The secret garden

A while ago I did a commission for a friend of 12 "secret garden" bookmarks. At the time I made an extra one.... just in case..... and I've decided to make this extra one into a pendant/necklace, instead of a bookmark.


Silver bookmarks don't tend to sell very well, so instead, it is a reversible pendant. If you feel a bit mysterious one day, you can wear it with the garden gate showing and keep the back a secret....


and if you are feeling "rosey" you can wear it the other way and show the roses growing up over the gate!


I'll be putting it on my websites when I get back. I've missed creating... I'll be happy to be back in my studio later this week....

Sunday's spotlight - Quentin visits Lincoln

By guest blogger Pete.

The world renown quail, Quentin, paid a visit to his favourite UK city - namely Lincoln - this last week-end.

No sooner had he finished his first cup of coffee when an emergency call came through for him to venture once more into the Antarctic wastes of Lincoln's Boultham Park in an effort to rescue three lost walkers. A quick email to Superman to assure him that all was well, a second cup of coffee and he was off, waving goodbye as he disappeared into the white-out. It always amazes Quentin that some people - even his special friends, Ruth and John - can be so foolish as to venture forth for exercise when the snow lays "deep and crisp " and now very "even".

But our intrepid world wide traveller knows no fear and was soon wrestling his way through icy snow drifts in the dying light of a winter's afternoon, with no thought for his own safety - only for the three foolish ones he had set his mind on finding.

Led by (out of shot) Quentin, the three foolish people return safely.

No radio communication was possible in such terrible and inhospitable weather so a concerned Pete remained at base camp keeping a worried lookout for the three foolish ones and their rescuer.

After what seemed to be an eternity the courageous Quentin was seen leading the "TFOs" back into the safety of base camp. Here, seeking no other reward but a fourth mug of coffee, Quentin quietly and modestly and without any remarks concerning the behaviour of the "TFOs", accepted their thanks and settled down for a pre cocktail hour nap.

Led by Ruth, they all thank Quentin for his rescue.

One of Quentin's unpublished New Year Resolutions for 2010 is to learn to skate. So a modest ice rink was provided for his enjoyment. Numerous falls failed to put Quentin off. At one time he stood still for so long a time posing for photographs that he froze to the ice.

Quentin discovers that skating is not all that easy!

However, Quentin's travails were not over yet. A sauna was provided for his enjoyment after the ice skating episode ........

Quentin watches as his sauna is prepared

and he plunged into the deep end completely forgetting that he didn't know how to swim. Thus another New Year Resolution was made - learn how to swim.

Quentin forgets that he can't swim, even in a sauna!

But nothing deters our Quentin and on Monday afternoon he set off into the snow on yet another expedition - this time taking two novices (Ruth and John) with him. His mission was to rescue two more thoughtless ones - Matt and Peter (NOT Pete) - from their snow bound home and escort them safely back to their school.

Quentin gets a helping hand.

As I write this Matt is fifteen years old today - Happy Birthday, Matt. The snow's given him a day off school as a special present. In my day, I remember that when I was fifteen I .............................. All right. I'll shut up.

Enjoy the snow. It's all a part of global warming!

Ubiquitous Quentin

That Quentin quail seems to be everywhere. There I was in Lincoln with him and my parents (as you'll see in Sunday's blog) and then I get these photos from my nephew in Watford (look carefully on the snowman's head, near the birdland merlot logo cap!!).


You just can't keep a good quail down!

Thanks Peter for looking after him and letting him join in the snowy fun!


Don't see him on the trampoline with you...but then he is only small....


Heading down to see my nephews Matt and Peter today, and of course Mary and Fin...and whatever Quentins might be there.

Snowed in!

We had planned to meet up with some friends today whom we initially met on vacation in the Galapagos Islands nearly 5 years ago. We try and meet up once a year when we come over to the UK and catch up on what everyone has been up to....But alas, today it didn't happen. Too much snow!

The branches as we look out of the window

Yes, things pretty much came to a stand still in England today. The country just doesn't cope well with snow as it happens so infrequently. There aren't lots of snow ploughs which stand idle for years and then all rush out on the rare occasions it is snowy! And no one is used to driving in snow so it all gets a bit scary on the roads.

Cheltenham Ladies College - they were still at school today but not many other schools were!!

So we just stayed home instead and wandered into town to do some shopping - only to find that most of the shops were shut. Yes, the snow fall was about 15 cm (6 inches) here - but a bit more in other parts of the country. In our New Hampshire days (we lived there for about 5 years), 6 inches of snow wouldn't have even warranted comment.

