White roses for White Wednesday.

I love roses, you can tell from my blogs. I especially love white roses so when I collected some lichen covered branches and twigs whilst walking I knew that they would look so pretty  together.

These branches are covered in silvery blue lichens. Lots of branches here in Devon are covered in these amazing colours, I think its our damp clean air. that encourages them to grow.
                        

                                         These were my inspiration.

                                         So I bought these.

            Found these baskets, lined them with cellophane and added wet floral foam.

                               I arranged the roses and the twigs into this little display.

                                                 White roses for White Wednesday.
                                                            Enjoy, xox Angela.

A tour of The Dartington Estate

I promised you all a walk around the gardens of The Dartington Estate near Totnes in Devon.

It's a calm and peaceful place which I love.

This is the entrance to the gardens. The arch leads to a beautiful quadrangle with The Great Hall at the end.

                               I love this building, it looks like something from a Harry Potter film.

This is the long border as you walk into the garden. Those conifers are kept well clipped I think there are twelve. They look like a row of fat ladies sitting on the grass. The colour scheme on the herbacious border is yellow and blue. It is a really nice place to sit when the sun is shining.

The colours on trees are so pretty, the leaves made a wonderful frilly carpet underfoot.

            Aren't Cyclamen great, they start to flower when all around is starting to sleep for the winter.

                                                                                 

There are even signs of some things waking up, amongst the lichens are the buds of the witchhazel waiting to open and send out there amazing perfume on those bare winter branches.

                                                                                  

This hydrangea flower is a gorgeous shade of lilac, I so wanted to bring it home.

The last bit of the walk takes you past these fabulous old trees, hollow inside but carefully maintained and still majestic.  They stand next to a Henry Moore sculpture.

This lady has her back to those twelve fat ladies sitting on the grass.

I collected some lichen covered branches and twigs on my walk. Check in on White Wednesday and I'll show you how I used them.

Best of all there's a pub in the grounds, it's a good place to sit and enjoy a coffee before the drive home.

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of autumn in Devon!

xox Angela.

Autumn Smiles.

I love Autumn. the colours, the leaves crunchy underfoot, walks along the coast with chiily winds and sunshine. Yes that's all for me!

I had a heart attack 16 months ago and since then have really discovered the pleasures of walking.
Every morning I walk along the 'Downs' which is only a couple of minutes from my apartment.

Heres the view, it looks different everyday depending on the light.

You can see there was a big cliff fall last summer the house above is very precarious. Our soil is this amazing red, it even gives us 'pink' sheep.
The trees here are quite late changing colour as we had plenty of rain in the summer and a mild October without many frosts.
I saw this tree on my way home, isn't it just glorious, looks like butter melting on hot toast. Can't eat that nowadays. never mind this is better.

I'm nearly home now ready to enjoy a Latte, skimmed milk of course.
 These leaves covered in rain drops were shining on the path.

Aren't they beautiful, I have an idea for a necklace based on these. I'll start it in the New Year!

The weather is great for walking today so I'm going to the Dartington Estate to walk around there gardens. I'll take my camera and give you a tour.

Have a great day,
xox Angela.

My Wednesday Whites.

I'm joining Kathleen at Faded Charm for White Wednesday.

I found this chippy enamel shovel at our local recycling centre. People were rummaging around looking for bargains and not giving this a second look. I picked it up and smiled, what a treasure!

I have had this exquisite ladies handkerchief in my drawer wondering whether to use it in my work.  I have decided it's much too beautiful to cut up or sew with.

These Roses are really white and look so lovely alongside the Alstomerias with their centres that almost look as if they've been painted on by a clever artist.

Finally in todays tablescape is this rather ornate Grand Piano. My brother is a piano tuner and restorer trained by Steinway in London. He has spent over forty years looking after the pianos of famous musicians, pop stars and even Royalty. My mother was very proud of him and had a big collection of decorative pianos, this was her favourite. I don't know anything about it but maybe someone out there in blog land can tell me.
Meanwhile if you have a piano that needs a little 'Magic' working on it , I know just the man.

Have a great White Wednesday everyone.  
xox Angela.                

Moses Peter.

I would like to tell you about a cheery white haired gentleman who has become famous in the Bay.

 He sits all day on a bench between Torquay and Paignton smiling and waving at all the passing traffic. He carrys a staff and dons a headband and beads to spread happiness and good will. He has been featured in our local paper and has even hit the nationals.

 Now he even has his own facebook page and has become world famous. Rumour has it that he will be switching on the Christmas lights.

He makes everyone smile and we miss him when hes not around.

Check out Moses Peter on facebook.

This lovely chap prefers to remain a mystery and will only say ' I want to spread love joy and happiness. Well he's certainly doing that!

One amazing woman.

Since joining KC Willis Collage Camp I have been planning more work and thinking about all the inspiring women who could feature in my future work.

As I pondered on such women,'Florence Nightingale', 'Marie Curie'And even 'Coco Chanel' I also thought about what a great woman my mother was.

She was born one of nine children and her early life was hard. She told tales of being sent to a home because she was so underweight and being given spoonfuls of cod liver oil and malt extract. Eeuk!

Here she is aged sixteen. This would have been in 1940.

  She worked for various wealthy families in her home city of Sheffield, all of whom seemed to be fond of her. She talked about these people often and had many memories.

When WW2 broke out she joined the Wrens. Some of her training was in Scotland, she was then stationed in Southhampton and drove launches.

She recounted tales of being alongside American ships to collect the crew and being given lots of luxuries(soft white bread) that wasn't seen in war torn Britain.

On one occasion she was reprimanded for giggling when she took part in a march past the King.

  

                                    Here she is happy and smiling, my favourite picture of her.

                                         This picture was taken aboard a Polish Destroyer.

          She was very proud of her Navy days and treasured her badges, beret and service medal.

 I think these days were some of her happiest if her stories are anything to go by.   

After the war she met and married my Dad,  I was born on Christmas Day 1948 at 11.55pm by C Section and my brother was born in 1951.

  I always remember her as a hard working lady , who's favourite phrase was to hurry up and do the work so that we could sit and do nothing .     

Unfortunately she got her wish as she was diagnosed with Dementia and spent the last years of her life in a nursing home sitting doing nothing and being beautifully cared for.   

A brave woman to the end suffering the indignity of dementia but also leaving her brain to Medical Science so that research could be done to discover more.

Eventually we found out that she had a rare form of dementia and the scientists were so grateful for her donation.        

So that was my Mum, a great lady who would be the first to say she didn't always get it right but she loved her children, she loved her dogs and she loved life!                      

Lilla's Noel Banner.

I've been watching Lillas fabulous tutorial and look what I made.

 It's a pretty Christmas banner in just the right colours to match my room.

Lilla posted a video tutorial which was so easy to follow, it was in three parts and really well explained. It was great to see her work space and hear her voice. I think I could hear the birds outside her house too, all the way here in England.

I liked my first attempt so much I made another one for my friend Liz in Winchester.

I made little ribbon roses to stitch on the letters then added some buttons and pearls. I just walked to the Post Office and sent it. I'm sure she will have a nice surprise when she opens it.

So, a big 'THANK YOU'  Lilla and please can you do a similar tutorial on your beautiful Tussie Mussies.

xox

 Angela.