Don't fence me in

There has been no series of monthly Journal Quilts this year but nevertheless a few of them have been made. This is one of them, made for the upcoming (early 2018) exhibition of Thistle Quilters. We were all asked to make an A4 landscape orientated one for a specific week this year. My week was the one starting the 28th May. The theme was to be: News, and we could interpret that as we wished.

Truth be told I have been avoiding the "big" news as much as possible for the last few years, zapping away from any news programmes as if my life depended on it. Maybe because it had started to affect my mental well-being. So no world issues but instead I found my news much closer to home.

This year has been all about Flora, after she arrived with us in November last year (1st anniversary coming up soon!) so she had to feature. During that week of the 28th May I was participating in the Artful Adventures, Stroll through my Hood project (organized by Nathalie Kalbach) where we were to look at our neighbourhood with new eyes and take photographs based on prompts she gave us. One of the pictures I took at that time was of a very old gate in the Penicuik Estate. I have re-pictured it below although this one was taken yesterday.

I combined Flora with the gate and that formed the base of my journal quilt.

The quilt was made using a combination of hand dyed fabrics (the pink and the green) as well as a backing cloth that had been used to sop up the paint in my studio (the gate). Flora herself is an image transfer from a photograph.

The quilt was machine quilted, raw edge appliquéd with hand stitching and embroidery. It has been further embellished with size 11 seed beads and sparkly sequins.

The Greatest Bliss

You may remember that back in June I was one of the Guest Designers on the Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood project, initiated by Nathalie Kalbach to celebrate the publication of her book with the same name. There was a step-by-step tutorial from me for this project on her site but I wasn't able to share a picture of the entire page then. Enough time has passed to enable me to share it with you now.

For the Stroll we were given prompts and we could interpret them any way we wanted in photographs. I chose the Penicuik Estate for my "hood". The estate surrounds Penicuik House.  The house dates from the 1760s but sadly burned down in 1899 and only the walls were left standing. There was no money to restore the house and it remained in a ruined and dangerous state till 2007 when the Penicuik House Preservation Trust took on the huge project of stabilizing the house which is now finished. The Trust then started on a long term (till 2035) plan to restore the various built structures within the landscape of the estate.  One such structure is the Chinese Gates, as seen above, dating from 1758. These have now been fully restored as close as possible to the original structure. 

You come to the Gates from the Lime Walk extending from the side of the house and when you look into the far distance you see the Allan Ramsay Monument, erected in 1759 by Sir James Clerk, 3^rd Baronet of Penicuik, in commemoration of the Scottish poet Allan Ramsay (1684-1758). He has been called one of Scotland’s most important literary figures and is now mainly known as the author of Scotland’s first folk opera The Gentle Shepherd, set in the countryside around the nearby village of Carlops, that also has a lovely pub named after him.  The Gates and Monument were simply perfect for the prompts Fence, Sky, Sign, Pattern, View, Boundary, and especially Geometric which was the prompt on the day I posted my project  

 I used the L457 Santiago stencil designed by Nathalie Kalbach for Stencilgirl Products in the background and the L456 Buenos Aires one for the Monument. This last paper was done on a gelli plate and then cut to shape.

For the gates itself I used the Chicago art foamie, also designed by Nathalie and in the background I stamped with her Kaffee Klatsch rubber stamp set. Of course I had to include my constant strolling companion, the lovely Miss Flora. She was printed out to size from my computer. I used a quotation from Allan Ramsay himself to finish off the page.

I had a lot of fun making this project and in fact with the entire Stroll through the Hood. It helped me to pay even more attention to my surroundings and I have been keeping that up ever since.

Allan Ramsay Monument

 After climbing up to the opposite bank of the North Esk River in the Penicuik Estate yesterday there seemed no better way to keep those muscles lubricated than doing it all over again today. And this time we made it all the way to the Allan Ramsay monument. Hurray! I had hoped to do this during the Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood event but somehow that had not happened although I did feature it in some of the photographs. Although it looks a good day it was very windy but that meant it was also cooler and thus better for the exercise. It was great to finally make it up and I managed to make my way through the knee high weeds, fortunately with (hardly) any nettles, over a stile (Flora had to be lifted over as she wasn't keen on being left behind) to right underneath this impressive stone structure. It's on the long term 2015 2035 plan to be restored by the Penicuik Preservation Trust.

The views were stunning and very much worth the effort! I had brought the big camera today and so happy I did. Yes, I had to lug it around but the pictures paid off in dividends. There would have been no way for the phone to capture all this far away detail.

Inside the arch there are Latin inscriptions on both sides, describing that this monument was erected in honour of the Scottish poet Allan Ramsay by James Clerk of Penicuik House. Allan Ramsay was a frequent visitor to the house.

