Spring shrubs enjoying the sunshine

Today was cold but oh so very sunny and many bushes and trees were filled, or filling, with colour. I love when the sun shines through the leaves of the flowering currants providing a glorious contrast in colour from the pink flowers.

Elsewhere I've been delighted by the flowers on the Winter flowering Honeysuckles - Lonicera Fragrantissima, which have been flowering since early December and this month have been providing a much used early nectar source for some huge bumble bees in the garden.

It's funny how in October 12C means jumpers on, and in March it means jumpers off. Beautiful sunny weather and no cold wind! It's hard to believe that this time last year we were under snow that lasted right through April so we could barely see the snowdrops or crocuses. Not so this year, they are abundant and basking in Spring sunshine. They hovered as 'drops' from mid Jan through Feb and then when the warmth came they all opened up in crisp white perfection, just like the clouds.

California Colours

A little mix here of older college patterns with newer California pieces based on photos I took when my lovely wee Brother treated me to a trip back to LA  in 2008 to visit all the places we lived and hung out at. That place really did have the biggest influence on me colour wise, year round sunshine was not something I was used to in Scotland and although yellow had been my favourite colour as a child (taken over by aquas and most greeny blues by my mid teens) it was a primary yellow, daffodil yellow. I'm sure the other yellows were around but I hadn't noticed them.

Moving to LA opened my eyes to a whole new world of yellows. They seemed to change constantly depending where you were and I think I was as much influenced by the feeling of them as their actual colour. I don't know if there really were sharp the yellows by the ocean in Venice where there was no smog, but it certainly felt that way in comparison to the tainted yellows of Downtown LA and the warm and ever changing orangey yellows of the hot desert areas outside LA. And of course there were those Pacific sunsets.

The pieces above from the California collection (top row 1-3, 2nd row 3,) represent that Oceanside feeling of heading down to Venice beach and seeing how everything looked crisper, with the blues and yellows heightened by the cool clean breeze coming off the Ocean, always so refreshing in the heatwave that was the 80s.

FREE worldwide shipping and $5 off items in my S6 shop until March 9, 2014 at Midnight Pacific Time! 
Use this link: http://society6.com/callycreates?promo=8ff1b1 
*excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

Free shipping weekend includes new designs

Another Free Shipping weekend on Cally Creates products* including these new fishing net iphone cases and skins when you use this link - offer expires January 12, 2014 at Midnight Pacific Time. *Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

I was yearning for a beach visit but in lieu of that I started looking through old photos and thought these would make nice cards, prints and phone skins. Sadly they aren't large enough to make bigger items but they satisfied my beachy cravings.

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)
 

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.

50 minutes of Sunset

Such a lovely changing sunset on the 6th, I went from window to window taking photos in all directions, this is just a very small sample of the changes it went through. So beautiful. As you can see I've given up with writing under photo's as the new Blogger layout makes it such an unbelievable faff. Life is to short to waste time formatting each post and I've forgotten all the html I used to know.

update - I'be decided that since it won't let me write then it has to be all about the image, so i should make them bigger. Old posts with smaller images will still show at their full size when clicked (applies mainly to posts after 2009, prior to that I was making them tiny so my blog allowance wouldn't run out too fast). I hope you like the change.

The photos are set out by direction rather than in the order they were taken. Photo 2 was so bright it lit up inside the house, it was so intense. I wish I had made a video of the transition between the 1st two photos, i think it only took 5 mins to change, would have looked nifty speeded up.

1-3   Looking North and North East
4-7   Looking South West
8-10 Looking West

A few mid August sunsets

Sunset on 18th August

As I was taking the sunset at the top over a 20 minute period I heard a distant bang and realised that in the distance the fireworks could be see going of at Edinburgh Castle. They usually start once it's dark but on a Saturday they do 2 shows so the first one is early when there is still plenty of light in the sky. I was so beautiful. The 3rd photo is a detail of the clouds over the trees as it intensified.


August 13 2012

August 16 2012

Possibly 17 August 2012

Reach for the sky...

This Clematis has suddenly settled in this year and is putting on a load of excitingly rampant growth which I've not been dutifully training in my usual fashion, so it is heading for the sky!

Garden snapshot May 2012

Narcissus, Clematis, Angelica

Clematis, Clematis, Solomon's Seal

Acer, Narcissus, Heuchera

Rhododendron, Tulip, Pieris, Tulip

Click images to enlarge.

My head for names has gone so I hope nobody wanted details of each variety. I'm hoping the nice weather will help get me enthused about the garden again and then the names will pop back into my head. Fingers crossed.

March Sunset

Lighter nights now the clocks have gone forward.

Some old photo's for Liz

Magnolia flower and Bali when she was younger

East and West coasts of Scotland

A couple of college pieces: 1992 and a screenprint from 1990(or '91?)

Book jacket cover design which I messed up, but it made it look like this mashed up fishing net in Dunbar

Different kind of light I notice with camera in hand.

I was looking through some of my old photos and put a few together for you Liz. You've had too many words to take in this week - I thought some images might be in order.

Where my head's at...

Kwon Seulgi - Untitled - Brooch - 2011
silicone, pigment, plastic, thread, wood, stainless steel


Kwon Seulgi - Untitled - Brooch - 2011
silicone, pigment sterling silver, thread, stone, glass bead, stainless steel


Kwon Seulgi - Cell 10 Brooch - Oct 2009
silicone, pigment, plastic, stainless steel



Chanel Spring 2012 Under the Sea


Studio Bertjan Pot - Cluster Light 2009


Ernesto Neto - "Simple and light as a dream...the gravity don’t lie...just loves the time" 2006
Installation view fromTanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
Photo: Fabian Birgfeld, photoTECTONICS.
Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (Via Moment/C)