Category Archives: Norfolk

Trips around the Norfolk countryside

A little visitor…

I love the idea of having a hedgehog in the garden helping out with the slug problem, but not now as the clocks are about to go back.  I was very surprised to look up from the computer screen and see a small brown shape making it’s way across the front lawn.  I rushed out with my camera and it seemed happy to pose amongst the fallen cherry leaves while I snapped away, realising as I did so it was far to small to survive the winter.

DSCF3969

Happily I remembered a hedgehog-themed conversation with a neighbour along the lane who rescues them, so having upended a plastic bucket over it I rushed in to telephone her.  Ten minutes later, it was calmly sitting in her hands prior to going off for a meal of cat food.  Having established, with delight, it was a female – apparently 80% of rescued hedgehogs are male – she was duly named Cherry, what else?

To my delight, I find that it is not considered ridiculous to knit things for hedgehogs ( I have had a few rather sarcastic questions about what sort of sweater I will be knitting for Higgins) as poorly or undernourished hedgehogs need little blankets to snuggle up in. So, another  project to put on the list, a woolly blanket for Cherry.  I wonder if she likes pink?

Enough of all that!

I’ve just remembered I intended to blog  about creativity, not puppies! I haven’t had a lot of time for that recently, but it’s now the first of October, and at the end of the month I am teaching at Broadland Art Centre.  We are very lucky to have such a unique venue so close to home. BAC is housed in an old  school in a pretty little village on the river and the classroom is the perfect place for a small gathering of students. I feel very privileged to be numbered among those teaching there, as the calibre of past and present tutors is so high. Among them the textile artists Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn,  the main features of last year’s Knit and Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace, the internationally renowned marine artist, William Calladine, and, AND… ( I speak his name in reverential tones), the one, the only Kaffe Fassett!  Oh yes, I did go on his courses.

Passionate Patchwork - Kaffe Fassett

Passionate Patchwork – Kaffe Fassett

Attending a few courses at the Broadland Art Centre was one of the contributing factors to my eventual decision to become a mature Student at Norwich University College of Art in 2000 so it’s nice to have the association with it now.

This year I, and my partner in crime, Kit, am running a course called ‘All Booked Up!’ (yes it was my idea to call it that, and yes, it has caused no end of confusion to people reading the brochure, and yes, I’m really, really sorry!) and we are making books. Not formal bookbinding books, because that’s an amazing and exacting craft requiring great skill,  accuracy and training.  We’re making pretty books, jolly books, books for people who have a vast collection of lovely little bits of fabrics and papers, buttons and beads,  and piles of gorgeous bits of textile art left over from experimenting…that they don’t know what to do with and can’t possibly throw away.  Well, we’re going to make them into little books.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be flexing my making muscles to get them in trim for two days of demonstrating and teaching, and posting the results so you can see if I’m slacking.

I will regain my focus on artistry and creativity, I will aspire to a state of Zen like concentration,  I will reach the end of each day uplifted by what I have achieved, I will… excuse me, I just have to go and mop up that puddle…

The Great Outdoors

Nearly a month has elapsed since the black and tan bundle of trouble we know as Higgins burst into our lives and changed them completely.  He has galloped frenetically through, pursued by cries of ‘Aaaaah, cute’ by all who have seen him and by me with a mop and bucket… But the time had come to introduce our pampered pooch to the big wide world…

So we went to the seaside.

It’s not easy when you are very small…

..but I think we’re getting the hang of it!

Rouen

Rouen has been twinned with our nearest town Norwich for 45 years, and our family has done our bit towards Entente Cordiale by marrying a son of Norwich to a daughter of Rouen.  Very possibly Thomas and Celia had a rather different agenda when they tied the knot some years ago in Cambridge, but they now live within walking distance of the city centre along with two rather nice little boys, our grandsons.  Which explains why Rouen is currently our holiday destination of choice.

rue Eau de Robec

It is a beautiful city, every corner you turn presents another photo opportunity.  I have probably photographed  the same buildings every time I’ve visited, I am so struck by the shapes made by the timber framing, especially on the older houses which have settled, subsided and twisted over the years, and the wonderful colour combinations in which some of them have been painted.

quartier Croix de Pierre

Going under the clock on rue du Gros-Horloge you come into the old Market Place and the church of Joan of Arc.

rue de Gros-Horloge
Opposite the church is La Couronne, the oldest restaurant in France, which made me feel very inadequate about my window boxes!

La Couronne

Not far in the other direction from Thomas and Celia’s house is peaceful walk along the river bank to a water mill.  Peaceful to all but a nervous granny who could never get quite as near to the three year old as she would like to feel relaxed!

I am finding a reoccuring  theme to my  recent posts… look, I found another dahlia!

In which we Head for an Exhibition, and eat Cromer Crab on the Way…

face on a bollard top

Well, we didn’t expect to meet HIM on a Norwich street!  I know nothing about him, who he is or where he came from, but it’s a really good way to top a bollard! We were ‘up the ci’y’ today combining hair cuts with a Louise  Richardson and Andy Campbell exhibition.  (It’s Thursday again!)

The arcade in Norwich

Our hairdresser is situated in the Royal Arcade in Norwich, which is a pretty good place to start to the day. While Kit was in the chair, I went off to the market where the nice lady on the wool stall was, as usual, able to supply exactly what I needed.

yarn, needles and sock pattern

In this case, the wherewithall for portable holiday knitting, and a start on Christmas presents for nearest and dearest!

Our intended destination was the King of Hearts, to see an exhibition by Louise Richardson and Andrew Campbell.  It was a really inspiring exhibition.  Although their work is very different in execution,  the overall effect in an exhibition situation blends beautifully, and the space at the King of Hearts works very well.

Gotto Collection

Gotto Collection

Some of the pieces were displayed behind glass, making it difficult to do them justice with a photograph,but I do have some particular favourites.  These by Louise…Moth Dress by Louise Richardson

 

Detail of Moth Dress by Louise Richardson

Dress made of nails by Louise Richardson

detail of nail dress by Louise Richardson

and these by Andrew…

Andrew Campbell piece, 2009 Exhibition, NorwichUK

Andrew Campbell piece, 2009 Exhibition, NorwichUK

As well as an exhibition space, The King of Hearts has a music room for lunchtime concerts…

I would point out that the wonkiness is due, not to a faulty camera or even a liquid lunch, but to Tudor builders!  A shop full of beautiful craftsman (craftswoman, craftsperson?) made pieces…

And a sunny courtyard..

Where we ate lunch.

Refreshed, both in body and spirit, we headed up Magdalen Street in search of the Park and Ride bus, but were distracted by a bargain set of curtains in the Oxfam shop anda wonderful Emporium of vintageness in the old Looses building…


At this point I would have been grateful to find a pair of Louise Richardson’s shoes to take me home, rather than a bus!

winged shoes

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