A Long and Lovely Summer

Well we may not have had the weather to make it a long and lovely summer but I do feel like I have had a good break and having been to all my favourite places to recharge and re-inspire, I'm ready to throw myself into making for the Autumn season.

We went back to the Dingle peninsula for our main holiday this year. Last year we booked a wonderful holiday cottage for the two weeks but this year we went back to camping.

In years past we have camped way out west on the peninsula but for various reasons we pitched our tent at the Rainbow Hostel this year. I missed the views and the tranquility of our old camping spot below but the hostel had lots of advantages.

One advantage was all the great people we met. Another was being able to walk into town and back in the evenings and a big advantage for me was being able to use the hostel kitchen. Cooking in a tent in wild weather is never very much fun!

Although we visit the Dingle area regularly, we always find new things to do. This year we took a boat trip from Ventry with

Blasket Island Eco Marine Tours

We chose the full day trip which left Ventry at 10am, dropped us on Great Blasket Island at 11, picked us up again at 2 and had us back to Ventry for 5 o'clock.

My photos from the trip are not great as I forgot to take my camera and my phone ran out of charge.

Like most of the days on holiday, the weather was changeable. Bright sunshine one minute with short heavy showers the next.

I was fascinated to see the coastline from out at sea. It just gives a different perspective on the area.

It was great to be on the Blasket Island again. On previous visits we have had spectacular weather and spent the whole day on the beach but as we only had 3 hours and it was a bit showery, we had a nice cup of tea and a scone at the cafe and took the free tour of the ruined village run by the Office of Public Works representatives from the Blasket Centre.

It was interesting the hear all about island life and to learn who lived in which cottage.

The island donkey's made an appearance as well. I'm not sure if they are the same donkeys, but when camping on the island 15 years ago, I woke up to find this one below with his head in the porch of my tent, scoffing biscuits from a bag!

I love the colour of the waters around the island and the view back to the mainland. 

In the afternoon after the boat picked us up again, we had hoped to go north round the Sleeping Giant island to look for humpback whales. Unfortunately the sea conditions did not allow for this. We went south instead, away out to Inishvickillaun.

It was great fun on the boat. We sat way up front and it was like being on a roller coaster. We forgot we were meant to be watching out for whales and dolphins we were having so much fun. We enjoyed chatting to the skipper and crew as well. 

 Seals at Inishvickillaun and Cathedral Rocks on Inishnabro. 

Below is Great Blasket Island viewed from out at sea. I'm already looking forward to our next visit and taking a walk to the back of the island.

Brooding skies often threatened rain that never came.

Although we didn't see any whales or dolphins we still had a great time and we did see seals, puffins, red deer on the island, lots of sea birds and a sun fish. We know from speaking to one of the boat men a few days later that they have seen minky whales and humpback whales since our trip. 

The Skipper gave our daughter a shot at driving the boat! She was so chilled out about it, just cruising along, a little tweak on the wheel here and there. It really made her day.

When we got back to Ventry pier we enjoyed a swim even though the tide was out. We went back to the pier a week later when the tide was right in and had great fun jumping off into beautiful deep, clear water. It's just the best fun ever!

It's amazing how different the temperature of the water can be from day to day and from beach to beach. .We went for an early morning swim at Ventry and it was the coldest water I have ever swam in! And yet when we jumped off the pier the next day it felt lovely.We also found the water at Coumeenole quite bearable but round at Wine Strand it felt freezing! Whatever the temperature, it was always invigorating. It's probably the thing I love best and the thing I miss most about our holidays.

I did no work the whole time we were away except for a bit of doodling at the beach. I'd like to develop this flower in felt and stitch but probably won't get time. I have so much to be getting on with now that we are home. 

I met up with one of my Facebook followers while I was in Dingle and she very generously gave me this wonderful stash of yarn and a whole heap of merino fibre.

I've already made a start using the greens and pinks in this piece below. Just got add the sheep and some more flowers.

Some new work added to my Etsy shop this week include these jewellery pieces and Harris Tweed Trinket Boxes.

My 2016 Calendar is also available.

I'll leave you with this photo taken from a perfect little pub on the pier at Brandon on the north side of the Dingle peninsula. Hope you are all having a wonderful summer. Although there is the tiniest hint of Autumn in the air here, summer is not over yet! ❤

Hiking The Three Sisters

We enjoyed this view of the Dingle Peninsula every day on holiday (see previous post) and decided that we would definitely hike along the Three Sisters at some point during our stay. The Three Sisters are those three little peaks you can see slightly left of centre. Their Gaelic names are from right to left, Binn Diarmada, Binn Meanach and Binn Hanrai.

The first time I ever came around the Slea Head Drive I remember marveling at the landscape and thinking that the land looked like waves that had solidified into rock just as they were cresting. I thought that the walk would involve hiking along the base of the peaks, seeing over the edge at the areas in between. 

How wrong was I!

The day we chose to hike them was a bit dull to say the least.We had been going swimming at Coumeenole first thing every day so a dull day seemed like a good day for a hike. We drove to the foot of the furthest away hill and set off over moorland and heather just as it started to rain. My 9 year old daughter was less than impressed with this and huffed about it so much that I thought the whole expedition was going to be a disaster.

