the show must go on, nevertheless

The five sets of bear parts photographed at the end of August (for heaven's sake) are gradually achieving their potential. There was some mis-ordering of joints and eyes, and a general loss of stamina over the last three weeks since Queenie went missing..the black dog snapped at my heels but i am rallying. If anyone's going to home a BovisBear, Christmas must be a likely time so i am cracking on.

This is a lovely medium to long length faux fur. I used glass eyes made sparkly with a metallic paint which shine beautifully in the dark thick fur. Lot of heart-in-mouth scissor sculpting around the muzzle and eyes and paws.

These curly bears can't keep still - really hard to get a focussed picture of them. I'm still tinkering with my patterns but think i've got the heads right now; i'm pleased with the longer muzzles and this boy even has cheekbones.

However i think i am placing the hind legs too far apart. All of the five appear to have rickets when standing. Luckily bears spend most of their time on all fours or having a sit-down.

 These bears are 20 inches tall. I need to re-work the body pattern as i found i had to set the heads further back into the hump section otherwise they hung woefully. Much breaking of cotter pins and undoing and re-sewing of the head joint - almost reduced to tears! i wonder if i should use a lighter stuffing for the heads instead of the heavy stuffing? Presumably old bears had/have Excelsior fillings, wood-wool.

I have made a return to traditional teddy-bear front paw shape for a little while. I saw a photograph of an old bear and felt nostalgic. Not certain if my realistic front paws are appreciated. I haven't given up my ambitions to make bear-like teddy bears; i shall start again (concurrently with larger teds) but on a much smaller scale.

   I have also been making knitted bears now that knitting season is upon us.

Here are 3 miniature woollen bear bodies and their respective limbs in a pile beside them. I shall give them button joints.

And here is a frankly monstrous bear knitted in a chunky wool blend, quite tight with 4mm needles in moss stitch (seed stitch if you're American). It's actually a nice mustardy golden colour in daylight but becomes this dirty orange in lamplight. I feel as though i've been knitting him forever - had no idea (until it was too late) that he would be this big - 26 inches! I have to order bigger eyes!!

This is one of the last pictures i took of Queenie, before she disappeared, playing on the rooftops with Uncle Boris and NoNo (who misses her.) I'm still leafleting the area and knocking on doors and I've met some very kind people; there are now many pairs of eyes looking for our girl.

everything went to pot eleven days ago

nearly finished, i think

25th September, after using glue and acrylic paint to darken the corona.

October 4th, just now.
I've been pulling and peeling bits of the gluey paint off here and there and i covered the bottom section in tissue paper and glue. When it was dry i smeared various yellows over the top, rubbing it in sometimes. I made the fabulous peacocky, labradorite blue on the right hand side (as you look) last week with Prussian, French Ultramarine (Green Shade, W+N), and Cerulean. (I hope you can see it - i've only just realized i'd mis-calibrated my screen and it wasn't showing at my end until i put it back to Adobe RGB.)
   This afternoon i felt the fizz of possibility that this painting has arrived at the beginning of the end. And for me, it will mark the end of the beginning.
                                         

equinoctial garden

The carnival of Sunflowers is over for the bees and the people (seeds left for the birds), and the long Fox Glove bombus party is a season ago but there are many Survivors in the garden, budding and blooming and playing on.

A Cobea bud! Also known as Cup and Saucer vine and Cathedral Bells, i grew this plant last year but had no flowers. I was fearing the worst again this year but spotted a couple of odd shaped leaves while i was washing up and rushed out to find they were buds!

Each stage of the flower's development is distinct and wonderful

and surprising: the flowers are unfurled for a day before they become purple.

i think this is a tea rose. My (nice side) next door neighbours were having their last remaining patch of earth concreted over several years ago and thoughtfully offered me their only cultivated plant. I rushed round with my spade and a bucket and rescued this lovely rose. I took these pictures at dawn last Thursday. These particular blooms have now been deadheaded but there are a few buds left on the bush.

i love Dahlias. I grow them every year from seed as i have usually slipped into a seasonal decline around the time i should be digging up and storing the bulbs. I am hoping to try and do the right thing this year, although i am a little disappointed to have had none of the big scarlet pompom blooms promised in the picture on the front of the seed packet. Nearly all of this years Dahlia are white and chrome yellow. These two are the exceptions.

When i became a gardener, my Mother told me i must grow Morning Glory and so i have done every year - sometimes a bit late, like this year, but they have obliged happily at the last minute. My friend Sally is a gardener now and i have passed on the lore.

This is a Helichrysum flower, on it's way out but fading with such grace, humility and quiet elegance - an example to us all. Snigger. But doesn't it look like a young Edwardian girl, gazing at the sun setting on the sea? Perhaps the Channel, perhaps she can hear the artillery....oh stop it.

I grew some new Astors this year. The colour hasn't transferred to screen very well, they are much mauver. I have a clump by the fish pond that i transplanted from my Grandmother's front garden when the family house was sold which are much paler and more delicate, proper Michaelmas Daisies.

The Datura are coming into their own now. I grew 10 this year, gave some away and have 5 or 6 in the garden. They deserve an entire post to themselves really. Sally alerted me to their extreme toxicity so i have a wash after hugging them now.

 These 2 little flowers are doing very well. Queenie is 5 and a half months old now! We assume NoNo is about a month older, 'though Queenie is taller all of a sudden. I'm hoping to be able to make a double appointment at the vets for their spayings so that they can get through the difficult day and convalescence together.

 

Nana will look after them.