Did you read about this????  It appears that there was a major altercation at one of my favorite English gardens the other day.  It’s hard to imagine, given its posh atmosphere, but there was a free for all that turned quite ugly from what I hear.

It seems there was this gentleman, let’s call him… Just William, and his lady love, having a beautiful afternoon tea at Pashley Manor.  If you’ll recall, I’ve mentioned Pashley Manor in a recent post and highlighted it as one of my favorite gardens of 2008.  And that’s why the events that unfolded there just a scant week or so ago, are simply beyond shocking.

Anyway, this Just William fellow and his wife were having a lovely afternoon tea at Pashley Manor when suddenly this big ball of feathers decided to pick a fight with him; poking at JW’s leg in a very mean-spirited manner.  Mind you, JW was minding his own business, in fact, I believe he was staring longingly into the eyes of his lady-love wife, whilst eating some kind of a scone or other, when this big… huge… fat duck decided to become quite obnoxious in a very un-English-like manner.

It was a horrendous affair with bits of scone and feathers flying all over the veranda and the help shouting at Just William to stop feeding the duck (which it might have appeared, whilst in the midst of this altercation, that the scone crumbs that were flying were actually being tossed at the duck)… deep breath.

It ended up with Just William giving everyone a tongue lashing, including the duck who does not understand English, and marching off to the local Little Chef, which has no ducks, to finish his afternoon tea.

Sigh… it’s such a sad state of affairs to see yet another lovely English garden fall prey to roving bands of malicious ducks who don’t even pay an admission fee to get in.

I’m happy to report that Just William has fully recovered from this horrifying event and is now having his afternoon teas at the local garden center.  I do advise him, though, to be sure to sit under an umbrella whilst having his tea.  Birds won’t peck at people’s legs in a mean-spirited manner but they have been known to leave their calling cards while flying overhead.

How’s this for fun?  I was playing around in Photoshop which lead me to creating postcards which lead me to dragging out the England photos which lead me to creating faux postage to go with the faux cards from a faux trip to a faux country that’s a cross between England, Italy and France (an English garden on a French “postcard” with an Italian “stamp”).  Bellisimabeaupucka.

The top three “stamps” are ATC-sized.

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These are all a ruse - fake fake fake but fun fun fun.  Wish me were there.

More dumpster art this week - stay tuned.  Went to Noblesville after a depressing trip to the local mall that pulled up absolutely no grunge and very little rust.  Even the parking lots were crack-free.  I never realized how boringly well kept up the local mall was.  Not that Noblesville isn’t kept up, mind you.  It’s a sweet little town north of Indianapolis.  But it has c-h-a-r-a-c-t-e-r and doesn’t mind if its age shows just a bit.  Peeling paint, cracks and rusty dumpsters are so much more appealing when one is carrying their camera.

If you’re ever in need of a good texture, you need go no further than the dumpster behind your favorite store.  Today, Draw and I went on a dumpster hunt looking for rust textures and, lo and behold… all of 15 minutes later, pay dirt.

A peek at the fun I have in photoshop using dumpster rust.  This photo is of a charming window at the charming Clergy House in Alfriston.

I shoot in RAW so every photo I take requires some processing in Photoshop - this is the original shot (above), after converting from RAW to psd and processing (exposure, sharpen, crop).

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This is the same photo using an overlay of dumpster.  The actual shot of the dumpster rust looks like this…

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After a bit of processing in Photoshop because this was shot in RAW mode, as well.  Hard to believe that, by using this overlay of rust on the original photo it can achieve that kind of soft vintage look.  Depends on your layer setting - I used soft light.

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Now.  Same original photo but as I was jumping in the car after taking some photos of the dumpster behind Pier One - I happened to look down and saw this…

…which, in and of itself, is rather homely.  But that cracking at the top has some potential.  After a bit of color and exposure tweaks and some cropping, I got this…

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…which has major potential.  I think it looks pretty cool just like that, but I really wanted it for this…

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Voila!  Changing the layer setting on that interesting grunge layer, let’s the even more interesting window peek through.

And this is why I have this intense love affair, bordering on an obsession, with Photoshop.

By the way, if you’re a mixed media artist, these window will be available in a digital collage sheet at my shoppe, PaperWhimsy.  And these texture overlays will be available shortly for purchase for digital artists.  Same place.

More on Pashley Manor as I’d promised.

This beautiful scone was eaten by me on a warm sunny day at Pashley Manor.  It was flaky, crumbly (as a good scone should be) and filled with herbs and cheese.  And yes, that is butter and I ate every bit of it.

A close-up… Oh, I remember it well.