I decided that we would take a short cut up to the shoulder of land between the first and second peak and let David go the long way round the path.

The landscape was pretty bleak. Boggy with heather and bare patches in between. My daughter soon perked up when we realised that the bare patches were scattered with quartz and there was the possibility of finding crystals like we had found at the beach the day before.

A poor old sheep's skull was a source of fascination as well.

So we got to the ridge in a better humour than we had set out in and I was quite happy to sit here and wait for David but Ciara was so enthusiastic by now that she wanted to climb higher.

I was a bit nervous at this point as there was a sheer drop to the side of us so I didn't take many photos. 

We met David coming down and he encouraged us to go higher and low and behold we ended up sitting right up here on top of the peak!

I feel a bit giddy looking at this photo now. We were sitting right up there on the rocks and I did turn round and peek over the edge but I didn't dare fumble with my camera for fear of it or me going over the edge.

This is looking from the first peak south across the other two with Sybil Head in the distance and the Blasket Island beyond that.

We stopped for a shivery bite on the lower area between the peaks. This is not as precarious as it looks, there is actually grass and sheep in front of us here.

So my notion that the hike would take us along the base of the peaks was completely wrong. We actually walked up and over all three of the sisters!

Looking back along to Binn Diarmada.

I'm thinking these peaks must have had much older names as this one is named after the Spanish Armada, some of which were wrecked around here in the 1580's.

Lovely colours and textures in the rocks.

I little hitch hiker on Ciara's jacket.

I was not close to the edge on purpose here, this was where the path took us!

Looking back over Smerwick Harbour Bay.

The view from Binn Meanach.

The vegetation changed to thick bracken, heather and gorse on Binn Hanrai.

We saw this tiny boat below hauling in creels.

I wasn't sure I'd make it to the top of Binn Hanrai as my knees were aching but having already decided that I'd do a blog post about it, I made the effort to get a photo from the very top looking out across the wild Atlantic.

And one looking down as well!

And one looking along to Sybil Head, Clogher Head and Great Blasket Island.

We passed more precarious drops on our way down. 

I find it fascinating to see this coastline up close. There are so many tour buses taking people around the Slea Head Drive from morning to night every day and I really feel for the people on the buses that are doing a whistle stop tour of the country and not getting a chance to really experience the wonder of the place. Everyone can take a quick photo and move on to the next beauty spot but I really enjoy getting to know a place. This area has a special 'feeling'about it that has kept us coming back year after year and never tiring of it.

We lost the path after a while as it seemed to go on up to Sybil Head with no option of coming off the hill and as we had been up to Sybil Head before we just headed off down to where we could see a road. 

I stopped to take a photo of this little bothy and the man who owned it came out to talk to us. He was a great character called Patrick who said we were lucky not to have met the wrath of the farmer who's field we'd come through when trying to find the road. We talked at length with him and he ended up giving us a lift back to our car! What a great guy! 

The sun came out later that day and we got our swim at Coumeenole after all.

Gathering More Inspiration

I have really enjoyed taking some time out this month to play around with a few new ideas and have also been going through last years holiday photo's and been taking a look back at some of my older pieces to gather some new inspiration.

The above photos were all taken around the Dingle Peninsula in the west of Ireland. Fungie the dolphin takes centre stage of course! He is a wild bottlenose dolphin who chooses to live in Dingle Bay and has done for 30 years. We love going back to see him. 

This felt picture below is an oldie but I really like it so I'm planning a new series like this.

I have to get over to Newburgh soon to visit Twist Fibre Craft Studio and get some new felting supplies so I can bring all these ideas to life!

The photos below were all taken around the Ross of Mull and Iona.

You can see that the light is totally different here and the colours that spring out are that beautiful pale turquoise of the water, the lilac blue of the bluebells and pink of the sea thrift.

These abstracts were made using the embellisher machine and I plan to revisit this technique over the coming weeks as well.

 All this planning and forethought is of course for our upcoming Open Studios event in May. It might sound like a long way off but in reality it's only a few weeks when you break the months into creative time so I need to get cracking ! I have SO many things I want to make for this year's event.

The brochure will be out in March and we will let you all know where you can get one but you can keep up to date with it all on our Facebook page here

We are running a series of Giveaway's just now with many of our participants giving away Prints, Cards and Jewellery pieces so if you use Facebook, pop over and like our page to see how you can enter the draws.

Up for grabs this weekend is this A4 Print of 'Buttercup' by Lindsay Mathers

Following on from the needle felted peacock in my previous post, I did this bird last week as well. I've tweaked it a bit since I took this photo. Straightened the stitching on the wing and added a bit of definition around the tail feathers. I'm planning to have him printed as cards etc and the original will also be up for sale once framed.

 

So it's back to serious making next week. I have my first commission of the year to get on with and have a load of felt to make to then turn into jewellery, brooches, pictures and trinket boxes. I'm also planning a new mug design so watch this space!