Weekword: Empty

The word empty often has negative connotations: the glass is half empty, my fuel tank is empty, or saying someone is empty-headed.  I quite like it though, for me empty is a good thing.

If something is empty then it’s free to be filled up, whether that be with beer, petrol or information.  Empty space is rare in this house because it’s a small house with limited space, and it doesn’t help that my mother and I are natural hoarders.  I would prefer to hear that something is empty than to hear it’s full – empty suggests possibilities for filling things up!

My studio is full to the brim at the moment and it’s driving me nuts.  I’m desperately trying to empty it again so that I can have the pleasure of working in more space, and of starting the process of stashing things away once more.

That’s it from me for this week’s word, a bit short and sweet but I spent most of yesterday feeling horribly unwell and now that I seem to be on the mend I want to make the most of today.  Jenna over at Timballoo is this week’s host for Weekword, so pop along to her blog to see who else is playing.

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Weekword: Character

I like buildings with character, which goes some way to explaining why I loathe and destest places like Westfield and newly built apartment blocks.  I love beautiful buildings, but it’s the small details that really speak to me.  I took this photo back in April…

It’s a close up of the front steps to a client’s house.  It’s a gorgeous house in Little Venice, Edwardian or Victorian (I’m not great at identifying periods!), but for me it’s this little detail that gives it character.  The stone steps, worn by the tread of ages, really brings hoome how much this building has seen.  The people who have lived their, the lives they led, the sheer weight of history.  If those steps could talk I wonder what they could tell us.  The house was renovated last year and the architect wanted to replace the steps with shiny new ones – thankfully my client said no!

Katy over at Creating Misericordia chose this week’s word.  It was a challenge thinking something up, so pop along to her blog to find out who else managed to play along.

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Weekword: Scent

My life has been very fragrant of late, as the flowers in my garden are in full bloom.  Roses, pinks, jasmine, honeysuckle and sweetpea all vying for my attention.  At work this week I’ve had all of those as well as philadelphus (Mock Orange), so my sense of smell has been working overtime enjoying itself.

Sadly no one has yet invented a scratch-and-sniff computer screen, so you’ll just have to make do with photos of the flowers instead

Now take a trip over and see what Katy and Jenna have put together for this week’s word.  Oh, and at the last minute we’ve been joined by Margot over at Tulsi Crafts and Sally at Sow & Sew too!

I’m tagging Katy over at Creating Misericordia to choose the next word, so pop along to her blog on Monday and see what she comes up with.

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This week’s Weekword is…

… scent.  If you’d like to take part then please post a comment below, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with on Friday!

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Weekword: Treat

After a brief hiatus last week we’re back, and this week’s word is being hosted by Jen over at Timballoo.

It’s very handy that Jen chose treat as this week’s word, as I did treat myself to a little something this week…

…new waterbrushes!  My old ones are a bit worse for wear, with one having a damaged tip and the others being really unreliable in their delivery of water to the bristles.  I used to buy Pentel Aquash ones, at about £5 each, but found these on Cult Pens at only £2.50 each.  Bargain.

As an added bonus they’re each a different colour, so I’ll be able to tell which is which far more easily when rummaging in my bag (all the Pentel ones are the same colour – not helpful in the slightest).  It’s a small treat, but I’m really excited about these new waterbrushes

Jenna’s tagged me to choose the next word, so please pop back on Monday to find out what it is!

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Weekword: Bird

The lovely Sally over at Sow & Sew is the host this week, pop along to her blog to see who else is playing along.

When I saw the word Sally had chosen my first thought was of the birds which come to my garden.  I don’t get many (thanks to the neighbourhood cats, and a sparrowhawk…), but I do take great pleasure in watching them when they do get up the courage to visit my feeder.  Recently I’ve had great tits, and my house sparrows have appeared once more (they vanished for months after the sparrowhawk took one of them, right in front of my eyes!).

So, yes, I was going to post some photographs of the birds in my garden, but my camera isn’t very good when it’s zoomed in and the pictures aren’t great.  What to post instead then?  The answer was right in front of me.  Literally.

