Inchie Challenge 2025

I enjoyed taking part in the Inchie Challenge again this year.  Run by Amy Maricle of Mindful Art Studio, it is a prompt a day for twelve days, working on small pieces of paper/card, in my case, 2 inches x 2 inches watercolour card.  I made them into an accordion book, but took some photos of some of the individual pieces.

'Lift' had to be a piece that could be lifted and the front of the lifted piece can be seen on the left of the photo above.

'Rebel' was lots of patterns all together.

'Shrouded' has a piece of decorated tracing paper over the top.

'Stamen' was a fun shape to make - I think I had a plantain flower in my head when I thought of this one.

Here are 'Under', 'Galactic' and 'Braided'.

This is the piece which is underneath all the other pieces for 'Under' - I really enjoyed creating that one.

'Braided' includes a plait of embroidery thread - that was Chris' idea.

'Dots'. 'Doorway' and 'Contrast'.

I made the door so that it could be opened and added a trailing vine behind.

'Contrast' is just that.

'Three' is on the left, with three flowers and 'Chequered' was another fun pattern.

The challenge is a good one to join in with, as it doesn't last too long and is easily manageable, working on such small pieces each day.  I have ended up with a really sweet little accordion journal.

Snowdrops and other delights - part two

While I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the snowdrops on our visit, Doddington Hall gardens have some lovely vistas, like this, looking up to the house.

I am always intrigued by views through gates and doorways - what is around that corner?  You can just make out a rhododendron in flower.

Imposing gateways leading to more formal areas near the house.

A view looking the other way, down to the eyecatcher in the distance.

This little corner caught my eye with the mossy tree and the snowdrops and cyclamen leaves nestled beneath.

I managed to capture a slice of spring here with early daffodils, snowdrops, cyclamen coum, and pulmonaria.  There will also be a primrose or primula soon.

In the kitchen garden, we were impressed by these sculptural bug hotels which we are going to copy, possibly in a slightly smaller form, up at our allotment.

This water bowl would be another nice idea up there too.   We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, which ended, as all garden visits should, with tea and cake!

Snowdrops and other delights - part one

I love to see snowdrops, as they are the heralds of Spring and a sign that winter is nearly over (and one of my favourite flowers).  I visited the little churchyard in the city last week and enjoyed a few minutes of peace, listening to the birds singing and enjoying just wandering amongst the trees. 

The aconites were also in flower.

It was another dull and grey day, but still lovely.  You can read about previous visits here and here.

Last Sunday, Chris and I collected our friend Alison and we headed out to Doddington Hall to get another snowdrop fix.  We have visited for their snowdrops before, here. We also visited last year for the sculpture event here, here and the gardens here.  We were lucky with the weather as we actually had some sunshine.

There were other plants such as cyclamen coum...

..vividly coloured witch hazel in shades of orange...

...and yellow...

...and beautiful drifts of snowdrops.

There were views like this to enjoy.

We could see the witch hazels shining out across the lawns.  More to come in the next post.

'Time' by Luxmuralis at Lincoln Cathedral

('Time' at Lincoln Cathedral from Luxmuralis Youtube channel)

We went to the latest offering, 'Time' by Luxmuralis at Lincoln Cathedral last night.  For those not familiar with this, it is a sound and light experience, based around a particular theme.  It is on from 11th - 15th February 2025 at Lincoln Cathedral.  There are different performances at different venues - see here for the schedule. 

As always, my camera struggled with the low lighting, but I did take a few photos.  The video above by Luxmuralis on their Youtube channel gives much more of a flavour of what to expect.

It is a feast for the senses and can feel a bit overwhelming at times.

There is a specially composed soundtrack to go with each area, but these can all get somewhat muddled together.  I did hear Richard Burton several times, I think.

I particularly enjoyed the art of different cultures which was on the altar wall. I noticed Burne-Jones angels and a portrait by Ingres amongst the many images in this projection. 

The projection is the nave was really impressive.

This pattern is made from the icons on a mobile phone.

As we left, I took this rather atmospheric photo of the cathedral, in the drizzle and mist.

My previous visits in 2023 and 2024 are posted  - 'Science' here and 'Life' here.

New and old

I may have purchased a couple of new hellebores - it's that time of year when I really want to do some gardening, but the weather doesn't always play ball. So, to cheer myself up, new plants need to be bought!  I do have a few hellebores now, but I don't think I have a white one, or if I do, it doesn't make its presence known very often. I saw this one online and ordered it.  It came very well packaged, in really good condition and I was very pleased.

It is such a pretty plant. It is a single white hellebore in the Credale series.

The other one I bought is called Ice and Roses and is still in bud, but again, it is a good quality plant. It should have red flowers.

The snowdrops in the garden are in flower - these are large ones, originally from my Mum's garden, so always make me think of her. 

Hellebore Hello White Pearl is still flowering away...

...as is hellebore Winter Sunshine.  Hellebores can be relied on to brighten the dull, grey winter days.

Making my own labels - a mindful activity

Two of the makers I follow on Youtube have been using a stamp set (Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz - Curator) to create their own labels.  One was Alison Bomber from Words and Pictures here (from around 46:39 minutes in) and the other is Toni from Crafty by Toni here (at about 4:00 minutes in).

I stamped the image and then used watercolour to colour them, which was very relaxing and enjoyable. I have done some more neutral colours using Payne's Grey and Quinacridone Gold, but here I wanted some more colourful ones.  I have since had a lovely time cutting them all out and now I have a good selection for whatever I want to add them to.  I can thoroughly recommend it as a mindful activity!

Sunrise

It is not often that I am up early enough to see a beautiful sunrise, but I managed to catch this one.  We live in a city, so don't get the wide open views of landscape that my sister (who lives in the country) would see.  However, this was a beauty.

I went to get my camera and capture it before the colours changed.

It is a stunning combination of blues, pinks, lilacs, oranges and golds.

It made getting up early that bit more bearable!

In the garden late December/early January

I ventured into the garden to see what was braving late December/early January weather and then got sidetracked so am posting this now.  Above is one of the Nemesia Melody series...

...and here's another...

...and another.  They are good value plants.

Hellebores were in flower. Here is Hello White Pearl.

While Hellebore Ericsmithii Winter Sunshine was just opening up.  The hellebores in pots always seem to flower before the ones in the ground.

There was a cyclamen coum and the start of some snowdrops.

Jasminium nudiflorum (winter flowering jasmine) was bringing its own sunshine to a dull corner.

Camellia Yoimachi flowers enticed me down to the bottom of the garden to look at them more closely.

The ever faithful winter flowering honeysuckle was also in flower.  Of course, a week or so after taking these photos, we had a week of frost and temperatures only just above freezing during the day. Everything was flattened by it, but has recovered.