Trifolium

A NEW RANGE OF JEWELLERY FOR CHRISTMAS

2011-11-09T22:51:00.000Z

My newest venture this year has been to join with 16 other artists and craftspeople in the Wigton area to open a new gallery in Wigton, The Fountain Gallery. The paintings cover a range of styles and subjects, and we also have pottery, basketwork and jewellery, as well as cards and prints. Sales are steady and interest and enthusiasm are great: "This is just what Wigton needs"

I am delighted to say that I have sold one painting and several pieces of jewellery. We are of course looking to increase our sales in the run-up to Christmas, so I have created a new range of affordable earrings, already packaged.


The earrings- simple and pretty, with sterling silver and hand made glass beads

Each pair of earrings is displayed on its own greeting card- simple and easy: a pretty gift for under £10!

Come and see the full range of jewellery, cards, pots and paintings at our late night openings: every Thursday night until Christmas.

On Thursday 10th November, enjoy a glass of mulled wine as you browse!

2011-09-15T13:51:00.000+01:00

Arequipa, a dazzling city, built of white granite with elabourite wedding cake churches; city of eternal summer, with only five days of rain a year; a startlingly European city in the midst of the Andes; apparently a centre of right wing politics- not hard to believe as it seems Spanish to the core, and the native population are mainly to be seen trying to sell their goods on street corners. This is a city that bespeaks the wealth and power of the ruling class, its massive cathedral tower over the little people.

We are now on the last leg of our Peruvian tour and have fetched up in this odd but beguiling place. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours wandering round the beautiful and peaceful Santa Catalina monastery, a small town within the town, where the daughters of wealthy and middle class Spaniards "retreated" in the fifteenth century. And who could blame them? What choices were offered them? Get married at 14 or so to a man chosen for dynastic or financial reasons, to be raped on a regular basis and get the chance to die in childbirth? Or go into a convent, and learn to read and write, have your own room with comforts of bed, chamber pot and small kitchen, and have the chance of power and influence as Mother Superior? Would you prefer to have your hand cut off, or not?

Tomorrow we get up at 2.30 am to take a bus to Colca Canyon where we are assured, we will see a some of the remaining few condors in the wild. I expect to be knocked sideways by this, as I have so many other experiences, but will it equal floating down the Rio Momon in the middle of the night, getting a first glimpse of the towering green mountains overlooking Machu Picchu, being hugged by a laughing woman who lives in a hut made of reeds built on a floating island on Titicaca, or even catching sight of the distant snow-clothed mountains of Bolivia across this great, high inland sea? I will let you know in future posts!

Swimming with Piranas and Dancing with Dolphins

2011-09-02T04:40:00.001+01:00

A small crack, only just audible above the pec pec pec of the outboard, sent the two guys dozing on the narrow benches at the front scrabbling on the mucky floor of the boat, using their mobile phones to pierce the thick dark. A grunt and a splash and the small fish who had made an unfortunate leap in the dark, was pitched back into the river. These guys, employees and freelancers of the Amazon Rainforest Lodge are relatively affluent: I sense their forefathers would have seen it as a gift from the river gods.

We set out in total dark from the lodge at 4.00 am, after a night of spectacular crashing thunder, rain and an amazing light show, but the river was still dangerously low, so the trip that would have taken about an hour in the metal speedboat with its big butch 70 HP Johnson outboard had to be done in a little wooden pec pec. These boats, mostly open, but a few with palm thatched roofs, have small and highly manouverable outboards with very long prop-shafts like cake whisks. They form most of the traffic on the Amazon and its tributaries and you see families pec pec pec-ing their way down river in the early morning to sell their goods in Iquitos: charcoal and bananas forming the main cargo, with boats loaded to an inch or two of freeboard. Often the whole family will go, to enjoy the day out and mix business with pleasure. Kids wave at passing boats and grannies shelter under multi coloured umbrellas and makeshift shelters: odd mixture of traditional and modern as palm leaves vie with plastic. (Plastic water bottles act as net floats and bouys, warning of sand bars and sunken logs. Little is wasted)

Our particular pec pec of this morning was covered with blue plastic which dripped condensation on us, but was a bit special, as the driver was a professional. Our personal guide, Jimy, stood in the prow with a flashlight, playing it across the surface of the water from one bank to the other, trying to pick out the standing ripples that warn of a sand bar just beneath the surface. We could occasionally make out a night bird´s call above the engine, and once or twice Jimy caught a white bird in his torch beam. It was an eery and tense experience, and I was thinking of it as a bit of jolly adventure, in a sort of Boys´ Own kind of way,with a nice feeling of peril, without any real danger, when we hit a sand bar hard, and the boat slewed round and tilted; the freeboard on my side reduced to about 2 centimetres. Then I really was frightened: were we going to be tipped into the muddy and probably freezing cold water? Were the piranas we failed to catch the day before waiting to turn the tables on us?