Some family are coming around for dinner tonight so we checked a few restaurants and most of them have decided to close for the night!!!

Gustav Holst conducting in the snow!

We heard a funny story on the radio too about this woman in Scotland who went shopping for a turkey on Christmas Eve - and still hasn't come home! A snowstorm came in and even now, she's not made it back to her husband! She's been staying in a friend's caravan for the last couple of weeks!! The good part is that the turkey is still frozen so won't have gone off!!!! They still don't know when the roads will be cleared for her to get back! I bet her husband is hungry!


So wherever you are - enjoy being home and warm!

New Year's Resolutions

By guest blogger Quentin Quail.

Quentin here! How are you? Hope you are all keeping well.

Happy New Year to you all! Wishing you lots of good times in 2010.

I've been thinking hard about some new year resolutions so I thought I'd write them down in the blog and then maybe I'll be more inclined to keep them! So here goes:

1. Blog more frequently
2. Travel to new places
3. Make my bed every morning
4. Redecorate my house and not worry about what the neighbors think
4. Make new friends
5. Fly over a rainbow
6. Learn to cook
7. Drink more Birdland Merlot
8. Make someone smile everyday.

Have you written yours? Do tell me what they are.....

Rose Windows

I'm up at my parents house now in Lincoln. (I know, you'd never have guessed they lived in Lincoln after reading my dad's regular Sunday blog posts! I'm sure you know now more about Lincoln than most people in England do!)


Anyhow - we had our belated Christmas present giving last night so I can now show you what I made my mum.


I made her some earrings and necklace designed from the rose window at Grace cathedral, San Francisco. She seems to wear her other arched church window earrings quite a lot so thought she might like these and feel close to me, when I sing at Grace.


The "glass" is hand colored resin. She has very sensitive ears so only likes the really fine wires. I'm not a great fan of this style of ear wire, but they seem to work well for her ..... Having the resin as a large part of the design also means the earrings are very lightweight, which helps too.


The light shines nicely through them as you wear them in your ears.

Woke up this morning - and she was wearing them! Guess that's a good sign!

Sunday's Spotlight - The Olympics come to Lincoln!

By guest blogger Pete.

Yes, you have read that correctly. Lincoln sets the pace for the rest of the country to follow - often takes them a bit of time (like 2012) but they get there eventually!

Our Olympics weren't affected at all by the weather. We're tough folk here and snow or frost, gales and floods don't put us off. Everyone was present for the opening ceremony first event and everyone stayed to enjoy the rich triumphant closing celebrations. We even had medals! Who has ever heard of an Olympics where there weren't medals? We do things properly in this part of the world.


Our Olympics were the Christmas celebrations of the CAMEO Club. I've mentioned this Club before but in case you've forgotten (not, coming from Lincoln and all that) CAMEO stands for "Come and Meet Each Other". In our events 80+ years olds competed with teenagers and some won gold medals. The events we had were things like the "200 yard Puff". Teams are given a balloon and without using their hands they have to blow it between the legs of a chair - there is only ONE chair so the fun starts when they all arrive at the chair at the same time. High Jump is a spelling contest, with a word added to each spelling requirement per round (i.e. 5 letters, then 6 then 7, etc.).. An 84 year old lady won this so walked away with a gold medal. The Javelin was an even where straws were thrown; the hammer was throwing a opened paper handkerchief; the Marathon was equated with bouncing a tennis ball and there were various other events to test people's talents. I first used this idea when teaching English to 13 year olds, where events were equated with English language skills. If you want further details then please contact me through the "COMMENTS" link on this blog.


On a more serious note, the really good news that greeted Lincoln folk and which made the ending of 2009 so joyful was the release of a Lincoln man, Peter Moore. Peter was an I.T. financial consultant working in Iraq and had been held hostage for 946 days. As you can imagine, he was under tremendous pressure during that captivity and that continued right up to his actual release. He commented that as he was taken to be released he was convinced that, in actual fact, he was about to be assassinated.


A candle has been burning 24 hours every day of Peter's captivity. The Bishop of Lincoln, in a broadcast this morning, said it would be kept alight so that when Peter returned to Lincoln he could extinguish it. The only but very real sadness connected to the event was that Peter's four bodyguards were all executed.


It's New Year's Eve as I write this blog. The photos are from a recent visit to Kew Gardens - I know - not the most seasonal...but maybe they'll get you thinking of spring, just around the corner.....

I wish you all a blessed and very happy New Year. Keep on hoping, as Peter, his parents and so many folk in Lincoln and Lincolnshire, did.

