Walking the Old Year Out...

 Though the morning sky was dark the day lightened around midday...

... so we parked our car by Sankey Bridges and walked the canal path ...

...to the old Ferry Tavern at Penketh Marina and Yacht Haven.

...we crossed the track...we're told it will be the new fast line to Liverpool...

maybe..

We're now in another environment..one of water and reeds...of water birds and marshy woods.

A land of silvery seedheads and swaying water weeds...

..where a low old year sun casts it's light on the sedge and reeds...

..and everywhere light on water sparkles beyond the dried leaves...

..a tanglewood...

where seedheads hold tight on to tall stalks ...waiting for  new season's growth.

The St Helen's canal flows to the Mersey past Fidler Power Station...soon to be dismantled..probably for yet another new housing estate...people must live.

...the weavers of Penketh...at work on the alder branches...

We make it to the Mersey and take our rest by the old pub.

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"If you stood on the bottom rail of a bridge, and leant over, and watched the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you would suddenly know everything that there is to be known". 

(Wisdom of Pooh...A.A.Milne)

Happy New Year to you all...

...and many many thanks for reading this blog of my random thoughts and dreams.

the sun stops...

 

Thoughts at the Turn of the Year… when the Sun Sits Still.

"Then Joshua said..."Sun, stand still".....Josh.10:22" 

15.58pm

 last walk down the old field path

My thoughts begin with water in the rill

Full-ferned and moss-muddlied. There sits

A crow on the topmost level of

A bowing birch. Above it still the gibbous moon

Silver-sailing in a pale mourning sky.

 

the ever watchful crows

The magi of mushrooms and

Pale greenness of lichen and I am

Mind-spinning at the turn of the tired old year.

There a gathering of shining starlings

Sitting slanted on an earthen roof and

 

...so this is how the nasturtiums finish...

Wood pigeons murmuring a pied-melody

Where trees scarlet and leaves tumble.

..tumbling leaves and scarlet berries...

The turning prowls through my memories.

Sometimes there are assembling hours

And heaven beckons. Sometimes a glimpse

 

Of seedful poppies sinning in strawberry beds

Scattering feral banks on fecund land.

...the quiet strawberry beds...

So here's to the "Long Moon"to the "Cold Night Moon" to the coming again of "The Light"

Here's to the yuletide log...and the family feasting...here's to love and kindness.

To all.

New Ceramics in closeup...

The classes and groups of ceramic students have finished...

...covid put an end to all that.

But life goes on in the studio with an exhibition of artists' work , including Alan's, due to be curated in January at Technically Brilliant Art Gallery in The Golden Square Mall in Warrington.

I've taken these shots with the macro lens on my Canon EOS 5D.

They are on three large ceramic sculptural works based on the coast that we both love in Suffolk.

Southwold, Aldeburgh and Walberswick.

Alan also exhibits at Buckenham House, High Street, Southwold .  

 

Beach Huts and Boats. Southwold.

Harbour on the Blythe River Southwold.

I probably won't have time to blog next week.

So I wish any and all who may read my stories here....

A very happy peaceful and blessed Christmas time.

It's a cat blog....

 Just a cat blog...

...but what's not to love about a cat blog?

"What greater gift

than the love of ..two..cats"...almost Charles Dickens.

In a cat's eyes, all things belong to cats...including your favourite chair!

Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods.Cats have never forgotten this.

The phrase domestic cat is an oxymoron.

...one cat just leads to another...Ernest Hemingway.

...oh ! happy christmas Erni..x

Eric and his slave.

Dogs come when they are called...

...cats take a message..and get back to you.

And there you have it...two besotted old adults...who really wanted a dog...and got two cats by mistake!

It's Advent December 2021

 ....and the old driftwood tree comes out of the tool shed...is dusted down and the spiders webs cleared away before it's once again in pride of place in the big gallery window at The Potters House Penketh.

On go the twinkling lights...a job for the potter...aka Alan Snape.

...the box of beloved baubles is dragged down the stairs from under a bed in the guest room..

...year by year I scour the christmas shops for another one to add to the collection...but it has to be that little bit different from the hundreds that are the choices available now...

...and every year I buy each of the grandgirls one to start their own collection.

Aunt Helen was my partner in "crime " each Christmas at 43 St. Johns in Belfast...I would crawl into the cubbyhole under the stairs to find the box with the treasure in it....in those days mainly paper decorations.

...ooops!...why is it always the fragile ones that slip out of your hands!...still beautiful in it's shards of fine glass...

After our visit this year to the autumn Chelsea...inspired by the work in the main tent... I started collecting the autumn leaves as they fell from the gingko tree in the garden...pressing them in old art books...always heavy!...and stringing them in chains for the gallery windows.

...some japanese acer leaves found their way into the strings too...

..a choir of angels echo the message of hope

...nothing to make you ashamed...

In the window....ceramic camel £150 : ceramic angels £20 : Large penguin with gold crown £170 : small penguin with gold crown £110 : ceramic polar bear £180 : individual ceramic letters £150 : HOPE £450  Icon.."Christ Pantocrator" £150 : ceramic hare £180 : Box assemblage ceramic hand £150 : ceramic stars £20 : Globed angel £150 : small driftwood christmas trees £20 : chain of pressed leaves £10 ..and so much more inside.

More work can also be seen at Technically Brilliant Art in The Golden Square Mall, Warrington.

and

The Buckenham Gallery Southwold, Suffolk.

Today the sun is shining...although these are often called "the dark days"...but there is always hope and so that is my wish for all of us this Christmas.....

"And hope doesn't put us to shame..." Rom 5:5

Much love

Geraldine

Glass houses..but no Stones.

 My journey each school day took me through the Belfast Botanic Gardens. Cast iron and glass...wonderful.

In the mornings it was always a run... I was a sleepyhead...

...the home journey often saw me with friends walking through the wonderful glass house and  past the exotic plants contained within.

Banana trees and palms, plants from the South American forests in the hottest part of the glass house.....steamy and junglelike.

Like so many of these amazing structures...it was decimated during the years of the troubles...but has now been restored back to it's full glory.

The  next glass house that took my breath away was in Croxteth Walled Garden and held the remains of the plant collection belonging to Liverpool Botanics. I believe that they were held also in Sefton Park Glasshouse in Liverpool.

Once a month in 2018 I walked in it with a friend @barbarajones met on the BA art degree course at Wirral Met.

But this week I went with a Warrington Camera Club ..and explored the newly renovated Glass House in Walton Gardens. We used to go to the gardens when the children were small and even then the glass houses were desolate...no plants..no care..but Warrington Borough Council have done an amazing job to bring them back to use and wonder...

.... and Myerscough College keep the plants looking their best..

There's something magic about walking into a hot, spicey, exotic, steamy plant house.

The colours assault your senses...and everywhere is water... dripping from leaves...spilling into floral cups...fish swimming in patterned pools.

...and oh those flowers...nothing like the flowers in my garden...

Nothing shy about these flowers...they shout ."Look at me".

Cups of colour...creating tiny swimming pools...

...mysterious shadows in the watery depths of the hottest part ....like creatures from another planet....

*

I'm loving my return to blogland...but can I mention that there are often daily pics on my Instagram account also ... maybe I'll see you there..