Cards and berries.

 Finished cards - Merlin, landscape, swan, pebbles, dahlia monoprint and squiggle monoprint.

And those blue berries with pink petals are Harlequin Glorybower. What a name! Clerodendrum trichotomum. E and S Asis. Westonbirt Aboretum. There are other varieties . See yesterdays photo.

Card making and autumn colour at Westonbirt Aboretum.

I have finished all the recipe book illustrations so I am card making. That means I get out the box where I put all the unfinished bits of embroidery and samples and make them into cards. I sell them in the Guild at fiftyone for £10 each. Steep for a card but if someone framed them, excellent value for a little picture. They also fill that gap between sending someone a present or a card. A bit more special and you can put them in the post. They need a bit of finishing off and presenting nicely so I find something good on the radio to listen to and buckle down.

 We have had our first frost but yesterday was spectacular at Westonbirt Aboretum. We went early - the hour change helped. By the time we left there were queques to get in - everyone else had the same idea. The car tail back on the road went on for a couple of miles. These berries above will feature in the perpetual journal. Liz Brooke-Ward was showing her amazing embroidery in the oak hall. If you don't know her work, look up~ mylittledoglovesme~ on Instagram.

David Nash at the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne.

 We went down to Eastbourne for a few days last week to visit my aunt and went to the Towner gallery to see the work of David Nash, I knew of his circle of growing trees that interlink and have grown to form a dome but not seen anything else. We both loved the exhibition and could have stayed longer to see the film several times over. The film showed an enormous wood boulder left in a stream in Waies, filmed over years to see its gradual erosion and journey.

 Pieces ranged from the monolithic to the intimate.

Loved this map too, showing his surroundings as words and personal observations.

Cheese scone in stitch!

 My latest illustration for the recipe book. I use recipes I learnt from my mother. This one is Clares mums recipe written on a tatty piece of paper she says with added tips and crossings out.

More cakes and 2 days out.

 I have been getting on with the cake illustrations. They want 5 textile pieces and this is the third.

 Chocolate cake.

 Polenta cake

 Apricot tea bread.

 Trying to prolong our holiday feeling and make the most of the Autumn sunshine between rainfall, we have had a couple of NT days out. This is Dryham Park, near Bath. It is being used in 'Sanditon' as the wealthy lady's house but with the Bath backdrop painted out and sea added behind, which makes us laugh!

 Look for the deer on the skyline.

 And back to our local house Newark Park because the cyclamen spreading under the horse chesnut trees are amazing. An American took over the house when it was falling to pieces and saved it. He was a keen gardener too and planted lots of trees and bulbs. Now the National Trust look after it and an army of volunteers care for the beautiful gardens.

Perpetual Journal Sept 2019.

 These are my pages from Sept in my perpetual journal. Can you believe it is October already? This morning is our first cool morning and these pictures show a change in the season. I think it may have stopped raining too- first for days. Enjoy the Autumn sunshine everyone!