There was much rocking of the boat, plenty of prodding and shoving and lots of noise from the labouring cake whisk, as the driver put it into reverse, stirred the muddy river up even more, and finally got us afloat again. Then I felt foolish- there really was nothing to worry about- these guys live on the river, and getting stuck on a sand bank was certanly no worse than us getting a flat, or needing a jump start.

Later that day, we emerged from the Rio Momon- "our" tributary onto the mighty Amazon itself, where our heroes of the dark night turned into our personal David Attenboroughs, and whistled up a couple of pink river dolphins for us.

I´ll try to post some pics- I have about 1500 so far, as those who know me will not be surprised to know, and add a few more episodes from my journal when I next hit a computer, and have some down time. We danced with the local morris team, shook hands with a spider monkey and stroked a 20 foot long anaconda, as well as examining the teeth of a small pirana: but that´s another story.

Of Quality, Computers and Controversy

2011-08-19T13:19:00.004+01:00

Local Quality
Local is a very important word in my vocabulary, and Quality is another, and for me, they go hand in hand. I have written about quality here, and it is the main criterion I use to select the books I publish. However, I recognise, seek out, and exploit Quality in all areas of life. When I find it I like to celebrate it.
Quality is the principle which governs the many small independent businesses in Wigton, and will ensure their success and survival in the face of Tesco and other powerful giant chains. A recent article by Sue Allan in Cumbria Life gave a good impression of a vibrant bustling and interesting town. I could write at length of the excellent greengrocer's (just one- Lightfoot's- selling a huge range of local and wonderful produce, including locally made cheeses and fiery chorizo) butcher's (several, all very good, and each with their loyal customer base) and baker's shops, but I want to mention a recent discovery.
Computer Magician
I have had a lot of computer problems recently- and who doesn't- and was in despair at the arrogant and hard-nosed attitude of Comet, so I thought I'd chance the unknown, and phone the person who advertised by means of a board on the Wigton by-pass. I had nothing to lose, and found, over several months, that I had everything to gain. Not only is James Percy, the proprietor of Cumbria Computer Consultants, a really nice bloke- he knows his stuff, and immediately inspires confidence. He has fixed so many problems for me that I even entrusted my new and precious Macbook to him, and he liaised with Apple to diagnose the problem. As all really good "fixers"- (I would include builders, plumbers and electricians)- he is a creative problem solver who thinks laterally. I have no hesitation in saying to anyone with a computer,"Try James first. He's Quality"
Emotive Energy Issues
On a different, but still local note, I received some interest from a tweet about the proposed Little Waver Windfarm, and for my announcement of the Nuclear Debate in Cockermouth on 17th September. A quick skim through the comments on this article in the News and Star, reveals the huge divergence of local opinions. Both issues are hot and topical, and divide people along non-traditonal lines: you cannot predict which way a peson you know to be "green" will go on either topic; and both issues are very local. Nor do people divide along party political lines. For my own part, I have always been anti nuclear, but people like Mark Lynas, one of the speakers in the Cockermouth debate, have made me stop and think, so that I will be trying to find out more; and although wind power sounds good in theory, I am appalled at the way many turbines seem to dwarf the landscape and buildings near them. More importantly, I am very shocked by the vast sums of money paid to landowners out of government subsidies. I also think onshore farms are inefficient, when winds are sporadic and inconsistent. Just as with nuclear power, we do not know either true costs or efficiency.

How many lakes are there in the Lake District?