Towers and perspectives

We went on a lovely walk yesterday with some of the family around Prestbury, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. It was a crisp cold day but the sun was shining and the sky was blue! There were many stiles to climb over, little streams of water to paddle through and mud to slide in. It was a great walk.


About half way through, we walked past Hotel de la Bere. This was built in 1485 as a manor house. The architecture is lovely with many different parts, including chapels and towers and...


The tower seemed to catch the attention of all of us.....and it was so funny to hear our perspectives.....one of them was "just think how many apartments we could squeeze into that".....another was "think of the heating bill to keep that place warm"....and "how would you find anyone in there"....but mine was "what a nice necklace that tower design would make!".


Interesting to see how diverse we all think looking at the same thing!

Just before I came on this UK trip, I re-took some photos of some of my pieces of jewelry, and the photos here show the triangular tower necklace that I made a while ago. Mmm maybe its time for the triangular tower to move over and a La Bere one is on it's way....

Harold's radio debut!

Today is Harold's radio debut! Yes, Harold my parrot is singing his favourite song on Voicebox.


Voicebox is a new public radio program dedicated to the art of singing. The series is launching today, January 1st 2010 on KALW 91.7FM from 10pm - 11pm (US Pacific time).

My friend Chloe Veltman is the program's host and producer. For the first show in this series, she asked her friends to send a short iphone recording of themselves as they sang in the shower. I decided to have Harold join in with mine (but he didn't come in the shower!) and so we sang his favorite song "you are my sunshine". I sing this to him just about every morning. His lovely voice - with fabulous vibrato impressed Chloe so much that she informs us that Harold has a starring role in the show.

The only sad part is that I am in the UK and so not sure if I can hear the show. There is a live web stream on KALW.org...but even that will be in the early hours of the morning....so I hope you'll listen in on my behalf... And I did tell Harold's pet sitter about the show - so maybe she will listen to it with Harold while we are away. Harold loooooooves listening to his own voice recorded! He gets extremely excited.

Anyhow - maybe this is the start of a new career for Harold. What a way to begin the new year!!!

So listen out for Harold...and if you miss today's show, Voicebox will have a regularly slot on Friday nights at 10 pm so maybe you can tune in for the others. Here's what is planned for the next couple of months:
Why do we sing? – January 1, 2010 10pm, KALW, 91.7 FM
Do human beings have an innate ability to sing? When people say they can’t sing, should we believe them?

The inimitable Ella Fitzgerald – January 8, 2010 10pm KALW, 91.7 FM
America’s First Lady of Song changed the face of jazz vocals. VoiceBox explores the story behind the voice.

Hooray for Community Choruses, January 15, 2010 10pm KALW 91.7 FM
There are more than 500 choruses in the Bay Area and one in five Americans sings in a choir. Why are Americans so passionate about singing for pleasure?

Men with high voices, January 22, 2010 10pm KALW 91.7 FM
Once upon a time, countertenors wouldn’t go about publicizing the fact that they sang high. These days, male sopranos and altos are kings of the classical and pop worlds.

Mavens of Cabaret, January 29, 2010 10pm KALW, 91.7 FM
VoiceBox explores the vocal pyrotechnics of the smoothest cabaret artists from the Bay Area and beyond.

Thanks Chloe!

Hope you enjoy my sweetie Harold!

Yeah, Harold! You're a star!

In terra pax...

My wishes go out to you all for a happy and healthy 2010. Enjoy your celebrations.

And as this necklace says - "In terra pax" - "On earth, peace."
The music is from Handel's Gloria.

Merry Go Round - These are a few of my favourite things

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 9 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month's topic for discussion is: "These are a few of my favourite things"
...yes like the song from the Sound of Music: "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens"....its a chance to look back at what we've created this year and see which are our favourites.

The favourite piece I created this year was my "Be as a bird" bracelet, depicting the Victor Hugo poem. The sad part of it is that I never sold this piece. I sold quite a few other bracelets of similar designs, but not this poem one. I made one for myself and I wear it everyday. I just love it - but for whatever reason, it's not appealed to anyone else enough for them to buy it.....but it doesn't make me like it any less! And it's quite an ambassador for my jewelry as I always wear it so show it to a lot of people!


Now the fun part! I want to show you some of my favourite things created by the other merry go rounders.

First Fabienne. One choice is easy! She made a ring of a merry go round! And now it's mine ;=D Thanks Fabienne. Take a look - it's wild!!..and the horses even twirl!



My other favorite is this beautiful amethyst pendant - it shows off the beauty and intricacy of her work, and the lovely colour combinations.


Wendren: I just love her little bird pouches. She has them in many different fabrics and they are just so sweet.


