A DAY WITH DARWIN.

Yesterday we visited Down House in Kent to visit 

the home of Charles Darwin and his family.

My favourite room was Darwin's study which was full of papers, books and his old horsehair armchair to which he had fixed wheels like a modern office chair.

My favourite object was the wooden slide that Darwin had made for his children so that they could slide down the stairs.

Sadly photos inside the house were not allowed.

The gardens were beautiful and practical.

I do love walled gardens.

I loved the glass house sitting within the walled garden.

We walked along Darwin's sandwalk ( Darwin's thinking path) and then through a wooded area back to the house.

The trees were looking glorious in their Autumn colours.

What a great place to be a squirrel.

Today I'm putting this glass panel together.

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Lovely Lyme Regis.

We love Lyme Regis. 

Over the little footbridge sitting in the sun is our little camper van on the Hook Farm campsite.

We have visited this campsite a few times and we love it because there is a very pretty walk into Lyme Regis

Lovely countryside until we emerged into the town and its gorgeous colourful houses.

I love this bright orange front door.

We had a wonderful time walking into Lyme Regis and into Charmouth.

One sunny day we drove to West Bay to visit the Hive cafe.

I had read about Lucy's visits to this cafe on Attic 24's blog.

It is just as good as she describes. We both had some delicious cake -very welcome after a long walk on the shingle beach. 

Hive cafe in photo above.

Shingle - a great work out for the legs!

Beautifully clear rock pools.

These cliffs are full of fossils.

We met a wonderful man tap, tapping away at some rocks, He had found a huge pile of fossils  -mostly Ammonites. 

As you can see we were very lucky with the weather.

This is Cannington viaduct.

We had a jaunt over some fields to have a look at this as I do like a viaduct -I don't know why I just do.

What a lovely holiday.

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BACK TO REALITY.

I've just had a fantastic ten days taking part in the Arundel Gallery Trail. 

After a long time preparing my little works of art it was suddenly time to show it to the big wide world.

I was very lucky to be in St Wilfrids Priory Gardens, the photo above is of the high street taken from the gardens.

We had beautiful views of the castle.

It was a pleasure to be in the gardens for ten days with the humming of bees and visits from a very tame blackbird.

I met some lovely people and had lots of positive comments.

Altogether it was a great experience and I would love to do it again next year.

Now its back to work,

back to looking after my grand-daughter ( iv'e missed our days together)

and back to reality - PHEW!

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Busy week.

This week

I've been busy babysitting my grand daughter, working in Chichester and getting creative with glass.

The photo above  is of my latest glass project all finished and ready to hang in a window.

The glass kiln is working really well and is so easy to use.

I've been working on another two this week, one is at the soldering stage and the other I'm in the middle of drawing. 

I saw this weird creature on my walk to work I  think it's in the courtyard of Pallant House.

Quite scary- I don't think I would like to come across them in the dark.

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Sunday outing.

We had a fantastic day today. Darren and I visited Watts gallery artists village in Surrey.

It was the home of  artists G F Watts and Mary Watts.

We visited their house and studios.

I found that I was fascinated by Mary and her work.

Mary worked in the arts and crafts style and she designed and created the chapel in the photo below.

Mary created the chapel exterior and interior with the help of local women.

The interior brought tears to my eyes it was so beautiful.

What a gifted woman.

We mooched about all day, it wasn't busy so we didn't feel rushed when looking at the paintings. 

Definitely worth another visit.

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Finished Froggy.

I had a whole day concentrating on firing my glass painting that I've been working on and then soldering around the edges. 

Every part of the process is very exciting and I'm loving it. Although I didn't love it when my finger touched the soldering iron OUCH!

This is my finished froggy I am waiting for the next project which is cooking in the kiln at the moment, it has got three pieces that I will have to join with solder.

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Parham country fair.

On Sunday we visited Parham Country show.

The weather was kind to us and we mooched about for hours watching the clay pigeon shooting, archery, and dog agility.

These Alpacas were gorgeous.

Lots of fun to be had, lots of food to be sampled.

It was lovely to go out and not get rained on for a change.

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