When you live a stone’s throw from the beautiful Norfolk Broads and it just seems to get hotter and hotter the only sensible place to be is on the water. Even though I grew up on a boatyard and spent most of my time on the river as a child, life took me in different directions over the years and by the time I move back to Norfolk those ties were lost.

Serendipity brought me back to the river. A friend announced she was planning to sell her boat and that the mooring went with it and suddenly all I wanted was to be back on the river, something I hadn’t done for so many years.  So we went for a run, my friend and I. It was heaven! It was a beautiful day, a light fresh breeze, rippling water and the wildlife, I was sold!  By the time my other half came home from offshore, we had bought a boat!

And not just a boat, but we were able to take over the mooring in the most idyllic spot. It’s at the end of a private property, the garden ends as the ground slopes. Through the gate and onto a boardwalk which winds towards the river through marshy woodland. Small trees, ferns, reeds and flag irises dotted through. Song birds, squirrels and the occasional deer and only the other day, a rare Swallowtail butterfly.

Then the boardwalk opens out on to the mooring. Waterlilies surround the boat ( a hazard for the prop but they grow so fast!) A birch tree overhangs the water, last year the swans nested underneath, and the ducks and geese swim up on the off chance there might be be something to eat.

Every time I walk through the gate at the top of the boardwalk I feel it’s like walking through a portal into another world, where all the cares and troubles going on around us have been magically cleared away for a few special hours.  It’s good for the soul.

We renamed the boat (despite the superstitions around doing that) and called her Malamander after our son Thomas Taylor’s children’s book series and it was lovely to have this special escape from real life.

But  Malamander was old, and T was getting stressed about the maintenance. She was great for a pootle up the river but we wanted to stay overnight. We’re both tall and the cabin height was our shoulder height! The loo was a communal experience (don’t even ask!)  We talked about another boat, we ummed and ahhed, I wasn’t well, we had almost decided to give up on a boat altogether.

Then, early in May I took a phone call. Did we want to sell Malamander? There was a prospective buyer. I prevaricated, T was out, I’d let them know.

But, but…do I really want to give up the river? Give up the magical spot at the mooring? Nooo!

By the time T got home I was on line researching boats for sale, and serendipity struck again.
We found the perfect boat at a boatyard two miles away on our second try. It was the day before the local boat show so T, always the cautious one in our ‘team’, couldn’t sleep on it or think it over, we had to go with my instant decision making and say yes.

And the name of this boat? I’ll tell you next time and show you how I’m adding some boho colour to the cabin!

See you soon…x

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I’m on a mission to reinvent the Planet Penny studio.  It’s been the artist’s ‘White Cube’ and then a dismal place to store stuff, and now it’s time in invoke The Wizard of Oz and go ‘Over the Rainbow’ and quite possibly over the top! Remember the part in the film when Dorothy steps out of her black and white world and into the colourful Land of Oz?  That. 

I tried to talk to Copilot about it but I don’t think AI and I are on the same wavelength artistically! The dachshunds are cute though.

The studio needed a new floor. The original floor did not stand up to the weight of bookcases filled with all my craft books.  When I found that as I sat at my sewing machine in my office chair (with wheels) I was rolling further and further away from the table until my foot left the pedal I knew we had to do something. It was a monumental task packing everything away to clear the floor and I kept putting it off, and off, until the builder said, I can do it next week. Eeek!

So it’s empty now. The warped bookcases have all gone, the shelves, everything.  I don’t want a  workshop anymore. I want a cosy retreat, wrapped in colour, where I can sit and create to my heart’s content. I’m pretty sure it’ll involve a dog bed, although I’ll probably be fighting for room on the sofa like I am as I type this.

I’m having loads of fun researching ideas and pinning them on my Pinterest board. I’ve found some amazing colourful ladies on social media with homes to die for who are inspiring me, and I’m collecting paint charts.

I found an image though, a picture from Poster Lounge with all the colours which make me happy and that’s what I’m basing my colour scheme around. There will be pink!

It’s not going to be a quick fix though. So far I have a tub of Polyfilla! I’ve decided to use a decorator for the painting though. M.E. means my days of climbing ladders with a brush and paint pot are behind me, I’m saving my energy for other things, like making the curtains.

The most exciting thing is a little wood burning stove. It’s called a Hobbit! I love that. It’s already made the journey across country from Salamander Stoves in Devon and is sitting waiting to be installed in the next couple of weeks.
Finlay and Fergus are going to be so happy!

I hope you’ll come along on this journey with me. I can’t wait to get back into the studio and start a new creative chapter.

see you soon…x

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Such a lovely morning at a workshop with Sarah of English Peonies learning how to make and wrap a hand tied bouquet.

My own garden is tropically green (more of that another time) and although my little back yard is awash with geraniums in pots which love the heat, the flowers I have in the flower beds have really suffered this summer.  So it was a joy to wander around Sarah’s glorious walled cutting garden where dahlias, zinnias, cosmos, roses and more were just waiting to be picked.  We wandered round with secateurs and buckets trying to decide on a colour scheme, it was like be let loose in a sweet shop!

