HERE'S HOPING FOR A GREAT NEW YEAR!

The New Year is coming in, filled with hope for us all, after perhaps the most difficult and saddest year we can remember.
May we wish that all your hopes and wishes, dreams and ambitions are fulfilled and that you and those you love have a Happy New Year.

Well, to say that Christmas was 'different' is probably the understatement of the decade - having said that, I hope there were times of joy, and friendship and perhaps some moments of fun for you too. Most of our family were separated from each other so we were fortunate to be able to share the day with one son, and see another and his family for a short time. Thank heavens for modern connectivity so that we can all remain in touch to some degree.
 
So......I forgot the crackers (next year then), and forgot to switch on the Christmas tree lights until Boxing Day. Our very large chicken tasted great, and is now casserole, soup or frozen. The wine held up.......still not had the Christmas pud....The chocolates will last a long time, and Santa brought us Christmas stockings for the first time in living memory.... we did at least cut the Christmas cake.

In our house all Christmas trappings are removed on New Year's Eve so that the next year starts anew - the law according to my Granny. I suspect that with a large family she was just desperate to have a clear up, but it works for me.

Today's modern miracles are being achieved by scientists, medical researchers, amazing volunteers, medics and nurses, ancilliary workers and the frontline workers, be they in an ambulance or a supermarket.  Thank you.

Thank you for looking - Happy New Year.
Robin x

 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

 It's that time of year again.....and what a strange, difficult and often sad year it has been.
However, let's look forward if we can with optimism.


We should like to wish you all a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS and BRIGHT NEW YEAR!! May all your wishes for 2021 come true, and you and your families stay safe.

Two Christmas cards  for you this year, especially commissioned from our youngest granddaughters. Hmmm, yes we think it's Christmas pussy cat too - hope it gives you a smile.
Thank you all for lots of lovely blogs to read and a real spirit of friendship.


Thank you for looking.
Robin x

It's Just a Chair

Back in the day...the 1950s I expect....a lovely old chair, an American style rocking chair was transported by train in the baggage van from Newcastle-on-Tyne to a little market town in what was then Berkshire (it's now Oxfordshire).  In those days there were numerous small branch lines, so it came via Oxford and Swindon, almost to the door.

 

 I'm assuming the chair is late C19th and I've no idea where it was constructed, but I remember it as a child and somewhere under that uphostery on the back was glued an old newspaper in far eastern script. The back panel and seat were actually carpet - some kind of junk type boat featured on the back.  It's been recovered and a cushion added a few times since then.

 Anyway.....it originally belonged to my Geordie Granda, came to my Dad and the family and in due course came to me.  (Back in the day, like The Railway Children my sisters and I would sit on the fence and wave at the steam trains as they went past.......yep I'm ancient!)

We moved about a bit - downsized - and one of our sons and his family gave it a home for many years.....but now, short of space there, it has come home to me again. It's had a full life so needs a minor repair and a polish but it's so nice to see it again!! I would say how lovely it is to sit in it - but our mad cat has declared it HIS!

Although during our Coombe Crafts days, my other half created many beautiful miniature chairs, he never attempted one like this - I wonder if anyone else has?

In our  soggy and chilly garden the winter-flowering jasmine is putting on a wonderful show and the 'Freckles' clematis presents a discreet but modest show on the other side of the archway.  I've just noticed the first spring bulbs pushing out their noses, so maybe spring is not as far away as we think. 

Thank you for looking and stay safe.
Robin x

I was thinking about plants and my miniatures.....

I expect if you've been reading my blogs for a while you'll have worked out that gardening, and creative arts and crafts, but predominately miniatures, have been passions since I was young. Although it's mostly gardening at the moment.
 

Growing up with a mother who somehow passed on a love of plants both wild and cultivated - and their latin and common names - without her daughters ever actually realising it, to creating my own gardens, we all became 'gardeners'.  Our family was like that - and painting, drawing, making things...whether it was a pair of gloves or a dollshouse...it must be in the genes.  

So many of you seem to be both passionate miniaturists and gardeners. From reading your blogs I'm convinced that there is a direct link between visualising a garden - even when it's a bare patch of earth - and visualising a dolls house and its 'people'and accessories, even when it's just a box or a kit!
So - stick with it..... the following picture (I expect you've seen one like it every year...sorry) is our glorious Continus in its autumn foliage.  The leaves are almost like animal skins, or exotic plants, so vivid.  So a few years ago I scanned, reduced and used miniature paper copies as exotic leaves in my miniature conservatory. It's how you see it - isn't it? 

