Land Of The Chapel

Land Of The Chapel

   With the summer sun filling the skies here in the flat lands my cycle rides are fast becoming a real pleasure, exploring some of the villages and hamlets that surround us here in the fens really does help take away the hard work and effort of exercising and to be very honest I feel I'm becoming addicted, looking to go that bit further every week, tho it's fast becoming about what I find rather than the distance I can achieve.
 

 

   One of my rides yesterday took me through the tiny village of Three Holes before heading off to Tipps End, both what most would call hamlets rather than villages but both I'm sure having a strong history of close community and of course Three Holes having a great association with the rivers.

   

 

   I have noticed the amazing amount of chapel's and small churches that are found here in the fens, you can be miles from anywhere and in front of you will appear the most wonderful brick built chapel, most I'm guessing are from the Victorian period with the addition of some very ornate stonework, a sign of how important religion was to many fen folk.

   

Blue Skies, Many Miles and No Phone.

Blue Skies, Many Miles and No Phone.

   Without doubt a very mixed week here at the barn, the weather has been once more amazing and work as been comfortable, only one problem had my hackles up and that was our phone line going dead without warning, working one minute, dead the next. Of course this was followed by a nice clear conversation with a very nice lady in India, who mistakenly took me for a BT engineer, asking me to carry out major surgery on the phone socket and ending up stating that a real engineer will turn up any time in the next five days, grrrrrrrrrrr!

   I must say summer is looking well here in the fens with harvest starting and the countryside in full bloom, wildlife seems to be enjoying this time of warmth and longer daylight hours and each morning brings huge wide blue skies.

   At last I'm back cycling and enjoying every minute, my knee is settling down and the miles seem easier, still no lycra for this bead maker (apart from the hidden padded shorts that is), but my notebook and pen are always with me and I think it's time to get some photo's posted too.

   On the bead side of things, I've been sorting sets ready to list and sorting mixed spacers, which will be sold in bags of fifty. Today I'm making focals which always make me smile and tomorrow morning I'll once more be out there early to open that kiln door like the excited kid I really am. So now go enjoy another wonderful summer's day and I hope you take a little time to watch nature at play just as I will.

Cool Rain

Cool Rain


   Sunday morning and the wonderful cool rains are falling on the fens, this follows another warm week when sitting next to my kiln was not the most pleasant of things, but topped with ice water this bead maker was able to make new beads to list this coming week.
   Things on the bead side have been slow this last couple of weeks as in I haven't listed much, there has been a huge list of jobs to do on the cottage so working our way through that as been the main objective. In the mean time I've been building up a new stock to list on etsy and ebay, both of which I hope to get done in the next few days.
   The garden harvest has been bringing smiles to my face and healthy dinners to the table, the soft fruits have been great and the early veg has been so tasty with those great fresh flavours, makes all the hard work worth while.

A Fine Friday Morning

A Fine Friday Morning

   If every day started like today I'd be one very happy bead maker, the sunshine was filling the fens from 5.30 this morning with what seems like every bird feeding young, finches, tits, even that gang of trouble maker sparrows have young fledglings with them, every feeder full and ever branch a resting place.
   This last week the Marsh Harriers have been abundant, I've been lucky enough to see four sightings around the local fenland, so I'm guessing their young are being feed and hunting is once more top priority. The rivers are alive with life, reed beds are now guarding every bank, home to Reed Warbler and the water fowl once more greet those summer boating parties who slowly travel those quiet wildlife water filled highways.
   For me it's to my flame I'll be heading and what may be another warm day next to my kiln, oh how I wish for an outdoor flame that would stand still in the fen breeze, for on days such as this what could be better than sitting surrounded by nature while working my glass.

Sunshine, Spinach and Celtic Focals

Sunshine, Spinach and Celtic Focals

   Spring is being kind to the fens this year, mornings are filled with bright sunshine and long light evenings keep both fen tigers and gardeners happy, even the odd shower of rain has that wonderful smell riding it's back, I love the smell of rain, a cent only found in spring and summer along with that of fresh cut grass.
   The vegetable garden is already producing a harvest, the first salads are finding their way to the plate and that wonderful green spinach is already a great addition to evening meals, tho my hoe never seems to rest. I still find the hard work really worth it and fully understand why those who moan about the flavour of shop bought veg do so, there really is no comparison and the fact that within minutes from being cut or pulled they are cooking makes one feel very lucky and grateful we have the space and opportunity to grow them.

   On the bead side of things, it's been and interesting week, I'm truly addicted to making wild and wonderful focal beads at the moment, the results of ivory coloured glass and turquoise never cease to amaze me, a marriage yet to be surpassed in my eyes. With the addition of silver and a few wild ideas, every morning the kiln seems to produce the odd gift or two along with a big smile upon the face of this bead hermit.
 

Rains Wash The Fenland

Rains Wash The Fenland

   Cool spring rain welcomes us this morning, washing the dust from the fen and transforming the flat dark soiled east into a green backdrop for that wonderful early summer theatre that mother nature delivers every year. Every blade of grass, every leaf that plays between blossom is clean, clean and new, awaiting those warm summer winds in which they will dance gently while fen tigers warm their bones.
   For this bead hermit a day of work lies ahead and as rain runs down my window my eyes will once more watch the magical movements of my flame as it kisses and caresses the glass in my hand and the sounds of rain on timbers above my head will again remind me just how lucky I am to work warm and dry.

