Who's been to the rock and gem show then?

Well, me! And look what I've bought today:

These are amazonite, picture stone, tigers eye, agate, lapis lazuli, impression jasper, green jasper,chrysocolla and rose jasper.

Now I can't wait to get started! My favourite is the lapis lazuli in the centre (ish) - how about you?

A Walk in the Woods

It won't come as any surprise to those that know me that I do enjoy a nice trip to the woods, so with the weather really rather fine on Sunday (and finding ourselves with a rare window in the diary) we trotted off to reconnect with some trees.

Now, this particular piece of woodland is high on a hill with fantastic views for miles and miles. It's open and airy with mostly deciduous trees like beech, hazel and ash, but sadly not an oak tree to be found (my personal favourite........maybe). The ground slopes VERY steeply down to the one side of the path - glad no one slipped!

It's amazing what you spot in the woods - I wonder who might live in a house like this.......

I love to find little gateways like this one......

I was really taken by the textures of the ivy on this tree......

and the roots on the path......

And finally, if anyone knows what sort of fungi this is then I'd be very grateful not to have to look it up (pretty please).............

Thanks for reading - now that Little Miss is back at school and Small Boy has started in reception (sob) I'm enjoying getting back to the work shop - pics of this week's creations to follow very soon!

Baaaaaa - trials of the sheepdogs

Of course I've seen One Man and his Dog - years ago, is it still on? As far as I recall, it probably isn't quite 'reality tv' enough for today....maybe if they brought in a public phone vote to choose the winning dog and a panel of 'experts' who may or may not have once owned a dog of some kind, perhaps even a sheepdog.

Anyway, I digress......

Today I went to watch the English National Sheepdog Trials and had a great day out with children and grandparents. I've never seen sheepdog trials before and found it quite fascinating!

I won't pretend to have the slightest clue as to how it's scored or what makes a good run - I just spent my time willing the sheep into the pen and marvelling at how the dogs did exactly what the whistle told them to. The children spent the day standing on tiptoes on a hay bale looking through binoculars trying to be the first to spot the sheep coming over the hill.

Note to self: I wonder if whistles work as well on children, perhaps that's my mistake!

Instagram - my new obsession!

Yes folks - I've downloaded the app and joined in the fun. I wanted to see what it was all about and I LOVE it! What a great idea - who knew that browsing peoples snaps could be so much fun?

If you are a fellow instagram addict (my husband is getting a bit cross with me already!) then you can find me over there as @moonriversilver.

I've spent the morning working out how to import my pictures to a blog - my guinea pig was the blog I run for Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Centre (click here if you'd like to take a look) and now I'm messing about with my own.

Here are a few of my photos:


If you'd like to put your instagram pics on your blog then I recommend using SnapWidget to generate the code as I found it really simple. Just remember to add the source as https rather than the http in the original copy and paste (trust me, if you try it this will all make sense!)

Find me on Instagram!

Back to the classroom

It's a bit after the event now (doesn't time fly during the summer holidays!) but last month saw my first foray into the world of teaching.

I'd been invited to run a two day course for Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Summer School, so I diligently packed up my work shop and relocated to a local secondary school.

I have to say that it was a bit strange being back in a science lab again, it was not my favourite subject at school (and yes - labs still look and smell the same)!

I had a great two days with eight lovely and willing students. Over the two days they each made four pieces of jewellery, including a silver leaf and a gemstone tree of life. One of my ladies even made a silver ukelele pendant!

Sadly I was so busy teaching that I forgot to take any photos to show you (maybe next time).

I'm hoping to run some short classes of my own soon, so if you'd be interested in classes in Gloucester then watch this space or sign up for my newsletter here.

To find out more about the Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Summer School you can find their website at http://www.spanglefish.com/gloucesterartsandcrafts/index.asp

Mutant fruit!

Some of you might remember my garden from my old blog. It's still there and I've been busy planting all spring - now I'm watching it all grow.

I'm most proud of my strawberries so far. I've only got the strawberry bed by accident really! Two years ago I bought loads and loads of old growbags from a local fruit farm for something silly like 10p a bag. All my new beds needed filling up and compost/soil is expensive. Some of the bags didn't get used straight away and sat all winter on my drive, but in the spring all the strawberry plants grew again so last year I planted up a whole bed.

They didn't grow too well and I thought they'd all die over winter but they've grown so well this year that it's taken me completely by surprise. In the last 2 days I've picked 2.5kg of fruit! I can't believe it.

We've eaten more strawberries than Wimbledon, given lots to friends and tomorrow we're making jam!

But back to the mutant fruit - tonight I picked this! Now I've never seen a strawberry that shape before!

Was this a holiday or a history lesson?

Well, actually it was both! I have always loved history and archaeology and never let it be said that I am one to miss the opportunity to impart wonderful historical knowledge to my children, even if they're not in the slightest bit interested (which fortunately for me and the sake of our holiday on this occasion they were). My eldest has been doing Iron Age and Roman Britain as her topic this term so when we found ourselves near Castell Henllys it was the perfect place to visit to show her what iron age life was really all about.

If you get the chance to visit then I thoroughly recommend it for a day out with the family - reasonable entrance price and plenty to see and do. Castell Henllys is an iron age hill fort which has been partially reconstructed for visitors. The round houses you see on site are built on the exact place that there were once real round houses all those years ago (based on the location of the post holes). It was a great experience to go inside a round house and see how the smoke from the fire didn't choke us and rose up into the roof space without setting fire to the thatch - a concept demonstrated by the costumed guide by making sparks fly up from the hearth! How does this work? Well, the answer is that there was no smoke hole at all as it would have added air and caused the sparks to ignite the thatch. (I tried to explain this when we built our own mini round house for her Easter project but this visit explained it much better!)

Our wonky attempt at a round house!

We learnt how to make fire using flint, about making bread and about weapons and warrior face paint too. The costumed guides did all they could to really make it come alive for the visitors.

If you'd like to know more you can here: www.castellhenllys.pembrokeshirecoast.org.uk