Lots of Lovely Things

Prepping like crazy for Christmas shows...

I hardly dare mention the C word before December but organised folk might want to know I now have Christmas Cards for sale in my website shop.

All website purchases will help towards a festive donation to the wonderful RNLI.  (10% of the profits from Christmas card sales)

I am badly behind in keeping you updated, so here are some dates:

Right Now;
There is a fabby pop-up gallery/shop open in Maldon (where the salt comes from) featuring my stuff and other nauticalia alongside Den Phillips' black and white photos of the East Coast and classic yacht scene.  Do go along if you are anywhere near;  Maldon is a sweet market town, home to a fleet of Thames sailing barges and the infamous Maldon Mud Race (piccies here and here).  The Salty Dogs shop is a veritable feast of all things boaty and arty.

Salty Dogs 2013 venue is:
11 Market Hill, (top left facing down Market Hill), Maldon, Essex. CM9 4PZ
Shop opens today and runs until Tues Dec 31st.
Open Mon-Sat 10.00am to 5.00pm.
(also open on Sundays in December 10am to 4pm).


Next Weekend;
I will be manning (womaning?) my stall at our local NSPCC Christmas Fair.
"Mersea's answer to the Country Living Fair", this fair is always a smorgasbord of gifty goodness,  come along and say hi if you are hereabouts.
Sat 23rd November 2013, 10am-2pm at Mersea Island School. CO5 8QX.

Also Mersea Island Museum are holding their annual art exhibition (from Friday 22nd - Sun 24th November). You might find more than a stuffed owl and a Roman coin...

My Stuff (and me).

I ventured off the island today.

I went north, to Suffolk,  where the birds sang and the sky was blue
(everyone knows Suffolk is posher than Essex).

There is a lovely little boatyard on a pretty little river where Claudia Myatt (of RYA Go Sailing! fame) tinkers away.

She's having a bit of a do this weekend to which she has invited my stuff (and me), so if you want to see something Leafish alongside something Claudiaish alongside the pretty Deben, hop along to Waldringfield Boatyard where it's all happening.

Here is a little look into Claudia's world via Youtube, where she talks about her sailing books for children.

Two Weekends that Were.

OPEN STUDIOS 2013.  Thankyou everyone for coming.

Open Studios

I am having a bit of a busy time right now getting ready for Open Studios 2013.

Liz Morris, Vinny Stapley and I make up the Mersea contingent of the Colchester and Tendring Open Studios art trail this year.  

We will be opening our doors to visitors on the last two weekends in September.   Crikey! - That's only three days away!

We are all a stone's throw from one another, it's easy to walk from studio to studio, so if you are in or near Mersea and fancy an arty day out by the seaside do pop by and say hello.

Scandalise the Main!

Oyster dredging in the river today.

A Tricky Task

It's Mersea Week and I have been given the high honour of judging the regatta children's art competition.  There are so many fabulous entries, choosing a winner is nigh on impossible.  It's a very tricky task indeed.

I am not normally known for my Liberal ways, but I have had to come up with a handful of 'highly commended's to ease my guilt for the equally brilliant children to whom I haven't awarded the winning trophy.

Prizes will be presented on Regatta Saturday at the official prizegiving, 7.30pm outside the Old Lifeboat Station (or in Peter Clarke's shed if it's raining).

For a closer look, all the paintings and drawings will be on display on Regatta Saturday in the Victory marquee, Coast Road (marked by a pint of beer on my map).

Mehalah

We have a local heroine (from the 1800's) we all adore, called Mehalah.  Nicknamed Glory, she was strong and beautiful and lived a rugged life amongst smugglers and fishermen on the saltmarshes around Mersea.

She's a fictional character (in a book of the same name) but none-the-less real in our hearts.

If you haven't heard of Mehalah you might have heard of the hymn, Onward, Christian Soldiers.  Both were written by Sabine Baring-Gould who was rector of East Mersea church between 1871 and 1881.

I don't think Baring-Gould much liked his time in Mersea but despite his dislike, I want to add a quote from Mehalah to the bottom of the Coast Road map.  There is a gaping hole to the left of the logos that is crying out to be filled with some good words, and the Reverend Baring-Gould was very good at good words.

He wrote,
'Between the mouths of the Blackwater and the Colne, on the east coast of Essex, lies an extensively marshy tract veined and freckled in every part with water.  It is a wide waste of debatable ground contested by sea and land,  subject to incessant incursions from the former, but stubbornly maintained by the latter.'

He goes on to say,
'A more desolate region can scarce be conceived, and yet it is not without beauty.'

It is still that same flat marshy tidal estuary.  Think Dickens and the wild lands of Great Expectations.