Walking the Labyrinth.

We made a labyrinth in the back field many years ago...I think I had read a book about them and then the film of The Da Vinci Code came on the scene.

A labyrinth is not a maze...no no ...

A maze is somewhere to get lost in as you try to choose the right path to make it to the centre...

...no...

 a labyrinth has only one path and that you follow until you reach the centre...and then you are centred!

Mazes are very popular around here...the farmers make a bit of extra money by turning their maize fields into mazes!!

Labyrinths are more likely to be found in gardens and on Cathedral floors...and are often used as a place of meditation. 

Well if I'm a bit stirred up about something ...

...I will often trek down the field to it and have a very slow walk into the centre...

...it's amazing how calming that walk can be...

I follow the laid out pattern and stop at each turn...

...and have a little think about whatever it is that is earworming into my thoughts and disturbing me.

Each turn gives you a new perspective ...north, south, east and west...

...and as the seasons change ...so do the views...

 ...the pond...

 ...the woods...

...the birch trees...

...the summerhouse...

...the final view...

...and the path itself......

Alice

" No, no, too many choices...where is that caterpillar when you need advice?"

"Ah, now that one looks pretty."

"I'll just get a little closer and read the instructions on it"

HAARLEMESIS

Dutch Drops

" Well that's a bit odd...but if they are good for the Dutch, ....just think how tall the Dutch are,.... then I'll have a sip. Anything to get me down off this window ledge!"

The new show at the Tate Liverpool opened last night. I wasn't there, but I will be going as soon as I can....

...............and taking grand girls with me!

"Alice"

We live close to the area south of the river, where Charles Dodgson was a vicar.

Daresbury.

It was Alice who got us to move out of teaching and into our own art business.
Perhaps...I've just thought....we live in Wonderland!
The leaving of teaching is a long drawn out story...best left alone!
Suffice it to say that Alice had a big hand in the doing of that.
This Alice is far from the sweet, innocent portrayal of childhood seen in Disneyish type films....
....though I have to say that I really enjoyed the latest 3-d version of it ...if only for the portrayal of the Hatter and the Red Queen.
No this Alice has spawned a multitude of confusions and madnesses.
Salvador Dali, Peter Blake, John Armstrong to name a few of the artists drawn into her spell.
The Times review this morning by Rachel Campbell- Johnson mentions ...."the spectator soon lost in the labyrinths"....of the show I presume.
Maybe it's all Alices' fault that we have built a labyrinth in the field at the back of the Potters House!
I'm looking forward to seeing the original illustrations by John Tenniel. I sttill remember the feelings of uncertainty I had as a child with the book and his illustations and not knowing in my innocence where they could have come from !

[Bottle care of the late Sydney....really does say that!  I have just looked it up on Google and lo and behold there is a bottle of it for sale on e-bay...now how "wonderland" is that!]

What the fungi are those?

A quick walk down the back field

 and lo and behold almost over night these have appeared!

Now I know that this is "fly agaric" and pretty darn poisonous but also magnificently beautiful.

                            .... look at the size of this cartwheel of a fungi!...

I know because I read up last time they appeared, that these are a product of the silver birch grove that we have in the field.

The animals / birds have already had a go at this one...why don't they die?

 Well of course, I hope they don't !

Turn your back and another lot seem to spring up...

This lot looks as if they could be edible...

...but I'm not going to have a go!

and look how dinky these ones below are...sweet little things...

Then all by itself this whopper!

 But gorgeous I think.

More fodder for some creature...could it be the field mice?

This one had such a super shiny brown top but was really small....

going...going...gone...

And here is my liebling one!

So tiny and actually lots of them but this photo came out best.

They are hidden in the Labyrinth.

Like drops of blood and snuggled in with the grasses and wild flowers that appear there

Extra Special Workshop

It's that time of year again when the local school takes over the studio and garden for an end of term workshop with the "little ones".
Hand-in-hand a class of four and five year olds come marching up the alleyway and into the garden accompanied by excited mums, grandmums and their teachers. We love it! What an age to be!
They split into two lots and half go into the studio with the potter and helpers, and the rest go off with their art folders looking for interesting things to draw.
The potter always has some fun questions for them...."Name 10 garden birds?"...Answer..."sparrow, robin, thrush and George!"...."George?" ..."yes one of the baby ducklings is called George"..."Well that makes sense doesn't it."


"Let's make some fish".

They'll be fired and glazed and returned to be "oohed" and "aahed" over by parents and grandparents in September.

How clever is that!

Meawhile out in the garden....

there are butterflies to look for... and draw...

...a cat to be drawn and stroked ....[or avoided, depending on how you do it!]

...a labyrinth to walk...
...as one little boy said, "We found a maze"...and I said, "Amazing!"

...while another informed me that he had.....
" found a wood with a secret seat in it!"

Then after squash and biscuits and a spot of picnic lunch on the grass....
...and many trips to the loo....
....off they go 'til next year and another lot come laughing down the alleyway.