Two trips this week, tho' sadly no photographs because the batteries in my camera ran out and I hadn't brought spares. On thursday I had a bit of an explore around Sheringham, ambling up from the station through a quiet housing estate to a piece of heathland then back down to Beeston common and Beeston Priory and then through the back streets of the town to the sea. 
Quite alot of the beach is still fenced off after the storm in December, and various locked up shop fronts on the promenade looked a little worse for wear. The tide was up, the waves quite high, it was cold, and the water was grey and forbidding, but the salt spray was exhilarating and I am always happiest by the sea.    
Then yesterday, saturday, I went with my friend, Janet Cranness http://www.janetcranness.co.uk/ to Cambridge, to see the ceramics by Edmund de Waal and some Japanese Prints http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/nightoflonging/. I hadn't been to the Fitzwilliam for ages but we both remembered a course trip we had taken when we were studying together some years ago with a teacher we both struggled to learn from. Although, retrospectively, I realise that she taught me alot, I never did manage to enjoy her classes.
The prints were Shunga, erotic, some explicit, some less so, but all beautiful, detailed yet spare and exquisitely coloured. It was a very inspiring exhibition. The Edmund de Waal was interesting and inspiring too. They were a good complement to each other and today, inspired by yesterday, I have been playing with print and paper-making.

On January 2nd there was a brief gap in the wet and windy wintry weather. The sun shone and it was almost warm. My good friend Sally and I took a trip to the coast to celebrate the new year and to loosen our limbs a little. We had intended to go to Winterton but ended up at Horsey from where we walked along the dunes passing the cordoned off beach where the seals are in pup, over the heath, to the far end of Winterton beach for a closer look at the seashore. 

These two beaches are rich in wildlife and I can remember coming to see the seal pups a few years ago when the ground was frozen solid. And also a summer or so back to see the little terns nesting. 

Some places hold stories. Those two visits were made with a loved but difficult, and now ex and incommunicado, boyfriend. Returning, I suppose, woke up old feelings which made me a little sad, but also gave me a chance to lay some of those old feelings to rest. Past is past, just another layer of life history. Living in the now I was able to enjoy the sunlight and sea, and to allow my nostalgia to drift into the past where it belongs. I don't need to hold fast to those memories, they were a part of my life but not the whole. Time passes I am part of an ongoing saga. And, as cloth fades so too do memories good and bad.  

My last trip to Cley before I submit my proposal for the NNEP annual summer exhibition. I went with Colin Johnson again, and we spent the main body of our visit taking photographs of the church and exploring the village. Pathways are always interesting to me, where we as animals run. Our bodies over time forming tracks like water in the creeks of the marshes. We picked a small quantity of sloes for my dyeing experiments, and admired the clematis and the spindle berries. 
The beach drew us at the end, and we walked a little way along the tideline, picking up scrap and, in Colin's case seaweed for inspiration. 
For me, whether my application is successful or not, I feel as if I have taken steps along a journey that I am enjoying too much to give up, so expect to see more of Cley over the next few months whatever the outcome of my submission.

   

I'm all behind times with my blog because I was writing up my trip to the Dordogne. But just for the record I've taken couple of trips out to Cley-next-the-sea, Norfolk researching for a submission. A submission is not the same as getting the gig so I am going with hope, and a resolve to enjoy the process of applying because it may not come to anything. Anyway, Cley was beautiful on both days. The first visit was on Oct 22nd, I went with my friend Colin and we happily spent a couple of hours beach-combing the tide line towards Blakeney. It was sometimes grey, and sometimes rainy, and sometimes the sun broke through. We saw a seal and ate our lunches, looking inland, next to the Watch House, a victorian cottage built on the edge of the Blakeney marshes.
On Nov 1st, my second trip, I caught the train to Sheringham, and then the coasthopper bus to Cley. I'd thought to look at the church, and the lanes around it, but my instincts drew me back to the beach. I walked in the opposite direction towards Salthouse, along the seashore and then back on the path between the beach and the marshes. 
One of the highlights of the walk was seeing a small flock of snow buntings grazing and low-fluttering on the grass by the side of the path. I had not seen them before and one of the birdwatchers said they were probably migrants from scandinavia. The light is quite low now that it is autumn and I got a couple of quite nice shots of the marshes I think, given that I am an amateur. Also one of a sock on a post which I just liked.

And some flotsam and jetsam.

Just a few photographs from my trip to Cley because walking feeds my dreams, my heart, my soul.

I'm not going to claim any gift for making videos but the butterflies on the Cley to Blakeney coast path were something wonderful.

  

Of course, if I'm in the country roaming country lanes, the chances are I'll be taking photographs of plants. This weekend it was the weedy plants that drew me, the brambles and plantains, stinging nettles and sycamore.

Overy - Holkham with a friend. The weather was cold but with beautiful sunshine, bright, slanting winter light. We saw a marsh harrier and geese. And I took photographs of sea shells, seaweed and a set of crossing tracks with some seagulls, of which there were great flocks.  

The sun was shining yesterday at Horsey Gap. I have a love affair with shadows, and those tiny tender moments that are very easy to miss. I often leave my camera behind but I was with a friend who also photographs, so here are a few small shadows.

Lovely rolling Shropshire countryside.

Summer is drawing to a close. The air is just a little nippy at nights, and the hedgerows are full of seeds and berries. The cornfields are mostly gathered in and baled. And the schools and colleges and universities are back in business. 
I've just spent a last summer holiday in Shropshire, which I've not visited before. The countryside was beautiful, rolling hills and fields, bathed in light, and quiet, but for the birds and insects, and farm animals, cows and sheep mainly.

Saw so many buzzards they almost became common place, their call was the sound of the week, haunting, ethereal, wonderful.

Last few weeks of the summer holidays. There's a nip in the air in the morning and evening. And the hedgerows are full of seeds and berries.

These photos were taken on a good walk from Sheringham station (Norfolk), along the beach to East Runton, and back inland through woodland and along the cliffs back to the station and home. A wonderful day shared with my son.

The walking was hills and heath, and riverside, and flower filled meadows. These things are always a tonic to my heart and soul.

So, it turns out that, if you print on a lambswool warp with procion dyes with soda ash, the wool falls to pieces. Fortunately the silk warp seems to be fine and is looking fine on the loom. And David, our fab technician at NUCA, really kindly made me a new lambswool warp which I will put on the loom tomorrow.