Clare Gaylard Artisan Glass 

I'm vacillating (on a daily basis) between needing vibrant colour or being drawn into the washed out, bleached nature in the fields and garden.

This is the work of Tiggy Fiander at Future Primitive Soap Company. She creates handmade soaps and products with enchanting scent blends and weaves wonderful narratives around them. Having watched her tutorials on youtube and relished her work in every way it was a treat to drop into her Evesham workshop last week.

The wonderful lichen on this gravestone in Great Glemham churchyard caught my eye, it's right in the zone of ochre to eau de nil that I'm caught up in at the moment.  

All the best for 2018! A lot of cooking and baking for a series of feasts/guests here - lovely to be able to hand on jobs to offspring and have them done better than I might myself - see above.

We have had a series of amazing days of blue and turquoise skies, green and amber autumn leaves and bright, jewel-like berries.

I didn't know what this was but Folks on Facebook tell me: Tragopogon pratensis aka Goats beard or Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon. I will probably settle for Goatsbeard and feel quite clever that I got it home in one piece, I'm seeing stars.

Family jokes usually have obscure origins. When asked what I want, I frequently (& possibly annoyingly?) say: 'The head of John the Baptist on a silver platter'. So a daughter made me one for my birthday and here he is - a  wonderful, work in progress - now what shall I ask for?

Aldeburgh on Mother's Day - cars often seem generic to me. These less so - the gold one had a bench for a front seat, I haven't seen that since an uncle's vintage car as a child. That's a car.

I haven't been able to upload to my blog over the past couple of weeks but I have been recording a very lovely autumn.

My parents had enough children to mean that I was once told that I was getting a sibling instead of a bike, but also a full shelf of 'Old Masters' art books. Carlo Crivelli was one of my favourites. These were the 'Disney Princesses' I grew up with. I was pleased to find a room of his work at the National, the Annunciation with all its wo...

Just saw Anthony Sher as an amazing Lear -  some lovely RSC costumes for light relief.

My youngest sister just got engaged and in the absence of parents we siblings wanted to mark the occasion. The proposal took place at a significant waterfall so we chose this fabulous chalice by Suffolk potter Christopher Soule, and asked local artist

Actually I will accept anything made by Li Xiaofeng.......

We took in the BP at the National Portrait - which was inspiring but small, then wondered into the National. A staff member was singing out 'Last day!' so we went into what initially looked like an over-exuberant collection of chocolate box covers. On looking closer there were fascinating conventions, subtle skills, quirks, miniaturism and a sense of movement that made the work of some artists highly d...

Complex and powerful, and in her own words: 'When people read erotic symbols into my paintings they are really talking about their own affairs.'

 First visit to Kew Gardens, a bit of a grey day but the Tropical Greenhouse and The Hive were looking good.

We are doing a lot of shifting between London and Suffolk this summer and last weekend I happened across this  fabulous, Venitian millefiori demonstration set at the British Museum. I particularly appreciate the tiny eye sample on the lower left side.

The museum was crushingly full and suffocatingly hot so I'm going to have to go back for a better ph...