Here are two pieces each from Sara and Jenny:

I just love Sara's sheep and little flowers and the freshness of the green bags by Jenny really catches my eye.

Here's one of Charlotte's beautiful adorned textile jewelry pieces:

Just wonderful colour combinations...such richness...

And Marian who seems to be able to turn her hand at everything! Here is a corsage in felt and one of my favorite paintings of hers:

And here is a ring made from metal clay by Agathe! This was her first attempt at metal clay and I love the little salamander. Hopefully she'll get around to making more things in metal clay next year. Also, two gorgeous laptop covers from Lily - the owl one I have on my laptop and the hummingbird one is so delicate and pretty - just like the birds.


So I wonder what we'll all be up to in 2010? What new directions will we take? What new skills will we learn???? You'll just have to keep coming back to our merry blogs to find out! Yes, we normally post on the last Friday of the month, but as that is New Year's Day, we decided to post a little earlier this week.

I hope you'll check on the links below and see everyone else's favourites. Charlotte is busy moving house and business so can't post this month - but I keep her link there, as it's always great to check out her blog!

Fabienne at Easterya http://easterya.blogspot.com
Wendren at Wren http://thewrendesign.com/
Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com
Marian at Florcita http://www.florcita.eu
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com
Charlotte at FancyPicnic http://fancypicnic.blogspot.com
Lily Pang at Lily Pang Art http://lilypangart.blogspot.com
Jenny at Jenny Karlsson design http://designjennykarlsson.blogspot.com

Heading out

Heading out today....going back to England for a couple of weeks to see the family.


Hopefully the airport and flight will be OK - but we are allowing plenty of extra time for check-in etc.


I'll still be blogging - and maybe Quentin will too, as he's coming along! Tomorrow is our Merry Go Round post (Tuesday instead of Friday as Friday is New Year) - so hope you'll come back and read that.

The two pieces shown - the plane and car - are early pieces I made, soon after I started working with metal clay!

Sunday's spotlight - Dancing Santas but not around our Christmas Tree

By guest blogger Pete.

In last week's blog I wrote to you about our adventures with the real Christmas tree that I had been entrusted to obtain. However, last week's episode wasn't the complete picture because, as everyone knows, Christmas trees, real or artificial, need decorations and lights. We do have some but these have been used for years to beautify the artificial tree we erect in the lounge. It must be something like ten years since we last bought those lights for the artificial tree (and a very realistic artificial one it is) and no mean achievement that they're still lighting on demand.


The best place to buy Christmas tree lights in Lincoln is from a large D.I.Y. store on the outskirts of the city. Thus it was to this D.I.Y. Nirvana that Pam and I set off. Upon arrival we were met by an astonishing array of tree lights for outdoor use, indoor use and for both outdoor and indoor use. Now this visit took place some 3 weeks of so before Christmas so imagine our surprise when we found that the store has sold out of a large proportion of their lights, even some of those on display, Talk about "whetting the appetite"! However, the good news was that the remaining lights had been reduced by 50% so, consoling ourselves with this information, we bought two sets of lights from the real tree.


Christmas decorations and ornaments of the non lighting up variety were in abundance in this store. I soon had all the Fr Christmases "ho, ho, hoing", the reindeer rocking to jazzed up Christmas carols and assorted other animals doing various things. Well, there was a little sticker on them inviting me to "press here"! Every one of these ornaments had the common feature of a Christmas carol but here they were all different and playing at differing times so by the time we had some dancing Santas doing their stuff on the store floor we'd gathered quite an appreciative audience around us. The staff at "B & Q" - the D.I.Y. store in question - were most understanding about the eccentric behaviour of this elderly customer and even seemed to enjoy the fun.


The school children came to church, just before the end of their term, for the annual Christingle Service. For those unfamiliar with the Christingle idea, the children collect money for "The Children's Society" and, in return, they're given a Christingle. Now a Christingle is an orange with a candle stuck into the top. There is a red band around the middle of the orange and wooden tooth picks with sultanas, raisins and sweets on them, stuck into that orange. The orange represents the world and the candle the light that Christ brings into that world. The red band is for the blood of Christ shed for us and the goodies on the tooth picks are for the fruits of the earth given to us by God. The usual (dangerous sometimes) custom is that the candles are lit but with such young children it was thought best to light only the candles for the 6th year children, which a teacher, with a lot of puff, blew out after each child had walked about ten yards to where she was standing. Every child, however, was given a Christingle. It was a very happy occasion for everyone there.


The photos this week are of computer paintings. Hope you enjoy them.


Remember the Christmas season goes on until January 6th so keep on celebrating Christ's birth.