back to lino

The kiln shed gets closer,but the work is slow...there is so much else going on at the moment we end up too tired to do much..but there is a little progress.

Meanwhile I've picked up my lino cutting tools again, with the added incentive of trying some new Italian tools...not the Pfeil make that many printers rave about, but these are a massive improvement on the basic red plastic handle with interchangeable blades. Now I can work for more than a few minutes without hand ache!

Next step will be on  300 gsm card rather than cheap 80 gsm A4 paper, but that is good enough for proof prints.

Then after that I must look for some more inspiring trees to draw!

gardening...and gardening...

The new bed is done and nearly full of soil...and some well matured pony manure!
It received the seal of neighbourly approval this morning as well.

Then off to a garden twelve miles away , for the Pirate to mow a lawn..leaving nice stripes and for me to attack an old clematis that was invading a roof and smothering an oil tank.     Nice to be paid, but two hours there is far more tiring than two hours in our own garden.
The job was almost finished when a heavy rain shower stopped play....I can't say that we were disappointed!

How does our garden grow?

So far this year we have Strawberries, last year's Rocket, Broad Beans, Spinach (last year's crop just gone to seed, I'm about to sow the next) ,Cavolo Nero Kale..one from last year, and five new plants from a friend.
I've just lifted the last of the onions from sets sown last autumn, and there is half a bed of onions from sets sown late spring. The garlic planted last Autumn has just been lifted.

That is in the deep beds and in large pots or tubs there are black and red currants, green and red gooseberries, blueberries, Alpine/Wild strawberries and plenty of various herbs.
We have just bought two nice scented roses, Comte de Chambord and a really dark red Munstead Wood.

I'd love to find "Victor Emanuel", a bourbon rose, as the Pirate is a Victor...but the only evidence of a plant I've found is in San Jose in California!!
Now I've converted the Pirate to old roses.... he wants roses by the door!...unfortunately the front faces Nor-NorWest and only sees a little sun in midsummer.
I love the Auld Scots Rose,the Rosa Gallica, the species roses....

Meanwhile, birthday money has been spent on wood and screws.....

drawing #2

Still a bit tentative and sketchy, working on the hand/eye/brain links by practice.

It will get better.

what do you do with your birthday money?

You build new deep beds for veges!

drawing and stuff

Its a beginning.
Then I did some cutting work on a snowy landscape linocut. Feels odd when the sun is out and its in the high 20s!!

birthday Pirate