On the picture below you can see the Chinese Gates, the Lime Walk and the southern facade of the house, all of which are in a direct line from the Monument. You can see the tower of the stable block where the Clerk family still lives, as well as the Pentland Hills in the distance. It also gives you some idea of how high up we were on the Cauldshoulders Ridge

We had the entire ridge to ourselves apart from one horse rider. I envied her the magnificent ride but doing it on foot was also very rewarding.

A Perfect Moment

Just because the official project Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood has finished doesn't mean we have ceased to stroll through our neighbourhood. When you have a dog, daily strolls are always on the agenda. I do a short dog walk in the morning and then in the afternoon we go further afield for a longer walk. Today we were back in the Penicuik Estate, where I spied two swans in the Low Pond. To start with they were far apart and I was equally far away. We made our way along the edge of the pond to get a bit closer and at the same time the two swans were moving towards each other and finally I managed to capture this perfect moment!

The reflections around the pond's edge were lovely and the sun came out quite frequently to add to the effect.

rhododendron flowers

Being so close to the edge also meant I could get a close-up of a beautiful yellow iris flower.

We were very lucky as it started to rain when we drove home and since then there has been a real downpour. Still we had that perfect moment and can treasure it! I should have brought the big Canon camera but it's so much easier to use the phone. However that does mean I couldn't zoom in as much as I would have liked so I'm taking myself to task and will put more effort in being properly equipped!

Temporary

Today the weather is dismal with endless rain showers. Flora was quite insulted that I took her for a walk along the old railway line this morning and personally I thought I was mad too! Fortunately the forecast had foretold these conditions yesterday so I took the opportunity then (on a much nicer day) to take some pictures of our latest (and last) prompt on Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood.

I think Nathalie left the hardest prompt till last. Temporary is a difficult concept to portray, despite the fact that everything in life (including this photographer) is here only temporary (that goes for the results of our UK election too, which might be consoling to the losers!). A human lifespan is but a blink of the eye compared to humanity's existence on this earth and the history of the earth itself. Somehow I have always find this a very soothing thought. Whatever happens, it won't last!

However I am far less sanquine about the length of life of my pets! The thought that they will probably die long before I do  (and indeed many have already)  makes me very sad on an almost daily basis. On one hand it's good. Hopefully Flora will be loved by us and looked after for all of her life. But that also means that one day she (like all our dogs, cats and chickens) will no longer be with us and that is an unbearable thought I try not to think.

I am not the only one so attached to her dog(s). There is a lovely pet cemetery in Penicuik Estate, tucked in by the side of the Lime Walk, in honour of pets from the past. How peaceful a place they have to rest after their temporary existence. I'm sure Toby, Monkey  and all the other animals must have been very beloved!

The Artful Adventures have now come to an end, and I for one will miss them. The strolls through the neighbourhood will continue, of course, apart from very rainy days! Many thanks to Nathalie Kalbach for thinking up such a fun project. It has left me with an arsenal of pictures to use as inspiration for future projects.

Geometric

The prompt today on Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood is: Geometric. 

And finally I can reveal that Nathalie  (huge thanks to her!)asked me to be one of the Guest Designers of this wonderful project. I had a lot of fun putting together an art journalling page combining many of our prompts thus far but with the geometric one as the most prominent feature. To find out which of the many geometric features in Penicuik Estate I've used for my project you need to follow the link to the class. 

The most prominent geometric feature in the Penicuik Estate is of course the house itself. Above it's south façade. The house is in the Paladian style and was built in the middle of the 18th Century. The house has now been fully preserved after the 1899 fire that virtually destroyed it. The walls are stabilized and should hopefully still be there for future generations to admire.

You can find my entire project, and the picture that inspired it, on the completely free class site  http://nathaliesstudio.com/learn/online-workshops/artful-adventures-stroll-challenge/ )I so enjoyed the Artful Adventures class (one more day to go!) and it has given me a new appreciation of where I live as well as a set of photographs that will give me inspiration for a long time to come!

Below is the tiniest, teeny weeny detail from my project and as you can see Flora managed to wheedle her way onto the page, which is only right as she did all the strolling through the hood with me. For the full project sign up for the class here

Here are some more of my favourite geometric features in the Estate:

 The bridge by Water Willie's fountain

As you can tell the geometric of the pattern is closely connected to the Chinese Gates that I have featured here before.

This is the Roman Bridge, which has been fully restored recently as part of the 2015 - 2035 plan for the Estate. Note the fast flowing water today after a full day of rain yesterday. The river was wild!

And here another glimpse of the Allan Ramsay monument erected in honour of that Scottish poet and prominent figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. This is still to be restored, but it's my favourite feature of the Designed Landscape of the estate. 

