From Dover to Great Dixter

The first time I went to England, I crossed the Channel from Calais to Folkstone in bad weather and never got a good look at the White Cliffs of Dover.  We took care of that during this trip:

You have to use your imagination a little to get past the evidence of modern life in this photos, but at least you can see that the cliffs are really white.  On a sunny day looking toward land from the sea, they must be quite a sight indeed.  We stopped very briefly in Dover after visiting Goodnestone (written about in yesterday's blog) before going on to our hotel.

The next day we went to visit Great Dixter by way of the Cinque Port of Rye, a medieval town where we had lunch.  This was our rainiest day, and we didn't have enough time to manage sight-seeing and lunch so it has wound up being our least successful part of the trip.  

Yet I managed to "collect" another lovely tree; this is a laburnum aka "Golden Rain" tree.  They are quite special and one sees them all over the sourtheast of England.

The Norman castle which we did not visit due to our desire to see more in the short time we had.

In the church which boasts an unusual clock with a 16 foot pendulum.  It also had on display this quilt triptych complete with stones.

After that hurried visit, we drove on to Great Dixter to see an Edwardian style garden (formal design with informal perennial plantings).  Remember it was a rainy day, darker than our other days, so the pictures will also be dark.

This is the older part of the home to which was added the portion in the photo below.

The addition was very well done; the roof lines and materials are the same, the windows and chimneys also, and the colors are harmonious.  Inside, this manor is very warm and inviting - a family place despite its size.

English oast houses (where the hops are dried) are architecturally different from ours.  The oddly shaped tops turn to catch the wind which helps in the drying process.

I didn't do a very good job of taking photos of the "formal beds with informal perennial plantings", but I took pictures of things that caught my eye.  The steps above have plants happily growing in among the stones.

As does the wall beside those steps.  This informality in the gardens is something I really liked and found charming.

Can't pass up waterlilies.

Lovely even on a gray day!

One of my favorite corners of the garden.  The stones used in the base of the chimney are limestone which you find as building material all over the southeast of England.  Depending on where it is quarried, it has a different color - from gray to cream to yellow - and it's all gorgeous.

Canterbury and Goodnestone

Another day with photos, but for those of you who have asked, today you will see the first garden we visited (not counting Kensington which was an informal visit).

First let me explain that I adored Chaucer and relished reading the Canterbury Tales. Learning about the development of our language, the standardization of spelling, the pronunciation of Middle English - all these things were a delight for me, and the stories?  Oh my, what's not to like about the stories Chaucer told?  Now, having admitted to all that, I will tell you to relax because you won't be subjected to any of it.  We didn't tour the Cathedral or the Canterbury Tales Museum.  D wanted to see the restoration of the Roman building that had been unearthed in Canterbury so that's what we did, and it was interesting - especially one part of which I took a number of pictures (quilting friends, think fabric!).

This is the town library.

I did get to see some of the cathedral!

Quilters, here's my favorite part of the Roman building!

 Aren't these fabrics grand?

Part of the old castle.  I loved the way flowers grew wherever they darn well pleased!

This is part of the original wall - like many ancient cities, Canterbury was fortified.  The wall is made of chert, a type of flint.

Here is a close up of the chert wall; it's really quite pretty.  Note the flower!

Now, on to Goodnestone (pronounced Gunstun) where Jane Austen is supposed to have begun writing Pride and Prejudice) and photos from the gardens there.

 One of the things I noticed everywhere we went and I hope to introduce in our gardens, is the attention given to the colors in foliage as well as size and texture.  In short, it's not all about flowers in great gardens.

This was the first Cedar of Lebanon tree I saw and learned what it was.  The seed was brought to England by plant hunters in the 17th century, and by the 18th century the great estates all had one.

Portrait of a rose.

View from the garden.

And another view - this reminds me of photos in magazines that I always found difficult to believe!

Roof top showing a proliferation of chimneys.

 More flower portraits - this is Astrantia,

 a single peony,

 more peonies,

 Chinese wisteria,

 and a tree in the Golden Arbor (planted by the current owner for her husband on their 50th anniversary).

 This is the village pub which, of course, we had to visit!  That's D's beer on the table.

 Windows in the pub.

And finally, the village church.

London

It has been far too long, but I am back.  However, I should warn you that I will be talking about our trip to England and showing photographs from that trip for some time.  First the minor details.  This was our fifth  trip taken through Road Scholar, an organization that has existed for some time now, and is committed to "life-long learning". 

