Another Cheese!

I'm not really a cheese geek, I just love most sorts, and finding something new, different and pleasing is always satisfying.

This is one I was introduced to on our recent trip to Skye, amazing with oatcakes, rather more expensive than smoked salmon, but worth it!

Perfect Welcome!

We got home from a very wet few days in Skye to find the sun had been left here!
Thanks A, wonderful welcome

!

More Creepycrawlies.

Snowdonia the other week was really springy, all the creepy crawlies clearly thought so too.

I think this chap is a harlequin ladybird, a worryingly invasive foreigner!

I'm not very good on moths & butterflies, but he's beautiful anyway!

Snowdonia, Geology.

A wonderful weekend in Snowdonia, staying near Swallow falls, the torrential rain has a good side, it was really spectacular, the walk up the other side of the river from the road is beautiful, but not intrepid!

Not really a rain forest, just a rainy Forest.

From the top of Tryfan

From Glyder Fawr west to the sea.

A crystal of pyrite, fool's gold from Tryfan. It was on the ground at nose level on a scrambly bit. Extraordinary how mathematical nature can be.

Gruesome Teacher!

Some of my regular watchers may remember my Beast mask for a school musical last year, I gave some idea how it's done, but laura who taught me is a million times better, look at her proper one. I can confirm she wouldn't harm any creatures whatever the good cause, but has had a gory streak for many years!

Finished at Last.

In an earlier post I mentioned my pottery taster day, as a present from L&A. I have indeed signed up for a term's worth of classes giving me time to finish my first attempts properly.

This one is thrown, i.e. done on a wheel, horribly messy and hard to get right but I think I;m sort of getting the idea now. the inside is melted glass. The flowers on the outside weren't quite as expected, the galze seemed to blur the outlines, but the final result's OK-ish. I'll improve!

This is also thrown, but got a bit squashed. The label on the colours said bright green & yellow, lost something in the kiln, but the effect is quite nice, a bit earthy and natural rather than the bright I'd aimed for.

These two are simpler, rolled like pastry and pressed into a former. The colours are a bit washed out too, but the shapes worked.

Still Life With Trilobite!

Among other things I'm doing another term of drawing with Claire and her unique style "bigger, bolder, just scribble over the mistakes!" Each week we focus on one aspect of drawing, last week landscape and today still life.

The last high valley heading up towards the Glacier and Parang La last year in Ladakh

Fleetwith Edge from the other side of Butternmere

I don't really have a trilobite fixation, but anyone who does might read Richard Fortey's book of the same name.

Next week architecture, with special reference to gargoyles, another thing I find fascinating .