My own attempts at growing dahlias have been largely unsuccessful due to a losing battle with slugs so it was lovely to see so many different varieties in one place. It’s strange how fashions change because only a few years ago they were rather derided.

In the end I went down the pinky mauve route while my friend opted for a vibrant mix of hot summer shades.

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Sarah passed on some useful tips on growing dahlias, and helping survive the slimy onslaught of the dreaded gastropods so hopefully next year I will be able to add some extra colour to my flower beds and, with luck, enough flowers to pick for the house as well.

Meanwhile at home I’m gearing up for that reinvention of the Planet Penny studio space. With the new floor down the first arrival is to be a little stove to make it cosy in the winter and it arrives tomorrow. I’m very excited!

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Happy Fergus heading to the beach

We’re home, from a week in sunny Somerset with two happy, tired little dogs. There have been trips to the beach, walks in the woods and expeditions into towns where they have strutted their stuff and been much admired and fussed.  They are very happy to visit a pub if the members of staff come out with treats and cuddles.  I have to make do with a glass of white wine!

I did a lot of thinking while I was away. Trying to work out what I want, and need, to go forward.  I thought I’d got it all sorted, but that’s asking for trouble. These days I use my iPad for everything so I happily set everything up so I could upload my photos from my phone, edit them with a Photoshop app and write my blog posts.  And then in the middle of all that organisation a little pop up appeared which proceeded to wipe everything out and send my iPad back to set up mode.

I’ve found out that if you’ve forgotten your iPad ID it might as well be locked in a vault somewhere subterranean featured in the Lord of the Rings! So instead of thinking about blog posts I’ve spent the last few days transferring everything to my laptop.

What with Brexit, and lockdown and health problems Planet Penny as a business is no more, but I need to be creative, even in the smallest ways  My studio is being reinvented having had to have a new floor (don’t ask) so I’m working on a gradual transformation from a work room to  a sitting room for crafting, creating, cosiness and comfort.

Meanwhile, I have my ‘nest’. Where ever I am I always end up with a nest. It runs in the family, my mum had one as well.  Hers was based round her little book shelf. Mother had been a librarian and in the days before Google and Wikipedia, mother and her bookshelf of encyclopaedias and dictionaries was the font of all knowledge and the source of much information for her grandchildrens’ homework. It also contained multiple novels, knitting, tapestry, a secret supply of sweeties and a pen for the crossword in the newspaper.

My nest is a nightmare! Books I am reading, my journal, sewing box, ear buds, knitting, latest sewing project, tissues, socks (socks? well it might turn chilly) a current New European newspaper, pens, sketch pad, usually an iPad but currently a laptop, all topped off with blankets and dachshunds who want sit on top of it all.

My creativity went AWOL during Covid and it’s taken a long time to claw it back.  I’ve been so grateful for the amazing ladies I’ve found on the internet who have kept me going. Ann Wood who got me to build a cardboard dolls house, various websites which got me experimenting with lolly sticks and glue to make miniature furniture. The Fold Line, a wonderful resource for patterns and inspiration for making my own clothes. So many talented people using Procreate on the iPad to make beautiful art and repeating patterns. Luna Lapin, an elegantly dressed member of the Leporidae family who arrived in a second hand book waiting for me to create my own version. And a little teddy from Mama Roar

Luna Lapin and little teddy

This is what I want expand upon, write  about and share.  I hope you’ll join me…be warned though, there will be occasional and uninvited dachshunds!

So, a dearth of photos and no links yet, but a statement of intent, hope and creativity.

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Maybe it’s having been born near a tidal estuary but I’ve always been drawn to the quiet beauty and constant movement to be found where a river meets the sea and the tide changes the landscape endlessly.

The water’s passage across the land etches rivulets and hazardous boggy patches to catch the unwary, but gives life to tiny plants which thrive despite the challenging conditions.

This is the Severn Estuary, which, as well as being close to my birthplace, featured for several years in my past as the one I travelled over when I lived for nearly a decade in Wales. Traveling back from Norfolk having visited my parents, we always seem to arrive at the Severn Bridge at low tide as the sun was going down and the mud was shining deceptively pink and gold, disguising it’s treacherous nature.

It’s all such a metaphor for life. The unforeseen pitfalls, the boggy patches, the unexpected glimpses of beauty and joy, the deceptive shine on the underlying sludge and slime.

Being away from home is giving me time to reflect. Life has been tricky health wise, both mentally and physically. Always in the back of my mind is the thought that I need to be here, writing. The frenetic pace of social media is too much. Compete or fail. I want to create and share on my own terms, without being bogged down with SEO and adverts.  That’s how I started  and the impetus it gave to my creativity and the happiness I found in connecting with others gave so much meaning to my life.

I don’t want to make money.  I just want creativity and connection with people who want to look past the turmoil of the world as it is now to find the joy in the little things which still surround us. 

Like happy dachshunds ?

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