2011-08-17T08:54:00.000+01:00

When my children were young, they took great pride in instructing visitors: there is only one lake in the Lake District- the rest are meres or waters or tarns. There is Windermere, Wastwater, Coniston Water, Sprinkling Tarn, Ullswater, Buttermere. The names roll off the tongue, quirky and evocative. Only Bassenthwaite requires the addition of the word "lake" to pin it down.

I was gratified that my older daughter, now in her late thirties, and visiting from London, was horrified when she read a tourist leaflet mentioning "Lake Windermere". I have been raging about this particular bit of local dumbing down for some time. Why can't visitors be instructed? Are all our visitors so stupid, that they can't understand that "mere" and "water" mean "lake"? It seems to me that this is a concession to our visitors that they neither need nor want. We underestimate people's ability to absorb knowledge and enjoy learning new words and concepts. Our visitors used to chuckle when caught out by our children. They took away a little bit of extra knowledge; a tiny mental enrichment; a small link to the past.

A Successful Search

2011-08-06T22:09:00.000+01:00

Dad, Ted, Seamus and Granny went in search of the places where Little Lucie and Mrs Tiggy-winkle lived. In her book, The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-winkle, Beatrix Potter says that Lucie lives in a farm called Little-town. Grannie, who lives close to the Lake District suggested a day out in Newlands Valley, because she knew that the book was set in Newlands and that Little-town nestled under the delightfully named Catbells mountain.

Ted and Seamus in Newlands with Catbells in the distance

Ted, Seamus, Dad .... and the other member of the party, Snoop the dog

We found Little-town farm with no difficulty, and were trying to work out the angle from which Miss Potter had painted it, but fortunately, the farmer who owned it told us that she actually drew a farmhouse further down the valley. So off we went, down twisting single track roads, and sure enough we found the original.

Seamus and Ted in front of Skelgill Farm


Ted is holding up the book, open at the picture which is supposed to be Littletown. Apart from the colour on the doors, very little has changed

After seeing Littletown and Skelgill, we drove back up the valley, heading for the pass- Newlands Hause. All the farmers were gathering their sheep off the fells for clipping, and we were surrounded by a river of sheep.

Having driven through the sheep, we chugged further up the valley and spotted a waterfall in the distance.

Seamus was very excited and wanted to walk right up to it.

After spending a little time looking at the waterfall, which is at the top of the pass, we headed down towards Buttermere, and eventually home.

Ted spotted this odd looking tree, built into the wall. It looks like something out of The Lord of the Rings

A new gallery to open in Wigton

2011-07-24T13:56:00.002+01:00

I am delighted to announce that The Fountain Gallery will open in Wigton in September 2011. It will be run by a co-operative of over a dozen local artists and craftspeople, and I am proud to be one of them! This is a nice piece of irony for me, as, many years ago, I ran a small gallery on the opposite side of the road, down the alley called Duke Street.

"The Thorn" one of my recent paintings. Acrylics and mixed media


The gallery is named after Wigton's Memorial Fountain, built in 1872 by George Moore for his wife Eliza

Fortunately, they're not all like that!

2011-07-10T22:49:00.005+01:00

Our band, Long Meg, doesn't do the number of public ceilidhs we would like, so we do a succession of private parties, fundraisers and weddings. Weddings are either great fun, or a total pain, but either way, they take a great deal more time and trouble than the average village hall do, when you turn up at six, set up, sound check, play for three and a half hours, pack up, and leave about twelve thirty.

Setting up in the pretty white marquee beside Coniston Water

The cake was bang on theme with red and white spots and checks

Most weddings have what band leader Paul calls "the embuggeration factor": you turn up at any time between one and four, try to set up, negotiating with caterers, hotel staff, best men, mothers in law, nervous brides and drunken friends; get told that you are contravening the venue's health and safety rules; be told you must not make that terrible noise (sound check up the spout); be unable to play for several hours while speeches take place and fifteen courses are served; have to play the bride's mother's favourite song through your PA, and finally get to play for a couple of hour if you're lucky; pack up and leave at about one, tripping over the cables of the disco man they've neglected to tell you they've booked in case their younger guests don't like your music! (In fact it's usually the other way round: young people love our mix of traditional tunes with blues/rock rhythms, and older people often like old pop music)

Fortunately, not all weddings are like that, and sometimes they are wonderful: you feel caught up in a happy event and share and contribute to the joy. yesterday' was one such.