We shall get back to Pashley Manor shortly.  Perhaps later today.  For now I want to bounce over to Exmoor, where we spent our trip within the trip.  Five rainy, wet, cold, and somewhat glorious days traveling between the two moors: Ex and Dart.  After the first day and a half of wetness we watched the weather report with the notion that somewhere on that peninsula there would be sun.  And we found it.  It was quite the trek on those crazy English roads but half the fun of sightseeing needs to be the journey getting to the destination otherwise one could find themselves quite miserable.

This beautiful spot happened to be in Exmoor, specifically the Doone Valley and even more specifically, Oare Church.  An old and ancient structure and purportedly the church where Lorna Doone was shot on her wedding day.  Through a small window, by her half brother.

Perhaps this window.

The view from the steps of the church - the peaceful Doone Valley.

A closer look…

The church gate.  I must say, there is noting quite as inviting as a gate that is left open.  It just calls to me… “enter… enter…”.  And I usually do.

And this foreboding thing is Knole, Photoshopped to high heaven.  I think the overlay really adds to the rather ominous feel of this place.  I’ll share more of the moors, Pashley Manor and a touch more of Knole as I wade through my photos.  I’m really just browsing through them and picking out the ones that appeal to me in that moment.

Does this not feel like the most chaotic and boisterous trip, ever?  Hither and yon, to and fro, over and back?  Oh, Shee and Pee, I can’t help but wonder… is this how it feels when your chaotic DIL comes to town?  But far more than just looking at the photos, you’re actually living it?  Bless you.

More tomorrow…

My love affair with Photoshop borders on an obsession.  Just about everything I do during the day has something to do with Photoshop.  Other than cooking, cleaning, laundry and the occasional trip to the loo.

So the last couple of days I’ve been looking through my photos of England and giving them a good dose of that old Photoshop magic.  Given that I’ve written and rewritten about day one and day two of this year’s trip and I’m not really interested in rehashing that again, I thought I’d just post a few photos every day or so and just blab about what was going on when a particular photo was taken.  For me, that’s the best way to wade through all this mess and keep me going.  I am notorious for leaping with both feet into a project and then stopping mid air and changing direction.  Hopefully, doing the trip blogging this way will keep me pushing on through all 1600 of my photos.

And since my FIL is bugging me about my journal (as I did him about his - hey, where is your journal, anyway, Pete?) I think I’ll appease him and get on with it.

In no particular order…

This is my favorite castle - Leeds.  I’ve belly ached about this a zillion times already and I’ll belly ache yet again: Leeds is like the only castle in England that lets you take shots of the interior.  Go, Leeds!  This particular shot was one of the 453 shots I took that day.  And of course it’s sporting a few texture overlays and some filter magic.  Hey, I never claimed to be a photographer - I’m just an image maker.

Leeds, again.  How nice to be taking a shot from the inside looking out.  This was our last full day in England so very bittersweet.  I think this shot does a right good job of evoking how melancholy I was feeling.

Also Leeds with a minimum amount of Photoshoppery.  As you can see it was a rather dull day - they were holding a jousting match on the grounds.  Peter, Sheila and Jo went there instead of in the castle with Draw and me.  I think I can see one of the horses beyond the moat.

And one more of Leeds - busts of the monarchy.  They don’t look this moldy and grungy in real life - that is totally me and my filter obsession.  Cool, eh?

Did I already tell you about Smallhythe Place?  This is a National Trust property so no photos inside.  BUT they do advertise that you can make an appointment to take interior shots.  Several years in advance.  Nah… just kidding.  Or at least I hope I am.  You can make arrangements to take interior shots but I don’t know that you need to do it several years in advance.  Okay, enough about that - here’s a window.

Walking up to the house - it really is quite charming.

A look once we’ve passed through the gate.  I just love the way this house takes its age in stride.  A few dips here and a few sags there and she is even more lovely now, I am sure, than she was the day she was built.  This is what I dearly love about England.  It does not feel the need to raze the old to make way for the new.

Okay, jumping from Smallhythe, which was Day Two, to Pashley Manor which was Day Nine or Ten… Pashley Manor is just lovely.  Lovely lovely lovely.  The grounds are peppered with contemporary artwork and done so in a very tasteful and highbrow manner.  I enjoyed our visit to this beautiful garden - I think it was way up there on the “Gale’s Favorite Gardens of 2008″ list.  They also have a charming little gift shoppe and a top notch restaurant with al fresco dining under white canvas umbrellas.  I would go to this garden again and again (be prepared, Sheila and Peter).  This scene is in the pool area.

I just realized that I’ve not played with a lot of Pashley Manor photos so now I’m jumping over to Alfriston and this charming rose-festooned bench at Clergy House.  I’ll get back to Pashley Manor, I promise.

