a print queue

sometimes I can't wait to print each lino block as soon as it's finished and see the results of all the patient gouging and find out if the plan has worked and all the words are the right way around and all is well....


this time I've started saving them up ready for a big self-indulgent printing day (maybe friday morning if the mood takes me!) when everyone else will be banished from the house and the fact that I still haven't built any kind of drying rack will mean that they might not be allowed back for a couple of days...

allotmenteering

We've ended each of the last few days with a visit to the allotment, once the 'cool' of the evening arrives, to recover from days crabbing and rockpooling, playing with friends at the park and cycling miles in the sun.

Today we took fish and chips (with mushy peas) and ginger beer.

Even without rain the weeds are flourishing but once I plant my courgette and squash jungle out they will not stand a chance - the lounge is fast becoming a no go area as the seedlings turn into plants, you can almost hear them growing and indoor watering is starting to take nearly as long as outdoor...

days out instead of working

I'm easily persuaded to be outside when the weather is on summer setting and school holidays are happening around me.  We stopped at Raglan Castle in South Wales on the way back home this week.  It's great - it's rambling, ruinous and pretty precarious at the top of towers and ancient staircases.  Last time we went a reenactment society fired a cannon just as our then 3 year old history fan walked through the entrance, so he didn't make it very far ...this time, 3 years older he was disappointed that they weren't there....

New prints are coming though - early May deadlines are starting to beat the weather on my priority list and the world needs a picture of birds in pajamas...

p.s. are we allowed to ask for rain??  I'm getting tired of watering the same teeny tiny seedlings at the allotment each day - big grateful plants at the height of summer are fine as I can see the food growing but tiny specks of green that don't seem to be getting bigger....

rumbling tummy time

We've been in deepest Wales, where mobile phones don't work and internet connections are via phone lines and really, it's not worth the fiddling - hurray.  No contact with the outside world and no reason to look at a watch, just going by rumbling tummy time...

Helping on the farm in the sun, we found the perfect useful job for all ages - clearing the hay fields of mole hills so that the mower blades don't get blunt from chopping through all the little mounds in the summer.  Big people can use spades and see it as a challenge to clear the whole field, but smaller people can kick them down and race about or carefully take them apart with a garden trowel until they are perfectly level...

and I thought I'd share one of my favorite pictures 'Puffin Race', because I'm just having the last one framed up this week and then they are all gone and I'm quite sad about that as I won't see them all again!

National Beanpole week 23 April - 1 May

Image via here

It's national beanpole week on the 23rd April.  We’re all being encouraged to live more sustainably and during National Beanpole week, we are being asked to think twice about using imported bamboo canes, when setting up our trellises and wigwams this spring ready for your beans and sweet peas.

I for one (and most of my allotment site) are guilty of using canes, when we could choose locally grown hazel beanpoles cut from Britain’s coppiced woodlands. Monty Don on Gardeners World is always enthusing on the merits of hazel poles. They look gorgeous, rustic, and traditional.

Have a look at the website www.beanpoles.org.uk for more information on events and where to find a locally coppiced poles.

I am getting rid of my bamboo canes and the allotment, you should too!
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it's a high tech business

it's not just anyone who can take up lino printing - just look at the huge amount of equipment needed...

I've never used a press for printing since leaving college and find my trusty box wood burnishing tools (on the right) to be the best - but if you look closely you can see how worn out the edges are, all those hundreds of prints have taken their toll, and now there's some awful news...my suppliers no longer sell them.  eeeek.  There's nothing better in my world for getting my prints exactly right.  If anyone knows an art shop with a dusty drawer full let me know, I can't imagine anyone did a roaring trade, but I need a new one about every three years...

favourite pictures

Have you ever seen the images that Edward Bawden created for the London Underground?  They are fantastic and we have a few prints of them around the house.  This is my favourite...

but there are lovely ones for London's Parks and Gardens as well - what a great advertising campaign.

In holiday news we are mostly eating!  It's nearly 10.30 in the morning, so breakfast is a distant memory for some and a feast of bagels and quails eggs is now being demolished.  Only a couple of hours 'til lunch when another vast spread will be needed...I expect we can fit snacks in around all these meals too.