OK, so we turned up at four- after a long drive- but we did drive through some of the most beautiful long and winding roads in England, to the heart of the high fells by Coniston Water and The Old Man, where a marquee filled with light- and red and white bunting- waited in the afternoon sunlight.

New Long Meg line-up- Liz, Neil, Mike, Paul, Joe

This could have been a sad gig for us, as it was the last for our drummer Joe. However we got caught up in the joy of the afternoon, and were surrounded by the enthusiasm and warmth of Liz and Lucy, and their family and friends.

After our other veteran band member, fiddler Pete Crofts, recently retired, we thought we'd never find the sound again, but Liz, seen below with guest fiddler Neil, makes a great sound, gutsy yet precise. So Long Meg is still Long Meg- but a bit different!

We are still sad that Joe has left us, but also confident that we can lure him back for the odd gig or two. We wish him luck and look forward to his next exhibition: Joe is a talented artist, as you can see from his website.

All things simple and good: pretty table settings, sunlight on trees, good food, good music, good beer, love and joy

Good luck, long life and happiness to Liz and Lucy; ave atque vale- Joe and Pete; the sun on all our paths!

The World Premier of my Radio Play

2010-12-15T20:13:00.001Z

My short Radio Play Words Worth Hearing will be broadcast on local radio on Thursday 23rd December between 9.30 and 9.50 am, 6.00 and 7.00 pm, and on the late evening show between 10.00 pm and 1.00 am. It is one of five plays accepted for broadcast by Radio Cumbria, and written by North Cumbria Script Writers. We had great fun recording them with some talented local actors and directors. The five plays were produced, recorded and edited by Belinda Artingstoll. You can hear Radio Cumbria streamed live or listen again.

The Launch of Trifolium Books

2010-12-13T16:37:00.002Z

This is one of those inevitable things- a decision which just about made itself. The publishing industry seems to be going the way of the music industry, and all our efforts to get Kathleen Herbert's stunning fourth novel published in the traditional way have come to naught. So, inevitably, we have said "A plague on all your publishing houses".... and set up our own.
Some notes on the reasons for this:

Publishers are very reluctant to take on new books for good reasons. Here is how the money paid for a book divides up between the parties:

Publisher’s net profit 5%

Publisher’s overheads 9%

Distribution/marketing 8%

Manufacturing 15%

Author’s share 8%

Retailers’ share 55%

Figures from The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook Guide to Getting Published: The Essential Guide for Authors (Writers & Artists Yearbook Gde) Harry Bingham

Because there is now so little profit in publishing, publishers and agents are taking very few risks. (Agents make their money by charging authors 15% of their royalties: given that an author makes 80p per nominal £10 book sold, it’s not surprising that agents are even more reluctant than publishers to take on new writers. (And publishers usually only take on authors who have already persuaded an agent to represent them)
My perception is that there are now many more people writing novels than perhaps 10-15 years ago
Adult fiction constitutes only 26% of book sales
Despite what looks like a huge profit margin for retailers, most of that is eaten up by overheads, discounts to overseas buyers, discounts to customers, and the fact that they take up shelf and storage space etc.
For all the above reasons, books by celebrities and by already well-known authors are snapped up, and quality is hardly considered either by agent or publisher; saleability is what matters (see Kate Mosse, and dare I say it, Dan Brown)

Parallel to the problems with mainscale publishing, there has been a huge growth in self publishing/indie publishing (interestingly reflecting what has been happening in the music industry)

People are still buying huge numbers of books, but I have the impression that they are written by a dwindling number of authors.

I have had both support and interest through various historical blogs, and through researching the books and authors mentioned, I have come to realise that there is a community of independent authors and very small, often specialist publishers- or rather there is a plethora of communities mostly interlinked.

Trifolium Books will join that community in 2011; please support Kathleen and Trifolium by checking Get it Written for dates and places, tell your friends, and buy a copy of Moon in Leo when it's published.