Back in the day (and historically) fresh foliage was preserved in a mixture of glycerine and water, fresh flowers in  dry preservatives like silver sand or borax or even washing powder!! Oh yes I tried them all!  Thinking small I preserved tiny flowers like forget-me-nots and lychnis, tiny grasses, seed heads and ferns which I used in little arrangements before the brilliant floral experts pushed the art to a whole new level.  Illona and Jan Southerton.... are two of my favourites who spring to mind using completely different materials and techniques.  Of course now there are lots of lovely commercial products like coloured foam, scatter, fibres, papers,  polymer clays and silks that make life  easier for all of us, but it is so satisfactory to start from scratch and develop your own techniques and find your own way, I think.

Finally I can't resist showing you a picture of one of the little robins that accompany us when we're digging and weeding - having filled up on worms, he/she is having a bath in one of our mini ponds.

Anecdotally, gardens and outside spaces help many of us cope with the restrictions of the pandemic; I'm sure hobbies and crafts have played a major part too in keeping us 'sane'. Your many and various blogs have been fun, inspiring, and informative - thank you all for staying in touch. Stay safe.


Thank you for looking.
Robin x

 

Mending Fairies' Broken Wings

The white fairy has been in my gardens for many, many years and has moved with us - but she is now elderly and quite fragile.  She took a bit of a tumble and lost a wing - out came the glue.  As if in sympathy the other fairy flew out of the willow tree and landed badly - broken leg - more glue.

It seems the right time to relocate them to safer perches.  So the white fairy smiles at us near the back door and her friend is guarding the gravel garden alongside our mad hare.

 A rainy, gusty few days brings new delights into our autumn gardens and as we tidy up for the winter a little robin is usually twittering along near us helping himself to the last blackberries and scratching for worms.  These little birds are so tame many people hand feed them, but we've resisted the tempation as we have a cat and don't want to tempt providence.
As we've been pulling lovely carrots, parsnips and leeks (which taste so good straight from the garden) there are plenty of worm-filled patches to scratch in.

This picture of our lovely yellow clematis (tangutica I think) is a perfect example of 'be careful what you wish for'. It looks glorious now, and will do when the fluffy, silky seedheads follow - and it covers the fence, nearly the whole long length of it......and a beautiful rambler rose......two bush roses, lilies.....and our lovely neighbour's shed!!  I wanted it to clothe the fence but not take over! I was brutal last year and cut it back HARD, and look at it.....oh dear, must be more brutal!

The passion flowers also go mad, but are more restrained. They are still blooming their socks off - we have two - and the ornamental fruit are setting and will soon look like orange balls which I can dry and bring inside. Fortunately our two neighbours love it too - one has happily trained it along his clothes line and the other encourages it to scamble through his shrubs.

As an antidote to the virus I've been slightly extravagant in ordering spring bulbs online and happily planting pots of tulips, tiny iris reticulata and pale pink grape hyacynths (muscari) to cheer myself up.  I hope you've all found something cheery to do too and that you stay safe in these worrying times.

Meanwhile these sweet little cyclamen definitely cheer me up!

Thank you for looking.
Robin x

I Dug Up the Lawn!

So what do you do if you're a keen gardener, running out of space and have plants that need moving or dividing?
It's obvious isn't it - you dig up the lawn!

Most of our pandemic has been spent in the garden, and we're truly grateful to have one because not everyone does and the recent months must have been so much more difficult than ours. As I do often blog about it you'll know how important it has been.  There's always something to enjoy and more importantly lots of things to do.

When we moved here it was something of a blank canvas so we were able to create the garden we wanted but there was one shrub/tree that filled us with excitement - the Magnolia Grandiflora Exmouth!! Every year it has bloomed most wonderfully,  plate sized flowers with the most glorious lemony scent. It's actually quite tricky to photograph because all the bees and insects love it and it's often full of them.

So the bearded iris in the main garden stopped flowering because frankly they were swamped by everything else. Last autumn I dug up a patch of the lawn in the small front garden, moved some and they flowered brilliantly.  But still loads left!
I resisted digging up any more this spring because the patch left just about took my Granddaughter's little mini if there was a lack of parking space - which was the case when everyone was staying at home - but she's back at Uni now and so I've dug it up and moved the rest!! It was a scrappy little bit of grass and my husband is delighted to give up mowing it.

I was properly discombobulated to find that Blogger has updated me - help! Some of your blogs now redirect me and don't just appear on my reading list. So now I have to see if I can cope with putting up this new blog - fingers crossed.

