Edinburgh Christmas lights 2013

Mirka Janeckova

I felt the need for some wintery white and the jewellery of Mirka Janeckova seemed perfect. Then I saw her White Drawings and had to show 3 of them as well, they are very striking and I actually thought they were inverted photos of actual jewellery when I first looked.

FREE Shipping and $5 OFF each of my products when you access my Society6 store with this link (only available vie the link).

Promotion expires December 8, 2013 at Midnight Pacific Time. *Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

More free shipping on Society 6

Another free shipping deal on most Cally Creates Society 6 products including iPhone/iPad skins and cases, from now through Monday (cyber Monday for those of you that call it that).

Sunset with Robin

New Society 6 Mugs with free shipping

You can now get my designs on Mugs via Society 6. Jeepers, I can't keep up with all the changes. You can get free shipping* using this link until midnight on Sunday (Pacific Time) so if you are tempted to splash out on any of my work before Christmas this is the ideal time. *excludes canvases, framed prints and cushions with inserts but does apply to lots of other items.

Moonrise in the night garden

The moon and cloud free skies have made the garden beautifully silhouette filled this week.
The last photo is the bamboo which, after years of being waist height, has responded to the hot summer and heavy rains by towering high above my head this year!

Sunset 14th November Autumn into WInter

It's been great to see the return of some lovely sunsets this week after a period of cloud and rain. Tonight was a real pleasure to watch, it looked lovely in all directions and changed from pale pastels to quite intense shades of pink and purple in the North...

And fast changing oranges and yellows with hints of purples in the South West (which became very fiery near the end before softening off at the end as the street lights came on. The trees have lost nearly all their leaves now but as long as some are still clinging on my head thinks it is Autumn, but dropping temperatures and early sunsets are telling a more Wintery story (this took place over 12 minutes from 5.17pm)

New sizes/style of Cally Creates bags

Over at Society 6 my they have introduced a new style of Tote bag, and the option of larger sizes so my designs are now printed right to the edges, so much nicer! If you are tempted to buy one this is a good time as there is free shipping on them (and on several other of my products) through Sunday the 27th of October.

September, tiny ponies, red Rowan

Autumn came early to many plants in the garden after a brief dip in night time temperatures, meaning the baby Rowan in the garden turned red long before the mature ones. Also the young Spindle and the Virginia Creeper making seasonal leafy splashes of brightness sooner than expected. Lovely. And then a surprise, tiny ponies 10 minutes from home.

August - Portobello Beach

Free shipping on my designs this weekend

I just noticed that there is Free Worldwide Shipping on Cally Creates products in my Society 6 shop this weekend. With this heatwave making Scotland hotter than LA this month it seemed fitting to highlight my LA inspired Amorph range which was very much based on the vibrancy and colour of living near the beach in California in the 80s. The intensity of the light in Venice totally changed the way I worked with colour. This design is available as prints, cards, cushions, cases & skins for various phones/iPods/iPads/laptops.

Nearly all my Society 6 work is based on my old college sketchbooks and designs from the late 80s and early 90s. It's nice to see them released back into the wild after being in captivity for 25+ years and it's a way of keeping my hand in so I don't completely lose all my computer skills (M.E. is really messing with my memory for such things, I couldn't even remember how to cut and paste last week).

Here are a few more designs that are more reminiscent of the colours of a Scottish Summer where the beach colours are less intense but they have a fresh quality that reflects the  clean air and blue skies we get. I'm fairly sure I was also influenced by old tiles for the Carina pattern. 1.Carina (blue) 2.Tilly (blue grey) 3.Carina (grey)
 

Flowers in a very hot July

June sunrise 4.49am

The sun has been rising at around 4.30 lately and I'd hoped to get some nice Solstice shots but alas it was too cloudy. Instead here's how it looked at 4.49 on the 23rd and 25th of June.

Still cloudy but mainly near the horizon so the rest of the sky was pretty bright (not that it even gets truly dark at this time of year unless it's heavy cloud at night).

Angelica, Dogwood and Enkianthus in June

The Angelica is in it's 3rd year and despite a late start it put on an astonishing amount of growth in the last 4 weeks, it's huge! Last year it was a bit taller than me but this year it's taller than the shed, probably about 10ft tall, and may grow more. What a wonderful giant of a thing.

The Dogwood is Cornus 'Hedgerow's Gold' which always lights up it's mostly shady corner.

The Enkianthus - oh what a delight to see. Last year the constant vicious gales and 2nd late freeze meant it only had about 4 flowers, poor thing. This year it is SMOTHERED in them and they are strongly resisting the gales today, which fortunately are of a much warmer nature than the ones that ripped the leaves off the trees last year.

The White Lilac has flowered really well, it's been getting pruned back over the last 3 years and this is it's first year without any of the old unproductive branches. It seems very happy about it and the flower clusters have held on for at least a full month.

The Rowans haven't recovered fully and like so many trees around Scotland they are looking a bit see-through, but I'm pleased to see they are managing a few smaller scale flower clusters so we will get berries this year (so long as no freak weather comes along before September).

More plant photo's to follow just as soon as I get them cropped.

Pink and Purple May flowers & foliage

Hard to get the colours right on screen, the Azalea is pink but the others are all a tad more lilac or purple than they look here. Azalea 'Girard's Hotshot', Hebe, Wallflower Erysimum Bowles Mauve and 3 shots of Tulip Attilla which I was amazed survived the wet winter as it's in clay soil.

Late but lovely Spring Clematis & Tulips

Clematis Alpina & Clematis Broughton Bride finally opened in the garden with the Tulips, not sure which type of tulips they are, I must have it written somewhere, but they are so crisp and clean looking in green and white, I really love their purity.

As the month comes to a close it has managed to squeeze in the opening of the White Lilac and the Spanish Bluebells which I like to have in a jar beside the computer where I can enjoy the scent when I am catching up on my long neglected emails - it's been quite a year so far, I am so far behind with everything, but I guess that just makes me more in tune with the higgelty piggelty lateness of the seasons. I can hardly believe we are about to enter June already when only a month ago the garden was covered in snow!