An art exhibition and a weekend away.

On Friday John and I visited the National Gallery in London to see the, Siena: The Rise of Painting exhibition. Friday was very hot and although we visited in the morning the underground (tube) was unpleasant, with too many people and struggling air conditioning. In Trafalgar Square there was a free musical being performed in preparation for the weekend. They were singing Meatloaf songs so I joined in with everyone till we reached the gallery. West End Live takes place over the weekend and top west End shows would be performing. You can see the recordings from the weekend Here

As the name of the exhibition suggests the artwork was old but very good, with work from 1300 to 1350.  The exhibition was organised by the National Gallery  London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Much of the art was 'devotional' and there were a lot of painting and statues of saints and the Virgin Mary. This period is the beginning of Renaissance. I didn't take many picture as the gallery was very dimly lit to protect the artwork. 

This first piece is a small diptych of the glorification of the Virgin and the Crucifixion. Pairing the two was quite common at the time. This piece is made of ivory, very small and delicate which is what drew me to it.

My second choice is a triptych with the Virgin and Child, Saint Dominic and Saint Aurea on either side and  Patriarchs and Prophets above the Virgin. This was painted by Duccio in 1312- 15? and it is considered one of his finest work.

There were some textiles in the exhibition that I was interested in . The age of the pieces was fascinating. How had they survived so long?

This piece of textile, faded red silk with a large palmette design was from central Asia and was made in the late 13th to mid 14th century . This type of textile was highly prized. Unfortunately the photo doesn't do justice to the beauty of this piece of textile.

Next is a carpet that would have been used indoors and outdoors for ceremonial furnishings. Carpets like this were very expensive, luxury items and integral to royal interiors. These carpets led artists to include them in their artwork to show the importance of the Virgin Mary and the saints.

The remaining textile were small scraps of fabric but still managed to show the beauty of the design. Unfortunately they did not show up well on photos as the rooms were dark and although you could take photos, flash was not allowed. You will have to take my word that they were delicate and very beautiful. 

John had wanted to visit this exhibition and we had added it into our weekend itinerary as it was finishing on June 22.  Later in the day we left London for our weekend away. We usually stop on the way to visit somewhere or something but this time we drove directly to our hotel.

On Saturday we decided to visit Montacute House. This is a National Trust property in South Somerset. The Elizabethan house was built at the end of the 16th Century. Currently only the ground floor of the house is open but it also has a beautiful garden and parkland. We visited the house first. We took a walk through the parkland and looked back towards the house to take this photo,

The house had a lot of windows of varying sizes and shapes. It made the interior nice and light.

The tapestry below is a copy of the original tapestry from the house. It is interesting as it depicts many items of wildlife from around the world, putting animal and birds together when in reality the lived in different countries.

In one room there was some beautiful tapestry. The light in this room was very dim to help preserve the tapestry

Having visited the house we decided to take one of the parkland walks and so headed off to go to the top of St Michael's Hill. The day was rather warm for walking up steep hills so we took it slowly. When we reached the top we had a good view of the surrounding area, although there was a heat haze. There was a variety of wildflowers to enjoy and the gentle hum of bees.

At the top of the hill there was a folly or Prospect Tower which stands at 60 feet tall, and was built in 1760 

We walked back down to the village and we headed to the cafe for tea and cake before returning to our hotel.  It was a very enjoyable day out.

On Sunday we visited Midsommer Quilting, my favourite quilt shop. Whether I need fabric or not this is a must when I am in the area. I did buy some fabric.

This slow stitching fabric was just too cute to miss. I don't have a plan for it yet but I have several ideas in my head.

My final purchase was this white transfer paper. I'm hoping this will be very useful for transferring sashiko patterns. It is expensive but will be worth it if it works well.

We had  slow journey home, stopping here and there as we fancied. I love our weekends away together.

Take care

Lyndsey

Trains, cars and graffiti on Father's Day

Last Sunday was Father's day in the UK and we were invited to lunch by older daughter and family. It was decided that we would meet at Hampton Kempton Waterworks Railway as they were having an open day and there would be model railways on display. As John and our son are currently building an N gauge model railway, they could pick up tips that could be helpful. The parking for the event was underneath the flyover that takes the A316 into London. Parking was a little tight because of the number of visitors but we enjoyed the graffiti world that had been painted. Obviously not all graffiti is created equal, some areas were an awful mess and obviously done by someone learning the skills while others were amazing. It certainly brightened up the area. My favourite is the second picture.