Alfriston is a very old, very cool town.  Very old.  And Clergy House is their National Trust property.  Clergy House is just an amazing and charming and quaint little decrepit house with a small cottage garden.  I wanted to pick it all up, stick it in my pocket and carry it home with me.  And I really really really wanted to take some interior shots but unfortunately… you got it… National Trust.  No sign saying you could make an appointment to take interior shots and given that there are, like, only three or four rooms in the place, I can’t imagine that a lot of people are dying to get photos of the rooms.  Just me.   Because this is the kind of charm that just tickles me.

Ahhh, so… I think I will head back over to Photoshop and take a peek at some Pashley Manor snaps for tomorrow’s entry.  I’m really going to try to do this…

Okay, Peter, I’ve showed you mine - now let’s see yours.  How’s that journal coming?

Travel along with me by visiting my website, PaperWhimsy.com, for the complete (oh, yeah… there’s more) full-sized version of my journal (click HERE for the secret door).  I’ll be adding updates as I create the pages.  Lots to see (1800 photos should take us pretty darned close to England 2009)!

Happy Travels!

You just can’t help but get the "gardening bug" when you travel to England.  "Garden" is practically its middle name.  Engardenland.

So, while we were on the plane, Draw and I discussed how this would be a fine opportunity for us to start that meadow garden we’d been talking about.  We’d seen a meadow garden for the first time, last year, at Great Dixter and pretty much every garden we visited this year had some part of it as a meadow garden.  Surely we’d have an amazing sprout of grass and wildflowers (weeds) in place of our lawn since we’d been gone over two weeks.

Amazingly, when I rang home once we touched down in the states, my son announced that he’d cut the lawn as a welcome home surprise.  Surprise!  So the meadow garden will have to wait a few weeks though I’m sure the neighbors did get a sneak peek at what’s to come later this summer.  How excited they must be!  Finally, the Blair-Drawbridges are going to do a bit of landscaping.

So… home at last and the lawn looked pretty nice.  But what’s this?  As I  peered out the kitchen window to admire the lawn.

Do you see it?  Hang on… let me give you a closer look.

Ahhh… a tree.  No, wait.  Not a tree.  It’s a… WEED.  Did you realize that if you let Canadian Thistle have its way in your yard, it flowers?

I guess my son didn’t notice these in the flower beds when he was cutting the lawn.  Or maybe, because they had "flowers" he figured they belonged?

There are some handy uses for these prickly pests, though.

A security gate. 

You can’t get the true height of these because I’m shooting at a downward angle.  They’re actually about 2 foot tall. 

And who’s going to want to break into those windows, above, with Canadian Thistle standing guard?  Thank you, Canada.

Did you realize that Canadian Thistle grows to 5 feet tall?  It’s true.  I measured it.

So Friday, Draw’s day off, we are attacking the Canadian Thistle beds.  I have only a slight worry as this stuff is extremely hard to get rid of.  I just read an article by a guy who organically eradicated this stuff from his property and it took him FOUR years.  And he was thrilled.  Blah.   Give me chemicals and lots of ‘em.  Canadian Thistle may be persistent and pernicious, but I can be a royal pain in the bum, too.

BTW, doesn’t this scene look vaguely familiar?  Except for that weed I’d swear I was in Low Cloud Country.

Welcome home…

We’re well and truly back from our trip doing the mundane stuff like unpacking, sorting through junk mail, sorting through email, washing clothes…

And doing the far from mundane: looking at our photos.

You know, for me, one of the best parts of our travels is savoring all the photos that we’ve taken.  I really can’t imagine how I could possibly remember all our adventures if there weren’t photos.  And this year, what a great idea doing the journals.  What I didn’t manage to capture, in writing, Draw did.  Heaven help us if we had to rely on our memories.  Seriously, we could barely remember all the National Trust properties we’d visited.  We needed to drag out the journals to bring it all back.

So - journaling… I’ve learned a few things.  Don’t bother painting every last page of a watercolor journal in preparation of the trip.  I spent hours doing that, making a freaking huge mess, dragged it across the pond with me and then ended up doing nothing in it.  I couldn’t print photos to stick in it and since I’d already painted every page I couldn’t very well repaint them.  I’ll use the journal, I’m sure… eventually.  I sure hope so.  The pages are really pretty cool but they need an adventure.

Second thing I learned - make sure you take your art supplies with you.  I left everything at home and ended up spending a fortune on pens, paper, watercolors, blah blah blah.  Left most of it there since I already have the stuff here.

Third - start collecting the leaves, flowers, and whatnots to squish between the pages, from the get go.  I only started doing it about midway through, and even then only sporadically until Day 11.  I love looking at those squished bits of ivy and lavender. 

Fourth - do take a journal.  Take two.  One for writing and the other for artwork.  Most of my art will be done at home but I look at that as just another opportunity to relive the trip, along with the looking at the photos.

Okay then, on to the adventures… stay tuned!

