After the Storm came the snow

Snow last December.

Thursday's storm was pretty full on and the house felt a bit like a cardboard box because we could see the walls wobbling in and out with the gusts. The joys of mobile homes, but we were luck not to be one of the 50,000 people who lost their electricity supply. Apparently more stormy weather is due in a few days but for now things are calm and I awoke to a beautiful inch or two of snow. It's not deep but I suspect it is quite wet snow because it manage to crumple my Skimmia Japonica, which was only just recovering from last year's snow damage. Other than that most things have been pruned or supported so as to resist all but the heaviest of snows

Inspired by the black trees in snow I put together a little selection of black and white niceness, a fantasy Christmas wishlist:



1. Duncan Shott Magnetic Cloud Keyholder £20
2. Sagemcom Sixty Retro Style Digital Cordless Telephone approx £90
3 & 4. Sanna Annuka for Marimekko
5. Nordic Knit Booties (can't find a source for these)
6. One of my own cushion covers approx £17.

My Halloween - food, face, flowers - 2011

Much belated, a few snippets from my Halloween Dinner party:
1. Autumn Squash and a lovely Black Bear brooch from Adadine (guilt gift from Mr P).
2. Facepaint always makes me happy.
3. Oxalis plant in a ceramic raku fired bowl I made in the early 90's.
4. Japanese snacks in a small ceramic tealight holder.

Halloween costume inspiration - black & red

Sylvia Ji 'La Adelita' 2010 via the Joshua Liner Gallery.

I love this Sylvia Ji painting. Although it has much deeper meaning it also makes for great Halloween inspiration and it combines my love of dressing up, Dia de los Muertos and Freda Kahlo in one glorious image. These are large painting in Acrylic and gold leaf on wood panels and you can read more about the background to the works in the Las Adelitas exhibition on the Joshua Liner Gallery flickr page for the show.


Sylvia Ji 'Red Quechquemitls' 2010 see full exhibition at the Joshua Liner Gallery.


Sylvia Ji 'La Madrina' 2010 see full exhibition at the Joshua Liner Gallery.


Andrea Peira's winning Photo in the World Body Painting Festival 2011

This is exactly the sort of thing I like to do, but when you live in a mobile home and like candles it's just not practical, so I make do with enjoying the work of others unless I'm invite to things in large open spaces. The Photograph above was by Andrea Peira and the costume and body painting was by Birgit Mörtl+Melanie Rodel Body Painting Festival 2011


Birgit Mörtl+Melanie Rodel - Body painting & costume for the World Body PaintingFestival 2011 (via weddingphotography.com)


Halloween make-up via Hairdresser-Models.eu

Halloween inspiration - black white grey & stylish

Mummified drink bottles by one charming party


Marshmallow goody bags by one charming party


Crushed Oreos adorn the top of the cake to resemble dirt, inside is red sponge. By one charming party


Halloween table display with pumpkin painting tutorial on Apples & Onions


Black lace candles on Family Chic


Table setting for Black Halloween in Sweet Paul Magazine


Black Pumpkin styled by Paul Lowe for Black Halloween in Sweet Paul Magazine


Framed Embroidery by Paul Vitale for Black Halloween at Sweet Paul Magazine


Spanish Moss tealight holders and white Ranunculus with wording make more grown up table decorations via One Charming Party.


Chiharu Shiota - In Silence - 2008


Sweet Paul's scary portraits tutorial is here.

So you have some ideas for the house, but what about you? I always think about how I'll do my hair, or my wigs. Here are some tamer than usual ideas for a more stylish party...


Désirée Dolron - Xteriors VI - 2003 (via Alain Truong, see more on Artnet)


Dusan Jaukovic working with Morpheum Couture for Best Shop (via Haute Macabre)


A Tribute to Dorian Gray. Shot by Vincent Alvarez for Soon International. Found via Haute Macabre.

Next up, what to wear? Perhaps that should have been before the hair, but I usually start with hair and work a look around it. When you are going for something stylish that shouldn't mean giving up on the costume side of things, dressing up is half the fun. One option is to think Couture or Avante Garde catwalk style take some Halloween fashion tips from the runway shows and magazines.


Gareth Pugh via About a Girl.


Gareth Pugh - Spring Collection, Women's 2010 via Million Looks.


Gareth Pugh - Spring Collection, Men's 2010 via Homme Times.


Gareth Pugh via About a Girl.


Peter Pilotto Franken-Fashion mask for model Guinevere van Seenus on Dazed Digital.


Chic Gothic Glam, shot by Craig McDean for Vogue Italia. Found via Haute Macabre.




Photographed by Jerry Bennet :: Modeled & MUA by Manchester
Wardrobe and Styled by Alex London. Found via Haute Macabre.


Photos from Max.Tan’s F/W 2010 collection via Haute Macabre.