Once in the railway we had to have a ride or two in the trains including on the miniature train.

There were also stationary trains you could climb on.

In the engine shed there were several train layouts set up and running. Some OO gauge, some N gauge and some where the person had created their own trains to suit what they wanted.

and the other end of the same display.

On our way back to the car we checked out the old cars on display.

The MG roadster bought back memories of my father. At one point he owned a roadster painted in British racing green. He later changed it for an MGBGT which he was still driving right up till he died. His car was his pride and joy.

We all enjoyed our outing and lunch was delicious. Both John and our son in law enjoyed their father's day. 

Today John and I are going to an art exhibition and then travelling to Somerset for a weekend away. I need to check my camera battery is fully recharged.

Take care

Lyndsey

Wednesday Progress and an outing

Midweek already and projects are slowly moving forward. The week so far has been busy so I've looked forward to my evenings with some slow stitching. I have finished another block for the frog quilt. At the weekend we went on a coach trip to Lakenheath Fen nature reserve and I completed the stitchery on the journey home.

I also made a start on the next stitchery.

These little frogs are a lot of fun to stitch. I decided to try and stitch one a month. I'm making this quilt because I liked the pattern but it doesn't have an identified home to go to when it's finished. Here's a reminder of what it should look like when it's finished. In the pattern all stitcheries are completed in green but I like to use additional colours.

Yesterday evening I completed the first of the sashiko panels on the Japanese quilt. In the end I had to use the white ink pen for marking the pattern as it gave the clearest image. My pattern source book told me the order for the stitching, first stitch the vertical lines and then the horizontal. You don't stop and start for each line but move across to the lines you need to stitch by passing the thread behind the work. The stitching is also done with double thread. I managed to keep my stitch length fairly even but there are a few 'dodgy' stitches.

Meanwhile the front band of my knitting is growing slowly. The 364 stitches are knitted in knit 2 purl 2 rib so I'm finding that knitting this part is very slow. The front band has to be 14 cm wide and I've completed 4cm, so I've a long way to go still. However I want this cardigan finished this month.

On Saturday John and I went on a bird watching trip to Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk. Lakenheath itself is home to a large RAF (Royal Air Force) station. Although it's an RAF base it currently only hosts United States Air Force (USAF) units and military personnel. If you want more information about the base Click Here . RAF Mildenhall, which is in the same area also hosts USAF.

On Saturday the weather was beautiful, sunny and warm with a gentle breeze. The reserve itself is long and thin in shape and this meant there was a fair amount of walking involved. Over the day we walked 7 miles. We particularly wanted to get a sighting of a hobby and we were delighted to see 5 of them. 

Credit: FLPA / Alamy Stock Photo

Hobby's are part of the falcon family and are native to the UK. Their preferred habitat is open woodland, farmland, grassland and wetland. The reserve filled all of these requirements and had plenty of food for them. Their preferred dinner is small birds, dragonflies and other flying insect. There was a profusion of dragonflies and damsel flies around, particularly over the water. The adult hobby has no known predators, maybe because they are very quick and acrobatic birds. We enjoyed watching their ariel display.

We saw a lot of birds but I was enjoying taking photos of the flowers. The water lilies were close to opening.

The Egyptian geese were trying to find crumbs that had been dropped from peoples sandwiches, as this was a favourite refuelling spot for humans.

There were quite a few clumps of rape with their bright yellow flowers.

Creeping thistle was also fairly prevalent.

This one is cow parsley which is very common along the roadside and woodland areas. I also found out over the weekend that it's a member of the carrot family.

The tufted vetch was pretty.

 This one I knew as  'Grandmother pop out of bed' when I was a young child. The real name is hedge bindweed. Other names for this plant are bellbind and Rutland beauty. I like the bee in the lower flower, it was very busy collecting pollen. Being me I had to find a flower that I could make the petals pop out of bed.

The Elder was in flower. Mmm I like elderflower or elderberry wine! Way back in my younger lifetime I used to make wine from a wide range of berries and fruits.

The last photo is of common mallow. They are such pretty flowers 

This evening I'm going to do some work on the crocheted blanket if it doesn't overheat me since today was very hot and is only now cooling down. I hope it cools enough to enjoy a good night's sleep!

Take care 

Lyndsey