I hope you're staying safe.
Thank you for looking.
Robin x

Random Ramblings

I don't know about you but our very necessary restrictions to keep us as safe as possible during this dreadful pandemic is definitely turning me into a random rambler.......one moment I'm repeating myself to my long-suffering husband, and the next I'm frantically out there with the secateurs furiously pruning a shrub. I can't seem to create a new routine.
There are, of course, loads of things I could do, (ironing/spring cleaning) but I flit to one and then another instead.

So the blog will reflect this.  A camera is always close by. Click on the images for a larger pic.

Sammy is perfectly happy in lockdown - nothing much alters his routine unless someone is late with his lunch!

The garden has been our lifesaver, and providing you like rampant wild gardens, has been looking wonderful.  Strawberries a bit of a disappointment - but Hey, you can't have everything!
A drop of rain turns our Cotinus (Smoke bush) into  a wondrous be-jeweled delight.

In the conservatory my orchids have been hit by a disastrous attack of mealy bug and I am distraught on a weekly basis. Yes I know in the scheme of things it's not the end of the world, but........it is to me.
Thankfully other plants have mostly managed to escape the deadly scourge and 'Harlequin' Streptocarpus is one of my favourites.

Many years ago we acquired a lovely set of hanging shelves from my grandparents' home, scraped off years of paint and use it to display our favourite pieces.  This box features two dressers I painted and distressed for a collection of 'ancient and modern' and a few handmade pieces of my own.  I hesitate to list the current wonderful miniaturists because I don't want to leave anyone out.  I'm sure you'll recognise them.

The antique dresser on the right, which is also filled with beautiful glassware is from around 1880 and belonged to the tall girl in the photograph, who was a much loved aunt.  She in turn would have inherited it from her mother.


I hope you're staying safe.
Thank you for looking.
Robin x

There's A Fairy At The Bottom Of My Garden

Yes there is...there really is and she's overlooking our vegetable patch, so I hope she'll see off the greenfly and the squirrels!

For many, many years a little old white fairy has been keeping an eye on things but as we all know, it gets a bit harder as we get older..............

I've recently had a birthday and clearly someone in the family decided the white fairy needed a little help.  So here she is, sitting happily in the ancient willow just keeping an eye on things and waving her magic wand over the shrubs bursting into bloom.

My youngest granddaughters don't need much of a nudge to get creative. I'd sent a few little tiny cut out paper houses to construct, which they enjoyed - but Hey! - anything Granny can do, we can do better! And didn't they just! So proud of them.

As I said, the little fairy waved her magic wand and the garden is bursting into bloom again.  I was all set to include a pic. of my glorious Wisteria but a late frost put paid to that and badly singed the grapevine and the fig tree.....they'll all survive but only a few figs this year...pity.

Variegated Ceanothus

Red Hawthorn

Broom

Weigelia

Rosa Albertine

Thank you for looking.
Robin x

V.E. Day and Those Who Continue to Protect Us Today

This week we are marking Victory in Europe 75 years ago and the courage of those who defended us, while remembering the ones who did not come home and those who were still in the conflict in the Far East.  So as we remember them and the civilian services at home and the many in the community, it can't help but remind us of those many thousands of people across the globe defending us again in this awful global pandemic.


Over the years, most often for specific commissions, I have created a lot of World War 2 characters.
I have loved making them all.  So I thought I'd share some with you - not all the pictures are great but I do hope you'll enjoy seeing them  as we pay tribute to those who did their best to keep the rest of us safe.

Thank you for looking - stay stafe.
Robin x

Flying Frogs.......a bit of a distraction

So we had some much needed rain for the garden, which did mean it was too soggy to go weeding or planting, so my lovely other half decided to clear out the shed - in miniature days, his workshop.  He presented me with a battered cardboard box.


Inside the box was a flying frog and a flying horse - both of which had 'flown' very happily in our conservatory in Cormwall some twenty years ago, then later for a few years at our home in Buckinghamshire. Age and yet another move had meant that the frog had lost a wing and the horse was very dilapidated to say the least - so the question was, should he dig out his tools again and me, my paints...or dump them?  Yep, we were both in need of a distraction in our lockdown days!

We both enjoyed getting back to our respective craft skills and they fly again! Flying high the cracks and fillers and dodgy paintwork, which is close but not perfect, to the original remind us of lots of happy days and little children on grown-up shoulders twirling them about.

Exochorda, The Bride also reminds me of our happy days in the far west, which is where we first saw it.  It's a really lovely, early flowering shrub and I love it.  It took me years to find one but it's been very happy here in Oxfordshire and cheers us up when it flowers in early April.

