Some I Made Earlier

Sticking with the loo roll theme from yesterday I've collected together a few of my tiny containers.  One is still plain calico, waiting to be embroidered.  Others are gesso and zapped 'xpandy paste'.

Our snow is slowly melting, it's reached that in between state where the magic has gone, but the muckyness has not yet arrived. 

Watching a Jay moving around my garden, this morning, I found myself versifying.  Not for an OU assignment, just for my own amusement.  I clearly have too much time on my hands!

Hopping, not stopping, chasing a worm.

Gliding, not hiding, above the snow.

Standing, after landing, in the bare leafed bush

Not whistling, but listening in the morning’s glow.

Snow Time

Woke up this morning with an idea for my next embroidery project.  Having all this snow on the ground seemed like an excellent excuse to make a start right away.  I'd been feeling a little guilty about not spending much time on my stitching.

I've raided all my fabric and thread stashes and put together a spring palette, which I hope to make into a small installation using ideas developed in my West Dean course with Michael Brennand-Wood.

On a 'craft' note, another one of my A215 poetry gems.  We were asked to write about an ordinary household object - for reasons having to do with size I chose a loo roll!

Cylinder of card,

open-ended,

versatile now disrobed

My son will

have you

Santa,

red crepe wrapped.

My daughter,

an angel,

doily clothed.

Myself,

more practical,

a starter home

For

beans,

both broad and runner,

or

Peas

Sweet.

Hidden Treasure

One of the bulbs flowering in my tiny greenhouse at the moment is a very early, very lovely, daffodil called cantabricus.

Whilst whizzing through the poetry section for A215 I came across one or two activities that I thought I might enjoy.  This little verse arrived when we were asked to write in 'another voice'.  The voice is of the blossom on my Prunus autumnalis, subjected to the very low temperatures we've had overnight this week.

So cold, last night.

Stars fearsome bright,

clear points of light.

Frost creeping over us, hurts

stiffening pink frilly skirts

Blue Monday?

The third Monday in January has always been voted the most depressing day of the year, but this year it falls on the 21st, which means we are already one month on from the shortest day.  That's got to be a cheering thought.  So maybe not so depressing this year!  My new year resolution was to blog more often, maybe today should be the start.

We're snowed in, but that's OK.  We're well stocked and the enforced rest has given me time to catch up with my OU work.  My TMA came back, with a higher mark than I expected, so I've decided to whizz through the poetry section, surprisingly I've managed one or two reasonably interesting short poems in response to a few of the activities.

I ventured down the snow covered back garden today to check on my greenhouses.  All is well, everything is surviving and some of the early bulbs are even flowering despite the freeze.

Decision time?

I've sent my TMA 02 off, four days early.  While I wait for results I shall give serious consideration to whether it's worth continuing with this module.  Our tutor group is still dismal, thanks in part to the attitude of our tutor.  With the OU there is always this element of pot-luck, which is a disadvantage of their system, because if you don't have a good tutor and your group forum is inactive it is such a huge disincentive.
Maybe I was lucky on A174.  The tutor and group forum were both good and the course itself was very enjoyable.

Autumn

Autumn colour has come late to our garden this year.  But over the past weeks it has arrived in profusion.  From really fiery reds to golden buttery yellows and every shade of russet-orange in between.
We have late flowers dotted around too.  Electric blue salvia uliginosa, deeply golden goblets of sternbergia, autumn crocus in shades of lilac and a beautiful palest pink schizostylis.
At last I have a proper potting shed.  I can now move all my potting paraphernalia out of the greenhouse into the shed.  This has given me enough space in the greenhouse to add more staging which I have started to put to good use already with autumn sown sweetpeas and root-cuttings from my favourite Japanese anemones.  Late cuttings I took from some tender plants are now advanced enough to come out of the greenhouse and be the first proud occupants of my new cold frames.
On the A215 front ... I've had my first TMA result.  Percentage was OK, but I thought some of the tutor's comments were a little subjective.  Our tutor group forum is still dismal, which is a real disappointment! 

Slow Progress!

Bulbs all planted, well except for the tulips.  I'm holding on to those until next month.  I've put the ones which came singly into pots, can't risk losing those outside. 
I have two greenhouses, one small and one tiny!  I've decided to convert the tiny one to a sort of alpine house, so I've cleaned it all out and started to stock it with the potted bulbs.

We're into the third week of A215 now, the work is as interesting as I had hoped, but the tutor group forum is depressingly inactive.  Only a third of the group have posted anything, and that only in answer to prompts from our tutor.  No-one is posting any of their assignments from the workbook, so there is no discussion happening.  So at the moment it's just me and the big red book.