When we were young we each traveled to England on separate occasions before we married and then went there together on our wedding trip.  So it had been quite a while since either of us had been in England so it was with a great deal of excitement that we embarked on this adventure.  By the way, we shared this excursion with one of my brothers and his wife, the same couple whose company we enjoy so much in the summer at the lake.

The first stop was London; due to a camera mishap, the earliest photos taken specifically for painting purposes were lost, but the sightseeing kind were still on the memory card.  Our first foray was to the Victoria and Albert Museum which is huge so we limited ourselves to a few exhibits.  One that really knocked my socks off was the Cast Courts.  During the Victorian era copies were made of both works of art and architecture so people who couldn't or just didn't travel could see some of the world's wonders.  I knew about art castings but had no knowledge of the architectural side or its scale of this activity.  Below, if it does remain in this blog, is a photo from the V&A Museum (with the its address so you can find it and other photos) that shows Trajan's column with two people near its base.  My photos do not have people in them which makes it difficult to appreciate the sheer size of some of these castings.

Plaster cast reproduction of Trajan's Column by Monsieur Oudry, Paris, about 1864. Museum no. REPRO.1864-128, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-vanda-cast-collection/

Here are a few photos (remember to click on the image to bring up a slide show that shows the photos in larger scale) I took from the Korean exhibit: 

 the Cast Collection:

and wood work from the outside of a building built during the medieval age.

The remaining photographs are all from Kensington Gardens:

A white rose.

Centifolia roses,

Herbaceous borders,

Flowering trees,

a conversation with "foreign" wildlife,

and the Albert Memorial.

That's probably more than enough for one day!  Tomorrow we'll move out of London.

More Bonsai and Other Gardens

Promising pictures of the bonsai D worked on recently may take a while.  One of them is too large for me to pick up to put on a stand, and I don't feel like lying down on the grass to get a good photo of it.  Okay, so I'm adverse to getting all wet, too.

But here is a picture of the latest in bonsai stands/benches:

This new bench is directly behind our family room so we can see them if we walk over to the window and look down. When we had the house re-sided, we had to tear out all the vegetation that was in this spot so the men could actually get to the house without killing themselves on my rose bushes.  I was philosophical about it since I figured I'd replace them, and only one was a heart-throb-favorite. Guess I'll have to find another place for roses because this spot is much better for these particular bonsai than the older bench as it's more shaded and that's what these babies need.  There are two larch forests - one at either end and a ginkgo forest in the middle that is just beginning to leaf out.   The others are all conifers except the littlest one which is a boxwood.  To the right of the one covered in aluminum foil (to reflect sunlight out to keep the root ball from drying out) is a cypress, next to that is a shimpaku juniper, then a pine, the wee boxwood, ginkgo forest, another shimpaku juniper, and the final larch forest.

The rest of the photos are simply to show you what is happening in some of the other gardens.  The first is in the backyard, and you can see how the lilacs are opening and there is evidence of more green coming up.  I no longer even try to grow tulips or most other spring bulbs because of the critters who simply think bulbs are dessert!

From this angle you can see D's hop poles (though of course at this point the hops are almost all reaching for the split rail fence!).  That birdhouse is home to a family of chickadees this year.  The garden farther to our left belongs to our neighbor and friend.  The pink you see is his bleeding heart.  And note that each of us purchased the same birdbath!

 

Despite being well and truly trampled when my studio was built, the trillium at the side of the garage form a larger more vigorous patch than ever before!  But I don't see any sign of the deep maroon ones yet.  

In the front yard is my white flower garden which is the site of the next two photos.  The first are white (and almost white!) daffodils down near the road.

And the last picture is the white flower garden in its very early spring bloom.  Dwarf white iris and a white rhododendron in bloom as well as the perennial alyssum are in this picture.

The next couple of weeks are going to be very hectic for us so I won't be writing for a while.  In the mean time, have fun checking out what's growing in your garden and those of your neighbors.  

Enjoy spring!

Facebook Posting

Posting my paintings on facebook is something I've just barely begun, but the reaction I have received is truly heart warming.  Everyone is so kind, and it gives my sometimes doubtful spirit a boost.  So thank you all for commenting on my small exhibit.  Do not be hesitant to mention that you see something off or incomprehensible or ugly to you.  Comments are valuable, indeed, essential to learning and growing.

The downside for you is knowing that I will now regularly post my finished work in the same way.  Fortunately, I don't churn them out so it won't be that often.

Do not be hesitant to mention if you see something off or incomprehensible or ugly to you.  Or even if you merely want to ask a question.  Comments and questions are valuable to learning and growing.

Now here is the other side of the coin.  Where are your lovely creations?  Those of you who create for a living can't post, and I understand that.  But many of you, my friends, are superb photographers, quilters, writers, chefs, gardeners, et al., have wonderful things to show the rest of us.

