Rainbow cobwebs, puckering moons and raspberry smoothies

Raspberries galore in our garden :~))))))

with Kefir for breakfast

Blended with Kefir into a smoothy

It has taken a little perseverance for me to get to like Kefir.....but it's been worth it; and, since our raspberries are now abundant, it is sooooo delicious poured over them and even more sooooo delicious when they're blended together....tart, and smooth and sweet and! and! and! oh!

I've come to a stop with my little Blue Moon cloth since quilting the moons. There is a big tension issue. I had stitched the back piece onto the front all around the edge before I started quilting. After I finished the moons, I took out the stitching around the edges, which improved things, but still leaves some fairly serious puckering as you can see.

I love the effect of the quilting on the back....makes me think of Jupiter's bands. I was fairly careful with each stitch...not doing the usual two to three stitches at one time...so it was slow going.....even for me! Once I'd noticed the puckering, as I quilted the first moon, I tried to take note of how tight I was pulling each stitch. I was surprised to find that I gave a little tug at the end of each one. Things improved when I stopped that 'tug', but not enough. Now I need to find out is there a magic way around this....or is it a drastic measure....take all the quilting out and start again? Slowly learning here....enjoying that.

I was so happy to see these two little friends. I hadn't seen them for a while and I missed them.They sit there like little Buddhas  with their cute feet turned inwards and their throats working  in a language I can't understand. Talking of Buddha ~ behind the little dark frog on the right......

The pond is in the shade of the Elder tree and in front of the arbour and needs cleaning...badly...but when I went to do it late last autumn, when I thought it would be empty of frogs, I had to stop, as there were still two out of the four in there and three newts, which I had not known about :~) It never ceases to amaze and delight me that we put this small pond in, waited for rain to fill it, (that is never a long wait here!), then let nature do the rest....and there is so much life in there.....even though the water is green and the bottom is probably filled with a lot of slimy, decomposing leaves. I will try again this year.....

I had a surprise visitor when I was sitting, stitching, in the sunshine in the doorway of my shed last week

She came to say hello to me briefly and I was allowed to stroke her, before she wandered off, over the fence and gave the magpies, who have a nest in the hawthorn tree over there, something of a scare. They rattattattattatt~ed at her like a machine gun. It is not often we get cat visitors here, because of Tilly~dog, so this was a most welcome and special treat.

~ Making a Start ~ Blue Moon ~

I've 'invisible' basted the moons on to this velvet piece. They are coming 

out of an eclipse...hope I am too.

I've called it Blue Moon as stitching has been that rare recently.

The two scraps are pieces from the clothes I've been de-constructing.

I think of the darker one as a dark cloud with a silver lining.

I've pinned this onto the back...liking the idea of having a sun flare 

behind the moons. Not entirely sure about it yet though...need to live

with it for a few days.

Our Boy and Tilly joined me in my shed yesterday. Tilly was

sleeping!

a

n

d

sleeping!

She trusts completely :~)

A few loved pieces in a corner of the worktop.

~ Sun Moon Stars and the Sea ~

I have been feeling rather mute recently. I don't know why, and just have to accept that sometimes this is how it is with me. The moon was full yesterday and today I  feel inspired to write a new post. Maybe her waxing pregnancy influenced my mood to be a time of quiet reflection, and now her slow waning has given birth to a creative flow. I hope so.

I'm house~sitting in one of my favourite places for a few days. This little video...my very first one :~) ....is the view I see as I sit here writing.  

I filmed a little more this morning. I couldn't resist that blue.

Life is good

Soon after we arrived, my Man spotted something other than seagulls flying low over the water ~ frequently diving in with a splash. He excitedly identified them as Gannets. I had never seen them before and was enthralled by their size, the black tipped wings and pale yellow heads, not to mention their grace in the air. We were entertained for an hour as three of them did some serious hunting for their dinner. 

At the beginning of this month I signed up for Jude's next mini whispering class in the series, Whispering Sun Moon and Stars. Her classes are relaxed, extremely informative, inspiring and encouraging and seeing the results of her students' work is testament to her teaching skills. 

I have done some preparation for the class....

....using cyanotype sun~developing on white silk to create moons, or maybe suns. The blue velvet is a piece from a table runner I've had for years and has faded to a gorgeous golden colour in some places. I was sitting in my studio tidying up its frayed edges after washing, when I noticed the similarities in its colour...including the shots of gold....to the piece of labradorite that shares my deskspace.

On Monday, I found lots of lovely cotton tops in a charity shop. It's not that often that the really good quality materials turn up, so I bought quite a few....including a couple of white fine lawn blouses.

My stitching has taken second place to gardening in the last few weeks, as I've been transplanting cucumbers, courgettes and basils into bigger pots, preparing beds and planting lettuce, runner beans and peas. Cleaning and clearing the greenhouse and planting some more lettuce and a tomato plant, and preparing for the cucumbers for when they are big enough. 

When I was weeding one of the beds, I came across a gardener's friend tucked into the corner...

Mr Toad. I was very happy to see him, and asked him to please keep the slugs under control as I hate to use slug pellets. So far, lettuce and salad~mix leaves have not been attacked....but I also left a load of borage plants that had self~seeded in there, as slugs adore their leaves, and there have been a few nibbles taken out of them, so maybe this will turn out to be a successful experiment in slug control. That would be very satisfying.

As this is a post on Sun Moon Stars and Sea.....here's one of the results of Solar Imaging from My Man...

....complete with a couple of sun~spots. This was taken from our garden. It is incredibly exciting to be able to look at the sun. This image has to cover the 'stars' part too! So far, May has been a most astronomical month.....fitting really as Taurus is one of my favourite constellations...along with Cassiopeia....time to do some join~the~dot stitching I think.