A detour at Venus....

Over a week now since the Knit and Stitch.  I enjoyed the show this year, wasn't going to buy anything...but couldn't resist this...

from The Crochet Chain, enough to make a sweater in one huge ball,  just perfect for watching Australian Master Chef!!!!

All the planets are in place on Space but it needs a rest at the moment. This is Venus at the start, Goddess of Beauty, she is soft and a little bit sparkely.

 Goddess of Love she sends it out into the universe.

Other diversions were my most successful tarte tatin ever...

and yesterday under sky of the most amazing blue, a walk round the park and  through the woods at Knole 

 where we collected chestnuts and acorns and saw wondrous things...

and at home more wonder....a rainbow on the carpet.

 Excitment mounting because it is only one week to the NFL game at Wembley, my first live american football game,  a birthday present from my son.

Mercury.....

The planet nearest the sun and the first one to be put in place on  "Space"

Images of Mercury from theMariner 10 spacecraft show losts of craters and I was pleased how these turned out with just simple stitich. Mercury was of course the messenger of the gods so I gave it some wings.

and here it is in place.

 I have actually placed all the planets, I have missed out Earth because I have this dream in my head of making it the other side of the cloth. We shall see.

More feathers...

These I have been made for some while but involve a trip to the post office and queues but I promise to get them off  this week,  Jude put up  a brainstorming sheet here.. I spotted "the tear" and thought that could be read two ways so here are the tear as in cry

and the tear as in rip

and this is just a feather and some flowers.

These pieces are all about 4" long.

St Petersburg-TheCatherine Palace -not

 On our second day we were driven out through the city to visit the Catherine Palace.  Be prepared for a serious gold overload.

Well this is as far  I went before I discovered that Slide has ceased to function.  I was going to show you all the gold work in the Catherine Palace and link it cunningly to the fact that to day is our Golden Wedding Day.
Here is one of the pictures, it was amazing.

There is  quite a good tour on You Tube here.
Does anyone know another good slide maker?

St Petersburg, Hermitage Part 2

These two slides shows represent just a fraction of what we saw and an even smaller fraction of the whole collection.

 

One thing I didn't capture in the Winter Palace was the way the marquetry on the floors reflected the design of the ceilings, quite amazing.

St Petersburg - The Hermitage

 I first became interested in paintings, living in Paris in the 1960s . As I discovered new (to me) artists it seemed that many of the pictures they painted where llisted as being in The Hermitage Museun in St Petersburg, at that time completely out of reach.
How fortunate then to not only visit The Hermitage but, thanks to a Golden Wedding Present from our son and daughter, to be provided with a personal guide, Tatyana. At the beginning we were the very first people to walk through the magical galleries. It brings a lump to my throat even now, the sheer wonder and excitment of it all.  Students  are allowed in before the crowds arrive to study and copy and as we saw as we left the crowds are huge.  The Museum has a very good web site with the history and  virtual tours which can show you details and object which we didn't see.It is made up of three palaces which are painted different colours on the outside,I liked the idea of colour coded palaces!  The first slide show is the Winter Palace.  

The Slide had cropped this photograph, this corridor is inspired by the corridor in the Vatican.

St Petersburg begins

Ships that pass in the night

I may have missed sailing into Venice but I made sure I was up and about for the arrival in St Petersburg.  This was somewhere I have wanted to visit since I first discovered Tolstoy, a very long time ago.
This was our arrival..

If you click on the slide it will take you to a closer view and yes, we were that close to the bridge!

Helsinki

Impressions of Helsinki on a shining, sunny day.  Not enough time to see much of the city but what we saw we loved.

Altered books,,,,,,

I came across this little mystery story today.....and lots more photographs here.

All at sea.....

The second day of our trip was sailing from Copenhagen to Helsinki, time to explore the ship and admire the art work ...

 

 

such wonderful texture

the handle reminded me of the prow of a Viking ship

We made friends with the dog

  we gazed at the sea

 and we ate

Copenhagen

Our holiday began with a text which said "turn on skype", I did and there was our daughter who said "Pack!" Just when we thought there was no chance of being able to join her, after a summer of trying, there was a last minute cancellation. A frantic 28 hours later we landed in Copenhagen.  We fell into bed and the next day just had time for a quick walk before we joined the Sojourn.  The first thing we saw was bikes, they were everywhere.

and elephants.. this was my favourite, reminded me of Elmer

My views on forward facing pushchairs are well known so I thoroughly approve of these and just look at those breads.

A few more bicycles

and a very comfortable looking fishwife

the last part of our walk took us down this road,

past the famous Tivoli Theatre and Gardens

until we saw the man himself.

 Who remembers the Danny Kaye film? I liked the manhole cover nearbye.

 Also nearby there was a very  imposing beast.

One snall  disappointment was that we didn't see Little Mermaid, too far from our hotel to walk in the time.
I played with a photograph of the Palace and of course the bicycles. A postcard for you

and I leave the rest to Danny Kaye 

Feather

Before I start the holiday I have to show you what was waiting for me when I arrived home.

 

My very own Jude feather.  It is my birthday present to me.  I have tried several times to aquire a piece of Jude's work but because of the time thing I've always missed out.  This piece is about 4"x3", a precious fragment and look what else was in the packet, some magic thread, which so often is part of Jude's work. Now to find the perfect way to display it.  So happy.

Gold leaf and windmills.....

We have just arrived back from an amazing trip, one,  that until two weeks ago today, I didn't know we would be taking.  We managed, with two days notice, to join the Seabourn Sojourn for a Baltic cruise. I will not be showing you all the 1500 photographs I took but for my own sake I will be putting some of them here for a reminder.

Thank you to everyone who left comments on my last post, I will try and answer them all when I've done the washing!