Bank Holiday Beading

   Bank Holiday Beading


   May bank holiday and the sun is warm, the doves are calling and the world in the fens is very quiet,  but this bead maker has beads to make. A trip to the coast was an option or a visit to Ashwell, but no, this old bead hermit as decided to spend the day working, I have things to try and I'm sure my flame can share the holiday with the vegetable garden.
   Kiln is heading towards 500 degree while I enjoy a cuppa and my usual inspection of the greenhouse, every morning new green seedlings are appearing and new rows are making their way through the soil in the vegetable garden, I love this time of year, can there really be a better season than Spring ?
   Still the great water fowl are filling the wide fen skies and grey heron return from early morning hunt, lilac blooms turn their colour and the white cherry blossom hang in bunches while the great little workers pollinate every stamen, if the lord did put us upon this earth, then to witness Spring was one very good reason for doing so.

Back To My Flame

Back To My Flame


   Well our house is now minus a back porch, two days of dismantling a structure that any medieval castle would have been proud of and at last the ugly wart that stood out like a sore thumb and took up room is no more.
   So now after two days so called rest I once more return to my flame and that wonderful magical world to bead making. With the sunshine placing that sense of summer upon the fens what better time to create more natural designs in glass, that feeling of new life in the air, the world of nature once more fresh and this amazing countryside again coming alive, what more incentive does this bead maker need.

April Showers

April Showers


   The week of sunshine and warm afternoons comes to an end here in the fens, this morning the showers of April drench the black soil and dark wide skies sit over the flat lands like those on painted backdrops in some victorian theatre where the black clad villian draws boos from his audience.
   The plans of this bead maker were to toil in vegetable garden but these must await a dryer day and beads will be cleaned, photographed and made ready to list for sale, maybe tomorrow the day of rest, will be spent sowing the seeds and turning the soil.

      

 

Alive Once More

Alive Once More


   Once more the marshland of the east wakes from it's winter sleep, finches fill the hedgerows, heron and cormorants fish the drains and rivers and buds of every kind rest upon tree branch. Again the the river banks are covered in a mosaic of yellow daffodils, from white to golden butter, heads dance in the fen breeze while reed beds emerge from the ice cold waters where eel and zander feed.
   Fen tigers sow seed in kitchen gardens and livestock are placed upon lush fresh grass while the last winter logs are warming still those few cold nights that remain.

Playing With Rock

Playing With Rock

   With Spring well and truly upon us, this bead maker has been enjoying the warmer weather, the longer evenings and the fresh enthusiasm that this wonderful season brings. The new beads in both the ebay and etsy stores are fast becoming popular and my days are once more filled with the enjoyment of making the beads I myself love, the more natural beads for which I am known.

 
   The actions I took of completely emptying both shops to start afresh were a risk of course, but I just couldn't go on spending day after day making beads that failed to please me, it wasn't me at all. I knew it was time to introduce once more my love for the rock and silver effects that bring that smile to my face and if this meant the odd customer who was looking just for cheap beads would no longer buy my work, then so be it.
   I must admit, to say I'm enjoying my work more is an understatement, I'm loving it, those feelings of excitement are once more there when I open my kiln each morning and as any true bead maker will tell you, that is such an important part of this life.
   To take a look at the new stock that is being added each week to the shops just click on the following links, https://www.etsy.com/shop/pebbledreams  http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Beads-Of-Glass I hope you find something that may interest you.
    Now it's time for this old bead hermit to get back to his flame and the magical world of fire and glass, that little world free of stress and worry.

Making Beads For Me

    

   Bitter cold frost fights the early spring sunshine this March morning, the bird song loud and cheery as this bead maker gets ready for another day playing with his flame, more magical focal beads I hope will be produced and dreams of that one perfect bead will still ride my thoughts.

    For the first time in years I’m making beads I like, those beads I enjoy and those beads that excite me when I empty my kiln, no more will I spend days making beads that mean nothing to me, now I get that pleasure once more that I felt before my bead making became my living, once more I feel proud of my beads.

   Sometimes we have to take a risk in the way we earn our living, in my case did I wish to churn out beads that meant nothing hour after hour just to make coin or would I prefer to make beads that maybe not so many people would buy but beads that made my working days far more enjoyable, I’ve taken the second option. And by doing so it has once more lit that passion inside me that I really thought I had lost, there were times I even considered leaving my torch cold to seek another path to follow but thank heavens I didn’t, for I know how unhappy I would have been without a flame in my life and that warm kiln beside me. 

Winter Sun

   Fresh breeze, blue sky and glorious winter sun that places a lustrous sheen upon the great willows do welcome me this weekend morning. Goldfinch feed on seed and the wicked talk of the magpie does echo through the conifer wood, the home of jay and sparrow hawk, where dappled stars of light cut through the hanging mist.

   Cock pheasant struts from hadgerow to open headland, the sun lighting his rainbow chest like polished glass while brambles rest from frost and ice for just one day. For this bead maker a day of fresh air will be enjoyed and the pen too will enjoy freedom, for it's words will bring memories and opinions that none can erase.

Winter Coat

   With snow white frost nestled under shade and Egrets searching the ice filled dykes that line every jet black acre, the cold north west winds sweep the fenland on this day of rest like winter's own besom broom. The blackbird rambles like a drunken sailor through the berry clad branches while those of baptist faith entre cold chapels where brick and timber house great words of priphets and disciples.
   My mind dreams of the past souls who stood in this cold fen air, breath rising from every word as fingers bare the winter coat that we all wear, a coat that colours the cheeks and fills the lungs, with coldness, but one that keeps us healthy and fen tigers strong.