Is grey the new black? Musings on the colour of underwear

2010-12-10T11:26:00.001Z

Do you feel like this when you wear white underwear? No, neither do I, but it does look nice- at least for a handful of wearings. How long before it goes the way of all underwear and ends up the colour Ben Elton calls "thousand wash grey"? It all gets there in the end, but white has a head start, and black usually ends up round the ankles, all stretch gone, before it reaches the Nirvana of TWG.
While I'm on the subject, can we rename the sort of neutral colour that I often buy from M&S in the hopes of postponing the advent of TWG? Too many people still think of it as "flesh colour" (the actual colour of flesh is red- look in the butcher's window) I also like the story of a class of kids from a London primary school whose protest at the name of some coloured pencils consisted of them sending a large sheet of paper to the pencil manufacturers with dozens of colours which they had mixed: their message was, "These are our flesh colours"

Anyway, back to the name of the colour; I suggest Surgical Appliance Pink, as that's what it's nearest to. I wish they would do more of the sort of nice pinky grey colour I used to call mink. Perhaps I should just buy grey in the first plac?

Recent Paintings

2010-11-17T16:06:00.002Z

Mike's oil portrait of the guide at the Laphroig Distillery

Watercolour version of the above

Steve Cleary by Mike

Con's Cover Design for Moon in Leo based on a photograph taken in Furness

Northern Fells Dyptich

Northern Fells

I am continuing with my semi abstract landscapes, and Mike is getting rather good at portraits.

Getting down to it (or rather up)

2010-11-08T12:09:00.002Z

The garden has been neglected recently, due to Avril's shoulder injury, and our preoccupation with getting Moon in Leo published. However, we have started trying to do a minimum of an hour a day when the weather permits: unglamourous things like digging out the gutters and cutting back the climbers. Yesterday was sunny and dry, warm even, so I spent some soggy hours removing dead leaves and slime from the unseen places while Mike cut back the ivy.

Early morning on a beautiful day

Mike gets up to it!

The last few grapes

Tall grass seed heads catch the low sun

Cut back, the ivy no longer threatens the gutters and fascia boards

Photos, paintings, cake and drama- what more can you ask for?

2010-11-08T11:41:00.001Z

We had the most amazing day out on Friday. It is difficult to credit how much quality there is, so close to home. The day was planned just for an art exhibiton, and to see the Quondam Theatre production which we had missed when it was performed locally.

First of all we went to the preview at Red Barn Gallery, Melkinthorpe. We were both really struck by the work of two painters: Jean Laing and Robert Newton.
We followed with a great cup of coffee and delicious (in my case gluten free) cake in the restaurant attached to the gallery and nursery. (It was gluten free because there wasn't much room in it for anything other than chocolate :-)

The play was performed ten minutes away in the lovely village of Askham, which has an excellent pub, the Queen's Head. It has a welcome second to none, and again, really delicious gluten free food. One of the owners is Tommy Martin whose exhibition of photographs we saw in his gallery just opposite the pub.

Bellies and minds well fed, we went just next door to the village hall to see the best production I have seen yet by our excellent local theatre company, Quondam.

All this- and less than 45 minutes from home.

Ms Potter would approve: garden update

2010-08-01T09:21:00.000+01:00

This cheeky little chap visits us every day, and is getting cheekier and more daring in his approaches to the house. Beatrix Potter gave them an undeservedly good press, but I have to confess I do find this one rather cute. He may be living a charmed life at the moment, so long as he sticks to eating grass, but he had better not start on our lettuces!

In the meantime, we are enjoying the novel pleasure of eating our own home-grown veg. Am I a very sad person to get excited at the sight of a cauliflower?

Freshly cut!

Swallow production line

2010-06-22T18:50:00.007+01:00

Our original swallow wasn't too daunted by the intruder who built on his old nest: he simply started building a new one- on top of the seive! So, I had to buy a new one- sheltering wildlife gets expensive! The rather tatty nest in the eaves of the cabin from last summer fell down during the winter, but the swallows were still determined to rebuild, so we made it easier for them by nailing up a rough shelf. They kept up a constant shrill attack while we were doing it- a four syllable shout which sounds like "Get out the way!" They still do it now, whenever anyone goes into the cabin or the carport. However- they have good reason, as there are at least four babies in the carport nest, and three in the cabin, and so many mouths need a lot of stuffing!

Garden in Gear for Summer- just revving up

2010-04-21T23:06:00.045+01:00

First swallow of the season

His nest has been built on by somebody else

Our first swallow arrived today, only to find that his nest has been taken over by squatters. I wonder what he's going to do?