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, what a bummer to find out, yesterday, that we weren’t flying out on the Tuesday but actually flying out on Monday.  It’s like having a lollipop and someone snatching it out of your hand.  Or an ice cream cone with a double scoop and they both fall off and hit the sidewalk with a splat just as you’re taking a lick.

Fudge!

I will return to reminiscing about our wonderful trip but for now, I want to share a few shots taken at Leeds castle on this, our last full day in England.

I will dearly miss Peter and Sheila and Jo.  What a wonderful family I married myself into.  Kismet.  I’m a very lucky gal, indeed.  Gracious, funny, fun…

Anyway, a quick little peek at Leeds and then I’ll be back tomorrow evening (hopefully) and every day or so for the next couple of weeks as I reminisce about this awesome trip.  It’s been amazing.  And I have 1854 photos I want to share with you. 

Say, what?!

I think this is/was Lady Baillie’s bedroom or sitting room.  I just fell in love with this chair and took 6 or 7 photos of it.  This one I managed to catch the lovely floral arrangement at the window.  (See - that 1854 photos isn’t such a big deal… it’s probably only 300 different scenes.  I usually take several snaps at a time just to make sure I have something in focus.)

Another chair.  And a portrait of Lady Baillie and her daughters.

A statue - not Lady Baillie.  I think it’s a queen.  Perhaps if I read the signs around the castle instead of just looking at the pictures I’d be able to tell you who this is and what it’s all about.  Nevertheless, it makes a good shot don’t you think?

That first chair… again.  And the table with the exquisite embroidery under glass.  Do you think that people really use this stuff?  Sit in the chair - eat at the table?  Maybe this was a game table.  Eye candy.

Door knocker.

Drawbridge.  Three of them.  The charming Sheila who is always smiling, the effervescent Jo who isn’t, the camera-shy Peter who is quite the pistol. 

Hmmm… something’s up with Jo and Peter.  Look look.  Look at Jo.  Look at Peter.  Look at how they smile.  Smile Jo smile.  Smile Peter smile.  Run Gale run.

A dear family if ever I have known one.   And I have… and it’s them.

‘Til next year…

I’ll probably do this in bits and pieces rather than one big bit because it’s a lot of scenery, photos, ponies, whinging, fog, rain… dangerous roads… for one post.

We started off for Devon around 10am.  It’s a six hour drive (maybe 100 miles?) on twisting and meandering roads that hook and unhook in no logical sequence.  You go up to go down and down to go up and over to go back… it’s really quite bizarre.  But the Navigator has it all under control and she has a method to her madness on these crazy English roads. 

Since seeing Pride & Prejudice last year I’ve had a hankering to get to Stourhead Gardens to see the site where Mr Darcy laid out his proposal to Lizzy Bennet on the steps of the Temple of Apollo on a windy and moody and rain-soaked day.

So a little bend here and a little bend there and several hundred more after that and we found ourselves at Stourhead.  It was a brilliant day with amazing clouds and I was loaded for bear with my big fat 8 gig memory card.

The tricky thing about this Temple of Apollo is that it isn’t within easy walking distance of the car park (parking lot).  It’s about a three mile walk around the grounds and most of that three miles is getting to the Temple.  Blahhhhh… but then… that means I can have a dozen cream teas guilt-free because of all the exercise.  ’tis the hard life of a photographer and one must bear such hardships stoically.

Stourhead is really very nice.  The house (you saw it in yesterday’s post) is kind of tatty inside (there are residents) but the exterior is quite cool and when you have clouds such as those we were blessed with on that Sunday - well, that’s a photo op of the highest order.

After coming out of the house and following the path that would eventually get us to the Temple of Apollo, we came upon this pretty sight, peeking through the flowers and the trees.

The Temple of Apollo, which at some point started to remind me of a kind of ancient and abandoned space ship.  Such a shame.  I’m going to have to watch P&P so I can erase the space ship image out of my mind.

One of the two remaining statues decorating the Temple.  There were several empty porticoes which makes me think that at one time there may have been several more statues.

The bridge that Lizzy ran across to escape the discovery that the dastardly but oh so appealing Mr Darcy broke up the relationship between her sister and the awkward but endearing Mr Bingley.  Interesting to me that this bridge is grass covered.  Inconsequential but interesting.

And so our "one hour" side trip on the road to our side trip turned into more like three hours.  But it was a lovely day even if it ended on a slightly sour note (a slight scolding from our host at Highcliffe House when I called to tell them we would be later than we expected - thank goodness I "did the right thing by calling" them to alert them to our later arrival.  His long-suffering response to my phone call had me on the verge of suggesting that we’d just spend the night in our car and arrive in the morning so we wouldn’t inconvenience them any further). 

And of course, this…

Welcome to the West Country.

But today it is gorgeous and we have places to go and people to meet, photos to take.  In the meantime take a wander over to Draw’s blog - he’s a much faster typer than I.