All over the place.......

I've been away, to my hometown.  View of Piel Island from Roe Island. Glorious sea breezes.

We went to Kendal

and walked down memory lane in the Museum of Lakeland Life, a bit disconcerting to see so many things you remember, in a museum. We also loved the Quaker Tapestry.and this quilt.

Made of knitted squares and embroidered panels, I think the square were knitted by a lady (forgot the name, sorry) and the embroidered pieces were worked by her friends. Sorry about the photo quality. There are some better photographs here
We visited Sisergh Castle  I must have passed it a thousand times on journeys back and forth but it is a lovely house to visit.  Fascinating history, Jacobites and all that,wonderful wooden paneling and carved fireplaces  and the portraits, for me, are particularly fine.

 

In the gardens we found these treasures.

The owls were part of Woollen Woodlands.  A copse of trees had been decorated with literally hundreds of animals and flowers by local groups and schools. Brilliant idea, such fun,We (72 and 82) were running around shouting "Look at this one" "Come and look at this".

 

and 

I 

I actually took loads more but as this was supposed to be a quick catch up post I better move on, there are some more photographs on this blog

Another beautiful day and a beach combing walk on Walney Island

I didn't wan't to trespass here

The sea made art

Iconic Black Combe

 See how it has inspired other people here

Another view with Walney Channel

Our last trip was to see the tree that has been planted for my brother,on a grassy bank, over looking the town so he can keep it in order.

Hopefully in the spring it will have snowdrops round it and then white blossom.

So that took longer than I thought, if you stuck with it to here can you help me identify this shrub?.  I have searched but had no luck so far.

Right better get to the catching up, seem to have been doing that this whole year which is flying by. 

Wk 9..

a sad/happy week.  We were comforted by the number of people who attended my brother's funeral, good to see so many people loved him as we did. The happy part was being with family,  we had an afternoon at the zoo with my great nephews, so good to hear their laughter and we managed a quick trip up the Lakes on a glorious day with snow on the tops.  The Lake District at it's finest. This is Lake Coniston.

and this was the star at the zoo, only 10 days old.

Lakeland is the home of Derwent Pencils and having seen these recently I couldn't come home without them.

and these 

More about them soon but I am in love. I was also given some deli paper by a generous friend so as soon as I was unpacked I had to play. I created a piece of paper that looked, to me,  like the bracken and the rocks on the hills so this is my spread for this week.  Not to the brief which was "collage something you have recycled" but more a reflection of the week.
this is the cover

and this is the spread

Joy of joys you can use the inktense bars on the gelli plate. Trees are part of one of the first rubber stamps I bought.
The runner is "in progress".

Later that day.......

the sun really came out and I had forgotten how breathtaking the Lake District is in Spring.  We stopped at Muncaster Castle, somewhere I had never visited. The Pennington family have lived there for 800 years and who can blame them. It stands high overlooking the Esk valley, these are view from the terrace.

There were Rhodedendrons in full bloom everwhere, we are not usuall so lucky with out timing,

And the owls......Muncaster is the home of the World Owl Trust.  I have a fondness for owls, their shape, their eyes and after once being allowed to stoke one their beautiful soft feathers. Just look at these beauties.

This last one looked as though he was carved out of wood.

Lakeland....

Many people know of Windermere and Coniston lakes but to the west there are some lakes which don't attract quite so much traffic.  This time we went to Wastwater which is the deepest lake in England, the mountain falls into the lake and just keeps on going.  It is a place which alters character with the weather, which can happen within  minutes, when we visited the clouds were down over Scafell (England's highest mountain) but beautiful I think you will agree.

 

These are the screes, I am told that sometimes you can actually see the rocks falling into the lake.