wallflowers and terracotta people

When I went out into the garden the first thing this morning, something was noticeable straight away - it wasn't cold! After weeks of cold weather, could this be it? Spring at last? And I could smell the garden, the freshness of summer mornings. Good time to have a day out, a repeat visit to my favourite National Trust property, Barrington Court.
You have been here with me on previous occasions. I love their flower garden, every time I come here it looks different.

Our garden is very "green" right  now, with very little of any other colour. Here at Barrington Court, in their sheltered walled gardens, it is awash with wallflowers, all shades mixed together.

 On a warm day like today the scent is overwhelming, mixed with scents of lilac bushes and azaleas.

But there is another reason why we visited today.

Unusually for historical properties, this one is empty of any furniture and fittings.

That means that National Trust can stage various venues here, like the Christmas Fayre you came to with me last November.

At the moment there is an exhibition of Antony Gormley's  ( of Angel of the North ) "Field for the British Isles", collection of some 40,000 clay figures, made by a community of families in Merseyside, spread over the floors of 3 rooms of the house. For this work Antony Gormley won the Turner Prize in 1994.

Unfortunately no cameras allowed, but you can see lots of pictures here and read about it here.

The 40,000 tiny clay figures are all different, all shapes and sizes and colours, just like we are.

The picture changes with the change of the light and sunlight coming in through the windows.

And when you are standing there in the doorway, they all seem to be looking just at you.

Art is a different thing to different people, and although there is an original message behind this work of art ( a different way of looking at human presence), it is up to us how we interpret it. We found it quite touching, it was like seeing real people.

There have been several other "Fields" around the world, made by local communities.

"Fields for the British Isles" has travelled around UK, and now we are lucky enough to see it here in Somerset. If you are in the area, don't miss it.

For me of course, no visit here would be complete without popping in the plant shop,

and Barrington Patchwork shop,

although my purchases were very controlled today, just some thread for my current projects.

sunshine Saturday

Cold nights, still possibility of frost, clear sky. This morning we woke up to a wall to wall sunshine, at last! To make most of it, a quick walk across the Common before breakfast, picking some wild flowers on the way. Cold north wind in our faces on the way back.

            Last night I finished the first stitchery of Fernhill BOM. Second one should arrive soon.

More sunshine due tomorrow, but back to rain on Monday (so they tell us).

Enjoy your weekend!

weekend stitching

Although the rain eased at times over the holiday weekend, it was still very cold and not very enjoyable to be outside. Time for more stitching then.

I finished another section of Indigo quilt, using thread from Tiggy's shop. Again very easy and fun to stitch project.

I started to stitch the first of BOM "Fernhill" from Lynette Anderson, which arrived from Fobbles

in April.

Lynette used Weeks Dye Works overdyed threads in her stitcheries. This is a new thread to me. I always like to try new threads, so I started browsing for UK supplier, and eventually I placed my order with The Patchwork Rabbit, also a new supplier for me. I ordered a couple of extra shades, just to make it interesting.

My threads arrived quickly and safely, thank you Karla.

Anyone else out there also stitching "Fernhill"?

break in the clouds

and a chance for a quick walk around Stourhead Lake. Every time I come here I think how lucky we are to live so close to one of National Trust's treasures.
The wet and cold weather is holding everything back, so many trees are still without its leaves.

But there is lots of fresh greens around, with some interesting shapes,

 

and lots of spring colours.

 

On the island in the lake a swan sitting on the nest.

I wish you a very good week!

new and old

I have just finished another stitchery for the Indigo quilt, which was easy and fun to do.

It is official, we have just had the wettest April since the records have been kept!

Surely it must get better soon.

Not being able to do anything outside, I tried to sort out my room this weekend.

I found this wallhanging I did some time ago. The stitchery is from Tilda pattern. 

I used this little quilt as a practise piece for machine quilting when I decided to machine quilt the Tail Feathers quilt, my first attempt on machine quilting.

I will find some place to hang it now.

Tail Feathers quilt, the only quilt I machine quilted so far.

DH has just told me that the first of our House Martins have arrived back, all the way from Africa!

I wonder how many we will see back this year, their numbers have been on decline. We used to have as many as 7 - 8 nests on our house, but only 3 last year.

I have to go and see them for myself!