That drawing (pencil on paper) was done by my dad, in 1971, and it’s hanging up in my living room.  It’s been there for years, and yet I rarely notice it.  I did notice it today though, and had a proper look at it for the first time in years.  The detail is incredible, and it’s such a beautiful drawing.  I thought it would be the perfect thing for this week’s Weekword, so here it is and I hope you like it.  If you’d like to see another piece of my dad’s art click here.

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Weekword: Boundaries

I was wondering what I would find to write about for this week’s word, and then on Wednesday the answer just fell into my lap.  Jihae Hwang’s DMZ Forbidden Garden, at the Chelsea Flower Show, was the perfect subject.

The garden is surrounded by a fence of barbed wire, and although I scoffed at the blurb in the show guide (“The barbed wire fence surrounding the garden creates a feeling of mystery and unease.”) it was actually spot on.

The garden is full of little details, which you can’t see from the outside.  Normally this would be a problem, as the usual practice is for the show gardens to remain pristine and people aren’t allowed inside them.

The DMZ garden is different.  They were allowing visitors to cross the boundary and enter the garden, which I think might be a first for Chelsea as I don’t recall visitors ever being allowed into show gardens prior to this.

This was easily my favourite garden at Chelsea this year, and being able to stand in the centre of it and see all the fine detail made it even better.  Some boundaries should be crossed.

Kiki over at Camera Kiki is hosting Weekword this week, pop along to her blog and see who else is playing along.

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Weekword: Forgotten

I’m very late in posting today, but this week’s weekword is being hosted by Jenna over at Timballoo so do go and see who else is playing!

As it’s quite late in the day, and once again I’m disorganised and a bit last-minute, my contribution this week is a photograph…

Myosotis sylvatica, more commonly known as forget-me-not, is often overlooked even if it’s not, strictly speaking, forgotten.  It’s a humble little plant but the vivid blue flowers brighten up random corners of most gardens at this time of year.  It self-seeds very freely so once you’ve got it you’ll have it forever, and if you do I hope it will never be forgotten.

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Weekword: Glimpse

Heather over at Free Spirit chose this week’s word, so pop along to her blog and see what she’s come up with (and also see who else is taking part).

I decided to do something a little different this week.  Normally I waffle, and on occasion I come up with a sketch, but this week I went digital.  I knew the effect I wanted, and although I could probably have done this by hand as an actual drawing I thought it would be a bit quicker to have a play with my image editing software instead.

Original photography by me (taken while I was in Sheringham back in February), and you’re glimpsing it through the Alice in Wonderland font.

Happy weekwording everyone!

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Weekword: Sloth

This week’s Weekword is sloth, and it was chosen by Peggy.  If you go and visit her blog you’ll be able to see what she’s written, as well as a list of the other participants.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about but sloth has turned out to be a pretty apt word for today.  I attempted to go to work this morning but was thwarted by poor conditions (too wet to work in one garden) and inaccessibility (couldn’t get into the other one), so I came home and since then have been uncharacteristically lazy.  I’ve washed my hair, killed some time having a nice soak in the bath, and that’s pretty much it.  If you’re familiar with my usual inability to sit still then you’ll find this as unusual (and worrying!) as I do.

What can have caused this sloth?  It might be partially due to tiredness as it has been a very busy week and I’m sure I’ve not got enough sleep.  I think the main cause is the weather.  It’s been utterly miserable for almost a whole month now: torrential rain, and when it’s not raining it’s just grey and suffocating.  At this time of the year the days are getting longer and there’s usually lots of energy floating around, but currently it feels like the opposite.  Far from having more hours of daylight on some days it’s been so grey and dank that it’s felt like dusk all day.  I can just feel it sapping the life out of me.

There’s no controlling the weather though, we’re having the wettest drought conditions* on record and there’s nothing we can do about it.  So I’ll have to perk myself up somehow.  Hmm… watch this space.

 

 

*seriously, if you’re not in the UK then you’re probably not aware of this but apparently we’re in a drought.  There are hosepipe bans in effect and everything.  Yet it’s the wettest April in 100 years and areas of the UK have been flooded.  Go figure.

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