This Pebble Travelled Across the Sea — And Taught Me Something

If You Only Have One Art Book - Make it This One!

Color Theory From the Inside Out in Practice!

How to make a shaggy rag rug - beginners

Abstracting an Image

Book recommendations for Forest Gardens

Evolving a Painting

Painted on Stones - The instructions were simple!

Abstract Drawing Adding Fine Liner Pen (Part 1)

I've Started Another YouTube Channel

I've started another YouTube channel!  I'll still be updating my art one though.  It is about lots of different things that interest me.  In fact, it is a little bit like the sort of thing this blog used to be about.  I have uploaded 3 videos so far and will update each Tuesday.

See you over there?  

Subscribe: To Stay Notified For New Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@SimoneWhipp

Sold My First Art

Mixed Media Frog | Mini Tutorial

Some Thoughts

This year on a whim I started a YouTube channel.  I thought it would be fun to document what was going on in the garden and take videos rather than just putting up photos on here.  I did used to update my Sybil's Plot gardening blog but as most people come to this Linden Grove channel, I stopped updating on there.

I put up my first YouTube video in the Spring called A Small Suburban Garden in Greater London May 2022.  After that a few more garden videos were created - 6 in total under the playlist In the Garden on my channel.  Then we had the drought.  I totally lost interest in the garden.  Many plants died due to lack of water and the only thing I really had success with was tomatoes and *roses which I watered as much as I could. 

Feeling despondent about the garden, I put my attention back to Art and Paper Craft - the topic that the Linden Grove blog started out on back in 2008.  With a renewed vigour for the topic I started to make videos about things I was making and as of now have uploaded 17 Art and Paper Craft videos under the playlist Art and Paper Craft  I recently changed the name of the channel to Paint-Cut-Glue with Simone as that is what I mainly do.

I expect not everyone is interested in my YouTube topics and I will try to post on here in between uploading my videos if I have anything worth mentioning.  If you do watch any of the videos it would be helpful to the channel if you liked, subscribed or left a comment over on YouTube.  It costs nothing to sign up to YouTube or to subscribe.

At 12.00pm tomorrow I have a scheduled pre-made video coming up.  It is a very short video, less than 2 minutes.  After that particular video I will be focusing on collage made with my own painted papers.  Hope you give it a watch, or any of those I have uploaded.

 * Desdemona photographed today.

Gel Plate Printing Demo | Wood Block Stamps | Quiet Working

Gel Plate Printing Demo | Household Objects | Quiet Working

Mixed Media Paper Collage NOT What I Expected!

Solace in Books

I find solace in books.  I've been buying quite a few books recently.  I like the anticipation of guessing what information lies between the covers and hopefully gleaning any useful information.

The book on top of the pile is The Star-Born by Henry Williamson, written in 1933.  It is an original copy complete with untrimmed pages.  It is a sheer delight imagining all the history that particular copy has gone through.

The story is a celestial fantasy set in the real world at Lydford in Devon, on the edge of Dartmoor, and its gorge and castle keep (info from The Henry Williamson Society).

The illustrations are wood-engravings by Charles Tunnicliffe. 

Spoon Decorations Completed

Another task ticked off the list.

 Spoons have now had their ribbons attached and are listed on eBay.

The ones with Father Christmas on them sold well last year.  I hope this is a good year for the wolves!

Catching Up

I thought I would drop by before you forget me.  It is a sobering thought to know how quick we are forgotten and replaced by other interests and priorities.  One reason for my absence is my time has been taken up with selling on line - choosing, photographing, uploading, weighing, wrapping, going to Post Office etc.  As I don't have a job I am looking for ways to earn an income and selling my outgrown or less loved items is a way of generating some pin money.  The little rag doll above was bought on a whim a few years back but she spends her time packed away so it is time to let her go.

October is fast approaching and I feel like I am being swept along the year.  I have so many projects I want to start and a couple of new hobbies to try too. The trouble is I am never in the right frame of mind to do anything.  Today in particular I feel so lethargic.  I hope this is temporary.

Last week I revisited an old haunt - the vineyard.  I've not been for a few years and I went to help out with the harvest, volunteering on a couple of days.  We worked in pairs and chatted our way along the rows snipping off the bunches of grapes - Ortega and Pinot Meunier.  There is still grapes to be picked over the next month but I doubt I will return.  It was a non profit organisation when I started back in 2011 but it has become very corporate and doesn't feel the same to me anymore.  It was back breaking work and I wondered why I was even there (apart from catching up with an old familiar face.)

That is all I have to say for now.  I hope that Saturday is dry.  I have windfalls to collect, leaves to be swept and a general garden tidy up is required. 

My Plants Are Regressing

 

A few weeks ago I bought a couple of dahlia plants to cheer myself up as the garden was so barren and void of colour.  I bought a beautiful deep velvety pink one and one that was red and white variegated - a bit like a raspberry ripple effect. The one above was the first I had my eye on.  Out in the garden its leaves quickly became ravaged with snails and slugs so I thought it would be best to bring it in at night.  I have watered and fed and tended it.  It stays in the garden during the day and comes in at night.

  

I recently noticed that one of the blooms had become two tone - or rather a few of the petals seemed washed out of colour.  Most strange.

The second dahlia I bought was the one shown above.  Beautiful quilled shaped petals that opened out into bi-colour.  I noticed that very quickly the flowers began to turn brown around the edges and die before they fully came out.  I deadheaded them hoping for a quick recovery.

Now look at what has happened.  Very strange salmon coloured flowers with a few red ones.  I wonder why just buying two random plants has resulted in some bizarre happening.  I wonder if some sort of cross pollination has gone on.  Any thoughts?