Can ducks count?

This lovely duck was hiding in the rushes on our local canal with 10 baby ducklings.She came out when I threw in some bread the ducklings swim around like clockwork toys little legs swimming like mad.When she went to swim off she quacked like mad until all 10 came out of the reeds,so can she count or is it instinct that tells her when some are missing,makes it even sadder knowing that not even half will survive.

This is the Stroud water canal and the trust has just been given the go ahead plus money to clear it and make it navigable,at the moment it is choked with weeds and fallen trees, it is going to be a hard task.

I went to a local gallery to see Theresa Poole`s work she is a local artist working from an old mill in Chalford.She trained in paint finishes and trompe l`oeil,her pictures have an oriental feel and she uses metal leaf and mica in her work.I loved the one of her ornamental chicken with great flowing feathers .but it is a very large canvas and would need a huge room,it was also well out of my price range.

I did buy this picture of a branch of cherry blossom hanging over the sun, it is a golder colour in real life,I sneaked it into our bedroom and it is up on the wall and my lovely husband has not even notced yet maybe I could have got away with the big picture!!

Aprils card

This was our card for April I love trees and especially birch trees but I could not get inspired. This was an image from photoshop.

Jenny from feltedfibres sent me this lovely one the bark really stands out, but still no inspiration.I have a load of birch bark that my sister gave me about 6 years ago and I wanted to use that but how. Well this is the result after many failures I do not think I will be using the bark again, so it is all real birch bark with some painted kozo fibre,I am finding the kozo very useful.

This superb bridge is at Monmouth, we went at the weekend to see the temple at the Kymin, my husband belongs to the 1805 club a Nelson society and they put some money towards restoring this temple which commemorates England's finest admirals.

Unfortunately Britannia has had her trident taken someone must have climbed up and removed it. The names of the Admirals are on the plaques around the temple.

The Kymin is named after these massive rocks which are strewn around the place, it was built in 1800 and Nelson visited Monmouth by boat and was impressed with its scenery

This building adjacent to the temple was built in 1794 and was used weekly for dining by a select club it has the most fantastic views.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you all and may the great Easter Chicken bring you lots of eggs and good health and happiness.

I went down to the Severn and this photo is to try and show how wide it is here

I got plastered in mud but I had a wonderful time, one of my favourite pastimes looking for fossils.Angie had suggested that as I was using fossils as my focal point I should think about what they meant to me and why I liked them so much.So I trekked off to Fretherne on the Severn

This is the church where I park the car and walk over 3 fields and down to the Severn

We used to see this flower a lot in my childhood but down here is the only place I see it now it is called cuckoo flower or milkmaids.

And a lovely bed of teasels

As well as getting plastered in mud I got these fossils, some ammonites but I still need to find the 2foot one, in the lower left hand corner are criniods these are a sea lily and the pieces you can see are the stem.

I have great enjoyment collecting them it is the fun of finding them and the fact that they are thousand of years old and yours for the looking.

Apologies for the last post half of it appears to be missing and what is worse is I was stone cold sober when I posted it.

March`s card from Carol

This i s March`s card from Carol at Textile tales it is beautiful colours and warm orange stitching very vibrant in the flesh,I was so pleased with it thankyou Carol.

By using the fern leaves you could get 3 printoffs from one plate I pressed these in news paper which was dated 1980 so they have lasted well.The flowers above are the same age I think they are Hatties Pincushions and the details have printed off very clearly.