in Sienna, Italy many years ago.  This is nearly the end, I wish I could get back there,  there were so many wonderful papers.

I am particularly pleased with the sky and for that I have to thank Leandra from Paper Artsy who put up this video last week. I love the finish of Fresco Paints. As ever I have really enjoyed this weeks challenge.