View

The prompt on Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood for today is: View. Fortunately I had been taking some good view pictures during the past beautifully sunny days because today the rain is unrelenting. In fact my weather app tells me the chance of rain for every hour of the day is 100% and so far it has been right! Flora is no mood for long walks in the rain. In fact she is very fastidious about getting wet! Hopefully though we will get out at some stage during the day.

The above view is taken in our own little lane, looking south towards West Linton village with the Borders hills in the far distance. I love having the sheep and lambs in the foreground.

And this view was taken in Penicuik Estate during one of our recent walks. If you look carefully you can see Penicuik House nestled against the Pentland Hills. Again I love adding interest to the foreground, yellow gorse in this case.

Growth

Growth is our prompt today on Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood. It's an ideal time to see things grow here in the Scottish Borders where spring is in full swing. Lots of plants have started to flower but first there is this amazing structure which is filled to the brim with caterpillars. Sadly I can't picture the movement going on inside but little creatures are wriggling away like mad. They make a silken web for protection, mainly on haw- and blackthorn bushes. Most likely they are members of  the Small Ermine moth family

yellow iris

wild valerian

And then there is the hawthorn, spreading it's bridal veil like flowers everywhere. Above in the Penicuik Estate (like all the pictures above)

And also by the railway bridge closer to home. 

Shadow

Our Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood prompt today was: Shadow.  These pictures were all taken by the river in the Penicuik Estate.

Light

 How to capture light? That was the challenge today on Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood. Yet again the day, or at least this morning, was perfect as the sun was out in intervals. The above is the view from the south side of Penicuik House through the lime walk and the Chinese Gates towards the Allan Ramsay monument. I have featured it here before but that was when there were no leaves on the tree yet, and at a different time of day. Now there was a splash of light to enhance the scene, that is my most favourite view in the Penicuik Estate.

 Another beautiful spotlight of sunshine fell just above the Low Pond unto the bridge in the distance.

I loved this play of sunshine on the many wildflowers and the river in the distance. So much texture in this picture!

The river is a bit closer here and the sunlight sparkles through the trees beautifully. It was an ideal day to search for and find the light.

Boundaries

There are some days that defy description, where words fail and when the feelings inside manifest in wetness on your face. Today was one of those.

Our prompt for Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood was: boundary. Thank you to Nathalie Kalbach for such a great theme and to the universe for providing the ideal day for boundary hunting. Above a picture of the first boundary, that between the Scottish Borders where we live and Midlothian where Penicuik Estate is located (only 7 miles away). The imagery on the sign refers to the days of the reivers. They were basically cattle thieves in the disputed lands between Scotland and England and are still commemorated in many towns of the Borders by so-called Common Ridings.

The boundary above is in our own little lane and consists of a tumbling down stone wall as well as barbed wire.

In the Penicuik Estate there are so many different boundaries and thanks to the prompt I kept an eye out for all for them. First of all there is this old wooden gate, with in the background the Pentland Hills.

 The Walled Garden is surrounded by boundary walls as well as the cottage set within the wall. 

As the weather was gorgeous and quite unlike the forecast we went adventuring into the woods, climbed up a steep incline and ended up in this luscious wild flower meadow. There were stiles to get in and out for us humans and a special little wire gate for doggies!

Once at the top we reached the boundary wall around the estate with magnificent views towards the Pentland Hills and the houses of Penicuik town.

The final wonderful discovery was this obelisk build into the wall. I have no idea what it signifies,  but it could have been part of a gate because we found metal brackets embedded into the stone. We have passed this place before but had never spotted this feature as it's so well hidden in the trees. But because I was so focussed on boundaries today my eye fell upon it.

Climbing over, under and across actual boundaries does wonders for overcoming mental boundaries too. I felt so relaxed and happy with my two strolling companions in tow. It was a glorious afternoon's walk that will live long in the memory.

Subtle

We have been watching this field of barley with surprise. One day the field on the edge of the Penicuik Estate was ploughed earth and it seemed that like the next day the barley had sprung out of the ground as if by magic.  All those lovely greens together look very subtle so I choose this picture for that prompt today on Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood.  Monochromatic colour schemes are so soothing.

However by slightly lifting the camera (phone in this case) up a bit higher the picture can become quite dramatic. It was a windy day and a cloudy one too today as you can tell.

More drama followed as we walked along the edge of the field to come eye to eye with this poster. I must hastily add that we are religious about picking up after Flora (and all our previous dogs) and I have in fact recently placed an order for 1000 biodegradable poo bags so that should keep Flora going for awhile. Nevertheless I was interested to know where these watchers were hiding or if there were cameras strategically placed in among the barley. If there were, they were indeed well hidden.

This sign too seems to have arisen as magically as the barley, otherwise I would have used it for the Sign prompt earlier. It was very arresting to say the least.