Summertime inspirations

I have had a few days off this week to catch up with some of my family and relax.  The beauty of always having my mobile phone with me is that I can take pictures anywhere.  The seeds heads with a ladybird was taken on a quick visit to Harlow Carr Gardens in Harrogate.

This beautiful picture is my Dad's garden.  It was lovely to see the roses in full bloom and the sunshine on his collection of unusual plants.  He does sometime open his garden to visitors and you can see more here on his website

On the journey home across the Yorkshire Wolds I stopped to take a photo of this field on the rolling hillside, a mass of poppies growing through the yellow flowers of the rapeseed crop.

Day 1 in Japan

I am still thinking about all the wonderful experiences of my trip to Japan.  I have decided that I need to take a more structured approach to reflecting on these so am going to attempt to post some of the highlights in order.  I went with a group of people who were mainly Art Clay Instructors.  On day one of our visit we had a very interesting tour of the factory where the Aida Corporation reprocess a variety of products to recover the metals and from that, make art clay silver and other products.

We had a fully guided tour taking us step by step through a variety of processes.

After this we had lunch in the Museum in the historic park near to the factory.  This display is part of a festival for girls and we were told that every home would have a small version of something like this.

Joy Funnell and I had a rapid walk around the park and were able to enjoy some of the details in the beautifully designed tea garden.  The blossom was also really beautiful.

The park included a number of interesting buildings such as this small water mill

which had a stunning stand of bamboo behind it.

I then had a quick look around the museum itself.  Traditional and historic Japanese crafts were on display, everything was exhibited beautifully and I wish I had had more time to study some of the items.