Where are they?

"Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler" - Completed

My apologies to those of you who looked forward to more bonsai tree pictures.  They will be here eventually but not today.  This afternoon was the only time we were home and could have taken the pictures, but D wanted to get some of the two yards of mulch on our driveway spread in the garden.  While he was busy with that (my days of spreading are over due to back issues), I went back to the painting that I worked on this morning (and many other mornings, too).

I am delighted to tell you that it is finished.

As always there will be a final critique and inevitably some last issues addressed when I take it back to my studio class.  Even now there are things I see that I forgot to take care of and things that I wish I had done better and things that I wonder if I should change and . . .   Things.

But for now, it is as it is.

"Bonsai Camp" Results

Knowing what I do now, in September I will take photos of D's bonsai before he goes to bonsai camp.  I just wasn't thinking this time.  At least I had the sense to take pictures today as it was too twilight-dim when he got home yesterday.  Since ME asked for bonsai pictures in her comment on yesterday's blog I really had to include them today (thanks, ME!).

Turns out the bonsai expert comes in from California and is a very nice man and good teacher.  D really liked his style of instruction and as a result is quite pleased he decided to go into this 4-year commitment.  I'm thrilled also as I think men rarely have an opportunity to develop this kind of social group (friend with people with similar interests) after college, and this is something D thoroughly enjoys as well.  Anyway, here are two of his trees:

This is a Shimpaku Juniper. 

I asked D which was the front of this tree, and he said he doesn't know yet.  I found that totally understandable as sometimes I have no idea where I'm going with a painting until I get there.  Another thing that delighted me was that as soon as he saw the photo he saw things he hadn't noticed before.  See how important that whole "take it out of context" thing can be?  Things look different in photos, in the mirror, or upside down, and that's a helpful difference.    D styled this tree and carved the shari  and jin himself.

This is a boxwood that D found a year or two ago and it has a very dense rounded top.  Until he went to his weekend with this specimen, its top was more dense and completely obscured the trunks.  The decision was basically to leave the developing tree alone after trimming a good deal of the greenery.  The trunks are so interesting, they have such good shape already with potential for even more interest as they age, that leaving best enough alone was the rule for this specimen.

This second photo lets you get a better view of what determined that decision.  Again, D saw something in the photo that he's going to have to look at more closely.  But look at the gnarly trunks and the wonderful colors and shadows.  Great, right?

Tomorrow there may be more photos; it depends on the weather.  One of the trees is quite large and we won't try to move it if it's raining.  So we'll have to wait and see.  I am determined to keep a record of D's work so they'll show up sometime.

*Creating deadwood on Bonsai, in the form of Jin or Shari, can enhance the tree's character significantly. A "Jin" is a bare-stripped part of branch and a "Shari" is a barkless part of trunk. In nature, deadwood is created when a tree is hit by lightning, exposed to sustained periods of drought or when branches snap due to ice stress, wind or weight of snow. The wood dies off and is bleached by intense sunlight.
This technique is almost exclusively used on evergreen trees, as creating Jin or Shari on deciduous trees often looks unrealistic (deadwood on a deciduous tree often rots away over time).
http://www.bonsaiempire.com/basics/styling/deadwood

Mother's Day

Today may go down in history as the most beautiful Mother's Day in recorded time.  Okay, that's an exaggeration, I'm sure, but after such a long and hard winter, today should receive some sort of special accolade.  The weather was perfect for the day, and there'll be no argument about that, I'm equally certain!

Another reason it was at the pinnacle of days for me was my visit from my daughter and grandson.  They took me out to brunch and then a tour of some of our favorite shop-by-looking (mostly) stores.  We both picked up some necessary items, some frivolous ones, but nothing very expensive.  No, we did not forget the young man who was with us, either.  We went to one store especially for him so he could look for something he collects (no luck, unfortunately), and we also bought him a lovely blue T shirt.  He arrived in a long sleeve shirt as it was cool in the early morning when they left their home, and by noon that shirt was just too warm.

When we returned home, it was time for a lunch for g'son, a nibble for daughter and me, and a mini-nap for daughter.  Unfortunately, after that they did have to return to their home.  Big hugs, lots of kisses, and they were off.

Sigh.  I was a bit lonely after they left (D spent the weekend at "Bonsai Camp") and found it difficult to settle down to anything.  When D came home, things perked up as he had a very fine time.  I will try to get photos of his trees if the weather will permit tomorrow; he's really doing some nice work and feels good about it, too.  

It was a fine weekend for all of us!  Was yours?