Iris van Herpen - Capriole - Paris Haute Couture Show

I have so much more but don't have time to find the links, perhaps another time? FOr now I need to get on with my own Halloween arrangements, like dusting off Mr P's green lady painting 'Tina' by J.H.Lynch which is perfect for Halloween in a mobile home since it oozes kitsch. I'll try and get a photo if I have time.

Hawthorn Shield Bug

Hawthorn Shield Bug nymph - Acanthosoma Haemorrhoidale, about 5mm

Look at the Panda faced little fellow I founf in the garden this month. It's a mid instar nymph of a Hawthorn Shield Bug. There are very few Hawthorn berries around but they clearly like the Pyracantha too and get the goodness out of them with what I call their 'doober' a little sucking tube, which may or may not be similar to the proboscis of other insects. I know with butterflies they can curl theirs up whereas the shield bugs tend to tuck theirs under their body when they are not using it. I don't know what they eat the rest of he year but they are vegetarian.


Hawthorn Shield Bug hiding out in the Pyracantha berries


Hawthorn Shield Bug mid instar nymph

The distinctive red of this fellow is already beginning to take on some hints of green, which can be more clearly seen on the photo below from a week earlier. I didn't even realise it was there till I checked my berry photo's and spotted it. When I went out a week later he/she was still on the same clump of berries, posing for the shots above (too windy for good focus).



The webstite British Bugs is great for Identifying theses sorts of critters and shows photos and illustrations of them at all difference life cycle stages. I'd seen the much larger adults before but I'd never seen the tiny and variously coloured young. I'm very happy to have a garden they like since they are becoming rarer in Scotland. Below is an adult one I spotted in April and which I tend to see around the garden from time to time. I had no idea about all the variations they go through before adulthood.


Adult Hawthorn Shield Bug - about 15mm long

I'll be watching out for the wee thing over the coming weeks to see if I can photograph it as it turns green and grows bigger, though perhaps it will move elsewhere to blend in.

Another first was spotting a 5th instar nymph of a Parent Bug beside my Sweet Peas, I managed to get it onto a broken terracotta pot for some photo's before returning him to the foliage to hide.


5th instar nymph of a Parent Bug - Elasmucha Grisea

It's hard to believe but the wind here still hasn't stopped, I'd hoped the tail end of Hurricane Katia would mark the start of a calm period but I was very much mistaken. Last week continuing gales trashed my coldframe and lots of the propagated plants inside. They represented months of time and love and were going to make a huge difference to the new bit of my garden next Spring, and for filling out gaps left by winter casualties.

I've saved what I could but it was a very sorry mess, and now I have nowhere to house the 100's of plants that need winter protection. Time to cobble together something that can handle wind, rain, pest invasion and possible heavy snow (and on that note the men still haven't replaced the garage roof that collapsed in the snow in December).

Scottish jewellers

Iona Brown - Ring with salt crystals - DJCA graduate 2011

I love making crystals, haven't done it for years, so it was nice to be reminded of them and even better to see them incorporated into her jewellery. I don't know how wearable or lasting it is but that is part of the beauty. Lots of my own paper and twig jewellery pieces are still going strong after 20 years despite everyone telling me they would fall apart quickly.


Merlin Planterose - Necklace, Ring and Silver Bowls - DJCA graduate 2011

As someone who liked working with nature to create my own metalwork, bowls and other works I'm really liking the techniques used by Merlin Planterose to, in her father's words, turn silver into stone. She used stone as both hammer and anvil to give a beautiful natural texture to her pieces, which includes stone dust from the process which gets embedded into the silver. I'd love to see and feel the effect in real life.

Chelsea Flower Show 2011

Yes it's that time of year again and as I batten down the hatches and staking my tall irises and alliums for the gale due tomorrow (on the back of 2 solid weeks of gusting winds) I don't mind being kept inside when Chelsea is on the TV (BBC Chelsea coverage times here red button coverage details here).



From the preview program I'm liking the look of The Times Eureka Garden in conjunction with Kew Gardens. Plant cells and capillaries (which always fascinate me) play a major part in the design by Marcus Barnett and this is especially reflected in The Times Eureka Pavillion. The initial sketches didn't show much colour but on the BBC coverage it seemed to have some lovely a lot of low purple spires (Salvias?) poking through what initially looks like quite a loose almost cottage style of planting, the plants intermingling to create the kind of patchwork that usually reveals more and more on closer inspection.

The Laurent Perrier Garden also looks to have some beautiful, softly bulging planting but I'm not at all keen on the wooden structure which looks like a copy of the moving panels in one of the smaller gardens last year (I liked the original version). I'll need to watch tomorrow and see what it looks like properly.

It was grounded by the wind but I'll be interested to see what this structure will look like in the air for Diarmuid Gavin’s Irish Sky Garden. Lots more to see and hopefully more ideas that are based on sustainability, bees and being green.