Avril has been here today and started our new vegetable beds. Can't wait to start planting cabbages and things!

Flowers are bursting out all over, and Daisy the dog does her best to distract us all and get us to throw her ball.

...and the fun continues!

2010-04-09T22:26:00.003+01:00

Avril made a "bug hotel" for the boys when she was here. Today they started to fill the compartments with different materials they found around the garden.

In the afternoon, we went to see the Snow Queen at Up Front Gallery Puppet Theatre. The boys loved it, but so did Gran, Grandad and Auntie Kate.

The Boys Are Here!

2010-04-09T21:01:00.003+01:00

Ted and Daisy play football; Shay plays badminton

Ted and Seamus are enjoying a short stay at the Red House with Granny, Grandad and Auntie Kate. They had a great day playing football and badminton with Avril's dog, and another day admiring the horses at the lakeland Heavy Horse Centre.

Auntie Kate and Ted at the back of the carriage

Men and Women at Work II (+ dog)

2010-04-05T08:40:00.006+01:00

Easter Sunday: cold but bright. A diminished family party meet at the Red House for what has become a traditional gathering of Wards and Jensens. This year, Anna and family were at a wedding, and Kate is due to come tonight with Ted and Shay while Anna and Martin fly to Tokyo for another wedding. Geoff and Amanda arrived on Friday with Ryan and Evie, Daniel working in a pub over the weekend.

Avril came, and everybody weighed in to help. Signs were put up (Ryan's ambition is to be the man who puts out the cones on the motorway), stones and logs were moved, with only a small amount of swearing, and various bits of anatomy were revealed!

Meanwhile, Evie was determined to read outside, despite the cold, and Amanda did a heroic job untangling a total scrow of wool I intend to knit (I did a bit too). If we paid ourselves the minimum wage for it, it would have beed cheaper to have chucked it in the bin and taken a first class train to London to buy some wool from the Queen's knitting shop! But once you start, it becomes obsessive, and Amanda's excitement as she wound the last few strands up was truly moving.

JAFMHT- Just Another Medieval Hill Town

2010-03-29T19:18:00.007+01:00

I like things to be on a human scale. When I enter a magnificent church, I am not reminded of the glory of God (well I wouldn't be would I?), and of the insignificence of human life. Quite the opposite: I marvel at human endeavour and ingenuity throughout the ages. Why do people ask "Is this all there is?" What more do they want? The amazingly rich variety of human life and culture over the millennia since we started to think and talk, plus the wonders of the rest of the universe, should be enough for anyone methinks.

So what is this all about? I am trying to analyse why I hated the Sistine Chapel (artistic as well as religious blasphemy I fear), St Peter's Basilica, and the vast and vulgar piazza outside it, where a funny little man comes out every so often and thousands of people fall to their knees in awe. And on the other hand, why did I love the original Benedictine monastery at Subiaco, and all these charming little hill towns we have been visiting?

It's partly to do with scale- it's a lot easier to appreciate something that is your sort of size, but it is also to do with intent. I believe that much of Renaissance architecture and art was intended and designed to aggrandise both the rich and powerful and the Church which in turn bolstered and legitimised their power. At the same time it is meant to make ordinary people feel little and insignificant.

Anyway, be that as it may, here are some pics of some of the lovely little towns we have encountered in our travels, so many and so picturesque that they tend to merg in the mind, hence the title of this blog.
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Better than the Sistine Chapel- reflections on Italy

2010-03-28T09:38:00.008+01:00

We visited the Vatican- St Peter's and the Sistine Chapel etc- the first time for me. I was impressed, but not, I suspect in the way I was meant to be. It was impressively big, overpoweringly powerful and ultimately ugly. Designed I think to make the viewer (worshipper) feel small and worthless. I have no doubt that Michelangelo's paintings are extremely wonderful works of art, but they were so far away that they were difficult to see. Add to the distance the fact that you need to dislocate your neck to see them at all and the result is somewhat over-awing. Bossy papal officials shushing everybody didn't help me to feel respectful! What I did get a sense of, was the technical difficulties and skill of painting at such a height and flat on one's back- and all into wet plaster in a limited amount of time. I now want to find more about it. (Sarah Dunant's The Birth of Venus is an interesting take on the subject which I will now re-read.)

