Maharajah's Well

 We visited the Maharajah's Well in Stoke Row at the weekend.

Set in the middle of the Oxfordshire countryside, it is totally unexpected to come upon an ornate well with a gold elephant on top.

Cherry Orchard The Story

This is the story from the time when India was part of the British Empire and links between England and India were very strong. It is the story of a friendship between two men from different countries and backgrounds who were both wealthy benefactors.

In India in 1831, Edward Anderton Reade, a gentleman from Stoke Row, who was a governor there, gave a gift of a well and mango grove to a village in Varanasi to help the local community.

Later in England in 1863 the Maharajah of Benares, who had struck up a friendship with Mr Reade, recalled his donation, and copied it by donating a free public well and cherry orchard to the village of Stoke Row, to help the community. The villagers would be able to earn money from the cherries. Water in that part of Oxfordshire was in short supply. The story goes that the Maharajah heard that water in the community was rationed and that a small boy was beaten by his mother for helping himself to an extra drink when thirsty during a drought. He was very moved by this story and gave the well to help the village.

These are photos I took of the well a couple of years ago when I was doing a project for City and Guilds in Embroidery and Stitched Textiles

This is the enclosed panel  I made, blending together India and Britain. The pink pieces with cherries and leaves represent the cherry orchard, and the orange piece with paisley represents the mango grove.

Snow dyeing

We have had such a lot of snow over the past couple of weeks. I wanted to do a snow-linked project, and I remembered reading about snow dyeing.  In order to make it a quick method I placed used layers of fabric, food colouring and snow in a plastic tray.

Watch this space for the resulting fabric!

Tag Tuesday-Letter C

C is for

Cup of Coffee

                              

Continuing the alphabet theme for Tag Tuesday, this week is the turn of the letter C.

I have been using up old treasures from Christmas wrappings, the hessian in the background is from a jar of jam, the ribbon also wrapping. I photographed my favourite coffee cup and saucer, which are Polish called Boleswava , from my collection started when we lived in Warsaw from in the early 1990s. I placed the cup and saucer on a cloth, and made steam from ribbon.
If you would like to see some photos of my collection of ceramics on my dresser, follow the link here

The garden in snow

We have had a fall of snow, and the garden looks magical. These photos were taken from inside, through the window! It is still snowing, so there may be more dramatic photos on the way. 

Seed heads in winter

 

I am fascinated by seed heads and noticed these as I walked past the other day. It was just as the snow had begun to fall, and I thought they looked very wintery. These are the same ones I photographed last time, and I don't think they have decayed much, although they have lovely lacey patterns now.

Tag Tuesday- Letter B

               My theme for this week's Tag Tuesday is B is for Birds

I used some bird stamps on top of painted papers and added a ribbon edging. I chose a letter B from a paper sheet because I liked the size and colour, and when I looked closely it had birds on it, which I think you will agree was serendipitous! I photographed it against     a wallpaper sample with birds on.

Tag Tuesday -Letter A

A is for Apple

This year Tag Tuesday has an alphabet theme, and as it is the first one, it is Letter A.

I made an A is for Apple tag. The fabric is painted with acrylic, then I stamped an apple onto it. I stitched it with Trapunto so it stands out, then added an A made from gold cord.

You may recognise the apple theme from a small quilt I did on a course with Shelagh Folgate. 

New Year, new course

January is often a time of reflection and planning for the year ahead. Whilst I was thinking I would like to do a new course, I came across a link to on-line tutor Jane Davies and found that she had a new course called Unlocking the Secrets of Color which was just about to start! I enrolled right away and am about to start exploring colour with acrylics. Thanks to Ann Somerset Miles for the link which I found on her blog Journaling The Journal.

River Thames at Shillingford and Benson

We have had so much rainfall over the past few weeks that we couldn't go on any of our favourite walks near Henley, owing to the river having burst its banks and flooding the towpaths and nearby fields. Instead of Henley we went further north and to the higher ground of Shillingford and Benson. You can see the levels were really high and dramatic.  Although the first and second photos look like a river with lakes, it is in fact the river with flooded fields! These photos were taken on my new phone, and I am quite pleased with the first one, and the others are satisfactory. It has just taken me a few days to work out how to upload the photos to Picassa then on to the blog, but I think I have it now! I hope it will be quicker next time!

I have enlarged my photos as requested by Bea.

Back to Blogging

I am back to blogging, not having posted much recently. First of all there was Christmas, which brings its mixture of delights and lots of extra tasks to do! I have all my four sons living at home again for the moment, so the house is quite hectic. Anyone with boys will know what I mean when I say it is like when they were little, except now they are strapping lads! We had a lovely family Christmas, and it is always good to catch up with family and friends at this time of year.

Unfortunately I started this new year as last, on antibiotics for another abscess, on my leg this time. However I am pleased to report that now I am half way through the second course of antibiotics and everything is healing nicely. I didn't have to go to hospital this time and I think my recovery was a lot quicker, as my general condition is so much better. I am learning to manage this infective arthritis and believe I am almost winning. So let's say this infection is just a blip and I expect to be back on track now.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everybody!

I hope 2013 is a good year for you all!

This quaint image is from The Graphics Fairy, 

I am not sure why a garland of pigs' heads 

should be appropriate for New Year, but

I thought it was rather fun!