You're My Lobster...

 A while back I bought a lovely little book - Mini Amigurumi Ocean by Sarah Abbondio - and enjoyed making a few of the cute little creatures when I had a minute or two spare.  One of them was this adorable little lobster, who now graces the cistern in our marine themed downstairs loo!

A friend of mine saw him and asked if I would make this: 

 

A miniature crochet lobster wearing a Santa hat...it's a good job I have known this person for decades so am hardly surprised at the request! 

Summer Hops...

Back in August I spotted a view of the hops growing on our pergola against a bright blue sky that made me want to paint them - the contrasting colours just sang.  My first attempt was in watercolour and I soon became discouraged - I'd chosen paper that was too small and consequently the drawing was a nightmare, and the subsequent painting was tight and fiddly and just frustrating to do.

So I ditched that one, and started a much bigger painting in acrylics on canvas board.  I didn't bog myself down with a highly detailed drawing - in fact I started by just painting the pergola against the sky, nothing on it at all.   Then I just loosely marked in the shapes of the hops and let the paintbrush do the work as I went along.

As Autumn kicked in and the light began to fail, I was working under electric light a lot of the time which really changes the colours, so had to check occasionally that I was getting them right by taking the painting outside for a look. Thankfully everything was OK!

This was quite a departure from my usual subjects, but enjoyable nonetheless and was a welcome distraction from reality!  It is currently for sale in my Etsy shop.

Next up...not sure, but it will be in watercolours and splashy! 

In A Pickle...

This year in the garden was a bit of a strange one - a chilly Spring followed by a relentlessly hot Summer meant things were a bit different.  Seeds grew slowly and stopped growing for a few weeks when the weather was cool which in turn set them back considerably.  Some things didn't make it when the heat kicked in - not a single courgette this year compared to last year's glut.  My carefully nurtured tomatoes in the back garden were a bit of a disappointment but the tangle of random tomato plants that sprung up on the remains of the old compost heap in the front garden were amazing.  We could recognise some varieties from tomatoes we'd bought at the supermarket, except these were much tastier!  There were so many large tomatoes that had not turned red by the time October came around that I managed to make about 4lbs of chutney.

 Runner beans were quick to start - we had one lot to pick and then with the heat they faltered, only to get going again at the end of the summer and we had a bumper crop for a couple of weeks.

 One vegetable that really took off this year was the cucamelons.  I grew them from seed and they looked a bit shaky to begin with but then suddenly went berserk and there were more cucamelons than I could eat!  Luckily, after watching Gardener's World last week, I found out that they can be pickled, so I picked the remaining ones and gave it a go.  Looking forward to seeing what they taste like!

On the easel at the moment, a large acrylic of the hops on our pergola.  The hops were another roaring success and look so pretty draped along the beams - I took a snap of them in mid summer against the bright blue sky which is what I am trying to capture in paint. It's not my usual thing, I'm finding it challenging but it's getting there.  Think I might go back to bears after this...