However, the Monastery of Saint Benedict at Subiaco was altogether different. It was quite simply the most beautiful and interesting church I have ever seen.

Clinging to the hillside like the swallow's nest that an early visiting pope called it, the building is difficult to fix in your mind. You enter by a corridor which skirts the side of the mountain and overhangs a small rose garden which sticks out from one of the caves. Staircases wind up and down, and chamber clings to chamber like an accretion of limpets on the side of a boat. Rock and building often merge, and frescos of great humanity and narrative power cover every surface.

Men and Women at Work

2010-02-07T22:22:00.007Z

Our gardening angel, Avril, has been sawing down branches and trimming hedges; work that has been desperately needed now for several years. In the photos above, you can see her cutting off two huge branches that stuck out a long way into the garden and overshadowed one of the beds. She left the fork with two stumps sticking out as a comfortable perch for small boys! I might try to carve the ends into faces! Look out for more on the story of the tree seat.

While Avril worked on the hedge bordering the lonning, Mike cut some huge overhanging sections from the multi-stemmed cherry by the roadside. He kept having nightmares that it would fall across the road one day and cause an accident. While he chopped up the resulting logs, I stacked them on the veranda of the cabin- an ideal place for a proper woodpile. Hopefully by next winter, it will be stacked full, and should make us self- sufficient in wood.

Yesterday was a perfect winter's day, blue and warm with a slight haze, lulling you into a false sense that spring was almost here, but as the shadows lengthened, the cold found ingenious ways to bypass our defenses and remind us that winter is far from over, and there will be cold and wet days a plenty to come.

Nanny says don't go onto the ice

2010-01-17T20:21:00.002Z

We have now had a total thaw after a month of ice and snow. We have been virtually hibernating, going out only when necessary. However, we did go out to Keswick last Saturday, to see the unusual phenomenon of Derwentwater frozen over completely. It was like a scene painted by Breughel. The ice was solid and clearly many inches thick, and was able to support dozens of people, walking, sliding and even cycling. It was such a joy to see so much innocent fun, and so many adults recalling their childhood. As for the kids- it was as if all their birthdays and Christmases had come at once.

Where there was a rift and a thin place in the ice, between the shore and Belle Isle, everybody stopped, assessed and went a different way round or turned back. We had intended to walk all the way to Friar's Crag on the ice, but this stopped us.

We have got unused to using our initiative and judgment these days: rarely are we faced with situations of personal danger in our absurdly risk-averse and litigious society. It was heart-warming to have proved what I have always believed: that most people are mature and sensible enough to conduct their own lives reasonably, and we do not need the infantilizing rules, notices and warnings that plague our society.

What did next day's newspapers bleat on about? You've gussed it- how irresponsible it was for people to endanger their lives by walking on the frozen lake!

Frog blog

2009-11-16T17:33:00.005Z

Discovered in the garden, just trying to hole up for the winter, possibly the fattest frog I've seen!

Swallows and Amazonite

2009-09-21T10:28:00.009+01:00

Not long back from a mind blowing trip through the Rockies, and expecting the swallows gone, I was thrilled to see over thirty gathered on the wires above the garage this morning. They are obviously thinking of going, and who can blame them as the grey clouds gather over Skidder, and mist forms on the inside of the glass!

Visually, the trip was mind-blowing and gave me lots of ideas for painting and jewellery, so I can see a busy winter coming up. The amazing subtle colours of glacial ice and the astonishing blues and greens and greys of glacier fed rivers and lakes, to say nothing of the patterns, inspired jewellery ideas, so I looked for gemstones that could echo and reflect these colours. What I found was a stone I hadn't come across before: amazonite- it looks like chunks of ice.

And labradorite, with its elusive iridescence, watery moonstones, and ancient looking turquoise can also add their subtle notes. One pair of earrings made so far- watch this space!

More bird news

2009-08-12T22:13:00.007+01:00

The last four baby swallows ventured out of the nest yesterday, and flew today.

Meanwhile, a baby blue tit took a shower... and was having a great time until a big boy came along, and pushed him out. Is the usurper looking around to see if Mum is going to tell him off?

