Planet Ruby Starrs

We have just had a superb family day out in Willington to see the amazingly spectacular Man Engine. This is a the biggest mechanical puppet in Europe standing 11.2 metres tall and weighing in at over 50 tons.  Designed and built by Golden Tree Productions its a lottery funded initiative which won the Lottery Funded Best Arts project in 2017 and has been on the 'Resurrection' tour over the last few months coming as apparently the last date to the wee town/ village of Willington to celebrate the County Durham mining Heritage so rich in this area. Not entirely sure about this but I'm given to understand that its thanks to the Northern Heartlands this was a free event which is pretty brilliant and much appreciated. The whole affair was very well organised with loads of information available free easily accessible parking - Dr Fred and I took my daughter and two grand children and we had a picnic on the site while watching the entertainment, stilt walkers, street theatre...

Its so lovely to learn new skills even when you get to pension age!  I've had a very rewarding 10 week class at The Weaving Rooms in Darlington learning to weave on a tabletop loom and today in my tenth week, I managed to finish my first big piece of cloth...  I had previously made a sampler for practice and to learn basic weaving techniques, never having been on a loom before - see earlier post. And then, with the expert guidance and patience of Becky, I embarked on a larger more substantial - allegedly 'planned' piece of cloth with the intention of using it to make something 'useful' with. I had looked at various projects on the go around the class for inspiration.  Most of it way beyond my capabilities!  One person came in with a lovely bag she had made using a pattern called a shadow weave or 'log cabin' and I decided I would like to try doing something similar.   I picked two contrasting colours and under tuition I warped up the loom (daun...

Whats my favourite colour?  In the scheme of things not really a difficult question but I can never answer it straight...  I can tell you beige and magnolia don't feature high in my colour wheel not even to off set other more lively hues. When I had to pin down a more definitive answer for college the best I could come up with was sunsets and sunrises, natural glorious vibrant crimsons, pinks, reds and glowing oranges set against an ever changing blues, purples and a darkening sky.  Good mix and range of favourites there!! Stunning post sunset sky with almost full moon, out of the front of our house... topped only by beautiful colours looking the other way...

I am really loving this summer weather - I just wish it could be like this every summer and we could rely on it.. I wouldn't even mind a bad winter if we could always be promised a season of warmth and sunshine.  My little courtyard garden is looking really colourful - its mainly bedding plants for a quick colour fix but its working well and I have a few perennials and interesting plants developing although while I was down in Leeds last week the wind blew all my seed trays away so I've lost a lot of seedlings 😕. Dr Fred spent the solstice on Goldsborough Car while I pottered around the garden enjoying the local wildlife. We sat out quite late and then retired with a g&t to the sun room waiting for the bats to come out - the sunset was glorious very fitting for mid summers eve. Later we spotted noctilucent clouds hovering over the northern sky - very pretty. We are very lucky to have such a secluded and quiet lovely spot to sit and reflect and drink gin.

I've been trying to sort out my fabric stash.. again...  Last September I made a commitment to not buy any more new fabric for a year.. so far I've stuck to it and had a fairly creative 10 months using up existing material but it felt time to take stock and wiggle out the remaining special little gem pieces left and work out some further creations. tubs tidy..?? When I start to look I realise I still have masses of stuff and this is in spite of big clear out when we moved house in February.. obviously it multiplies when I'm not looking but I really haven't bought any fabric for ages in spite of serious temptation... I have had to accept some donations and clearing out my wardrobe when we moved possibly relocated some clothes into fabric stash... it will all come in.  I've got a selection of big plastic tubs and all the fabric is colour coded and then separated into two categories - large pieces and little pieces... still doesn't look very tidy... ...

I've been back to the Weaving Rooms for more weaving.  Its been a interesting and, given present state of mind, quite a challenging experience, but one that allowed me to immerse myself into learning something new and letting my mind concentrate solely on the task in hand.  That task being warping up a loom from scratch for the first time and tying in all the threads to start a new piece of cloth. I picked two contrasting coloured yarns, 100% Shetland wool - an almost gaudy shade of lime green and a contrasting blue to warp up in alternate rows to make a shadow weave pattern.   I want to make a piece of cloth that I can use for something practical so the warp is 20 inches wide and hopefully about two metres long... there's my age showing - mixing metric with imperial!!! What that practical article will be is yet to be decided!! process of warping First I measured and then wound the warp into a large hank and then began the slow laborious but soooo satisfyin...

driftwood on Warkworth beach Everyday life continues... in order to have some thinking time Dr Fred and I took Beryl the yellow peril back up the country to Northumberland and combined Dr Fred giving a talk about the expanding universe at Hauxley nature reserve to the Northumberland Astronomical Society with a very pleasant night camping in the dunes. two enormous herons on Hauxley Nature reserve We also managed a couple of walks along a seafretted beach and tea and cake with old neighbours and friends. It was a much needed tonic. sea fret at Druiridge bay

Grief fractures your soul.. in so many ways and watching those close to you suffer is heart breaking.  Its only natural to want your children to experience everything life throws at them to have adventures and to learn but when those things are of such a tragic magnitude it is hard to watch and feel so unable  to lessen that load .. I have watched my daughter and her daughters these last two weeks being quietly brave.. openly heartbroken.. stubbornly stoic.. amazingly funny .. emotionally messy.. all in a sometimes loud sometimes gentle, often forgiving,  hardly understanding, surprisingly lost for words, considerably stunned and shocked, and on a good day potentially irreverent way.  The girls and myself are wonderfully supported by many good friends, Dr Fred and my son who somehow knows what to say or maybe when to shut up... I dont know which... but I know he is hurting as well he feels this grief in a different way. The loss of a friend but also the pain of ...