Another thing reminding me of very happy days, was reading my friend Celia's latest blog...www.ktminiatures.blogspot.com/  in which she goes back though her archives. She reprises projects we made together for magazines or our workshops.
We loved every minute and are proud of our work.  Do take a look.  The one I think we loved the most, and put our hearts and souls into, was our W.W.1 Bunker which you can view as a video - it's in the R.H. column on this blog. It was sold to raise funds for The Red Cross and I believe is now in a museum in France.



Just a couple more pics. from the garden....

Thank you for looking - stay stafe.
Robin x

Happy Easter......Let There Be Rainbows

I'd like to wish you all a Happy Easter, however you may be marking it.  It occurs to me that at this time when we remember the ultimate sacrifice of Christ we are seeing the great sacrifices of so many thousands of wonderful people across the world for the rest of us so that we may stay healthy and safe.  We owe it to them to do our best as well.


Apparently all around our town and many, many others in U.K. children in particular have been making rainbows to go in windows so that passers by can be cheered up by a positive, hopeful sign.  I think it's a wonderful idea and wish we could see them all - but it's important to take the message to stay at home seriously, so we do.
I understand teddy bears are beginning to join the rainbows, and as we all know they are happy creatures.

Our young Granddaughter and her Mum made this super rainbow together - isn't it lovely.

When I was a little girl our Mother would take us on a once a year walk to The Grove a local wood on a big estate, open to all families only on Good Friday.  We went there - such a very special treat - to pick the primroses that grew thickly in the mossy undergrowth beneath the trees. We picked as many as we could carry to give to our Mothers and Grandmothers for Easter.  I'm guessing that the tradition harked back to the days of youngsters being in service at the grand house, when they were allowed to pick the flowers to take home to their Mothers for Easter.

Today everyone gives flowers to those they love - still a loving and welcome gesture of affection.

We can't give flowers to all those safe-guarding us but it is Thursday so we shall be back on our doorsteps this evening to join the clapping to show our appreciation.

Thank you for looking
Robin x

Poetry Please

Many people are suggesting lovely, clever, cheery or interesting things we can be doing to while away the time while we are stuck at home.  To be honest I'm not a great keep-fit enthusiast at the best of times so I'm avoiding the work-out each morning.

Writing down our 'life histories' and those of our parents for the next generation is a good one, as is a massive clear-out of cupboards......I must get around to that one......
Inventing new recipes is a must as we trawl the bottom of our freezers and the back of food cupboards.  The most inventive I've heard recently was a layer of left-over mashed potato on half a frozen Margherita pizza.  Yummy apparently........
Of course as enthusiasts we can all finish off those miniature projects or start new ones.

Inspired by one friend, three of us have exchanged our favourite poems, which was just brilliant. It also brought to mind particular memories or annecdotes which we all enjoyed as well as the poems.
This was mine:

WARNING  by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman
I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn't go,  and
 doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on
 brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say
we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement
 when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops
 and press alarm bells

And run my stick along public
 railings
And make up for the sobriety
 of my youth................................

There are several more verses, so I'll let you Google for the whole poem. I've always thought this was very inspiring and made me determined to grow old as disgracefully as possible!!! I've got a red coat and purple hat - do you think that counts?

I've loved the poem for years, but it also reminded me of a great friend in U.S.A. who passed on to me several commissions from 1/24th scale collectors like her who were also members of The Red Hat Society.  I must admit I had to do some research as I'd never heard of the international society which, inspired by the poem, was founded to encourage social interaction between ladies 'of a certain age' for friendship and laughter.  Google it do, some brilliant pictures!
Anyway the upshot was that in late 1990s I made lots of mini Red Hat ladies which was huge fun.  Sadly before my digital camera or computer so no decent pictures to look back on.

So - maybe you and a few of your friends would enjoy swapping poems  - or even share one on your blog.

But tonight I shall be on my doorstep with many, many others clapping and cheering for our wonderful N.H.S. staff. A tiny way to express our thanks for all they are doing for us.

Thank you for looking
Robin x

Lots To Be Happy About

Mothering Sunday was somewhat unusual, to say the least! A lovely bouquet and cards were popped inside my doorway and two sons brought love and good wishes from a very safe distance...and the other two who live a distance away were on the phone with the little grandchildren.

The box of landscaping and odds and sods arrived for our young granddaughters and the first 'garden' is under way.

In our town young people are rallying round and we have already had five offers of whatever assistance we need  - SO very kind and appreciated.  Wherever you are I hope you are getting the same level of community support.  And (say it quietly) the sun is shining!!!!!

Thank you for looking - take care
Robin