Swallow Central Update

2009-08-07T22:38:00.006+01:00

This is the latest nest, and the five eggs have produced four chicks- at least I can only see four. (You can only see three in these pics) However, the nest is so small that another one might be underneath! Mum and Dad have to sleep on the floor so to speak, or in this case on the end of the ladder which hangs right by their hastily thrown together homestead. As far as I can tell, the whole family crowds into the nest at night, sitting on each other's heads. At least, that is what family no 1 do. It looks like this lot will be ready to fly in a week or so. Watch this space!

The Constance Gardener- and the Michael

2009-08-05T00:33:00.008+01:00

We are a three garden family. Other families have several cars, some even have second homes, but us, we have three gardens! We have a big stake in our daughters' gardens: there are many plants in theirs that originated from ours, and we frequently bomb off south to do a bit of a makeover. Having worked recently on the Southern Garden, and the Mid West Garden (in Swindon) we came back to the Northern Garden to find lots of weeds, but also many flowers. Our Garden Goddess, Avril, has done sterling work recently, and we are delighted with our replanted central bed with a mad mix of orange pink and red flowers. It shouldn't work, but it does!

The Southern Garden

2009-08-03T18:42:00.006+01:00

The London garden. After a week of solid work, and a lot of luck with the weather, this was the result. A new bed created and one turfed over, a large number of new plants added to give summer colour as well as a tidy up of the existing beds. I am delighted with the result. More photos @ www.flickr.com/photos/amberimages/

Results from the Summer School

2009-07-25T19:17:00.006+01:00

Well, Brian's Summer School is finished, he is off to America, we are off to Canada soon, and Anna is back to work. Anna has achieved a lot with a super painting of Izzy and Shay in Greece, Mike has started experimenting with oils, as can be seen fom his unfinished painting of a country road near here, and my painting of a young cow in Grasmere village is ok- but not at all the new start I wanted. I tend to paint with obsessive detail, crouching over the canvas with a tiny brush, and my glasses pushed up, while I long to paint big impressionistic canvases, full of light and colour, suggesting great sweeps of landscape and sky. So I am disappointed in myself, that I have stayed within my comfort zone, even putting in the stone wall in the foreground which has become a bit of a cliche with me. Must do better.... but that will have to wait until the new term in September.

First two days of Summer School

2009-07-18T12:18:00.006+01:00

Got going in our first two painting classes: I blocked in my cow picture, and Mike did his first ever oil painting. We are now looking forward to next week when Anna joins us to paint. All we need is Kate to come and play for us!

Paintings of Maryport?

2009-07-15T21:56:00.003+01:00

Might work on these two as a pair with similar shapes

Food for free

2009-07-15T21:33:00.005+01:00

Found these in the garden, under the Bramley Apple tree. Picked the biggest and fried them in butter, waiting for the rest to grow. Perhaps if we leave one or two to go over and produce spores, we'll have a regular crop.

Baby Bird Production Line

2009-07-13T23:26:00.007+01:00

For the last two years, we have had the privelege of swallows nesting in our carport. They have come back now for the third year, and have just raised their first brood of three. However, we were thrilled when another pair made an untidy nest under the eaves of the cabin- and their four are now zooming around after insects like mini flying hoovers, and screaming at us indignantly when we go in and out of the cabin! Now though, we have a third nest- under the carport again, but on top of a pile of pots. So far they have five eggs. Production figures are creeping up!

Painter's Block

2009-07-13T21:56:00.007+01:00

For two or three years now, we have been attending regular weekly art classes, run by local artist Brian Campbell. The classes run through autumn, winter, spring and early summer, roughly corresponding with school terms, but when they end in May, there is a big hole in our week. That is, until Brian's Summer School starts, and we look forward to several days of concentrated painting. There is a real luxury in setting up all your gear and not packing it away at the end of a day, because you are going back to pick up where you left off the day before. Well, we are due to start in three days, and neither of us has a clue what we want to focus on: landscape, figures, portraits, still life, abstract, drawing media- pencil, ink, chalk, pen, oils, pastels, acrylics, watercolour- mixed media! We are both hoping inspiration will come some time in the next couple of days. perhaps getting out with a sketch book is the right thing to do..... or look through old and new photos.... has anybody else got any ideas?

Welcome

2009-07-13T00:16:00.003+01:00

Welcome to the official Trifolium blog. This is the place to see all our latest pots, paintings and jewellery and keep up to date with our other projects.