Travels Near And Far....

Losing Track of Time.....

I Hope you will forgive me, Dear Readers, if I take you on a Journey to a place that is Far Far Away and not altogether Certain of its Time. I traveled last weekend to a place near where I had lived in my teenaged years, in order to attend a Memorial Service for the Late Husband of a Dear Friend. The Memorial was held in a tiny, old New England Meeting House, situated at a crossroads in the middle of the woods, miles and miles from any other Village or Town buildings. This Meeting House was only about thirty miles from where we used to live, but it might as well have been in a different land altogether, as we had no idea then, of its existence or the Splendor it contained! On the exterior it was a normal White clapboard "Church" such as are liberally scattered across the New England landscape.

But the moment you cross the threshold, 

you can see that it is no ordinary place!

From the mural in the entrance vestibule 

showing the "community" that tends the Church....

To the glimpse through the doors to the Hall itself.....

You can see that every square inch of wall and ceiling 

has been painted in genuine "frescoes"

a la Michaelangelo!

(For those who might not know, a "fresco" is when 

the paint is applied to the still damp plaster. 

This way the pigment becomes part of the plaster 

not just a surface coating like with normal paint.)

They were created in the 1950's by some artists 

who were teachers at the nearby "Skowhegan School" 

a summer Arts School of some renown.

The Themes are clearly Religious, suiting the nature of the Meeting House,

but are modern in their style, and varied from artist to artist.

I believe Eleven different artists contributed, but I do not know their names.

Here is the view looking back to the choir loft above the entrances.

I took a great many pictures, and will not bore you with All of them....

One of my favorites is this Noah's Ark with the Dove.....

And beside it, up in the Choir Loft.....

Angels spread their wings.....

And Play their harps....

And Save Souls......

All the interior woodwork is the original unpainted pine....

here are the stairs to the choir loft.....

Simply constructed..... all the pews with doors

(almost the only painted parts!)

Such an utterly unexpected and Glorious Creation!

And a close-up of the "Church" in the hands of the people!

And I hope you will forgive me even More, Dear Readers, 

if I skip you from that heightened plane to the lowly world 

of my painted rocks for the Cloud Palace Tower!

We don't even have to Travel far to see it.....

I did apply myself diligently after all 

and covered the interior of the Tower with egg carton "rocks"!

Above you can see the only picture taken before I began to paint them....

It is late at night and the lighting is terrible....

Here you can see the Front corner with the first coat of gray paint applied

this was after the primer, of course.

And here you can see where I have started to paint 

all the "cracks" between the rocks a darker gray...

It is really quite tricky to get the paint all the way into the cracks!

(I am reminded that I should have under-painted the walls 

with a dark color before gluing on all the "rocks"!)

It will take many more layers of paint to make

 the "rocks" look anything at all like rocks!

It is a Journey that is only just begun!

And Speaking of Journeys, Dear Readers,

I have to share with you another Journey that has just begun....

Well, actually, it began a while ago when my Sister was visiting,

and we agreed that it might be a nice thing if there were 

a couple of Fairy Bearys to come live in her Cottage Doll House!

So I asked Birgit....

(really, she Must be tired of hearing from me by now! LOL!)

And Birgit worked some of her Magic.....

And she sent "Buttercup"

and "Marmalade".....

Two sister Fairy Bearys......

who have come to see the Cloud Palace and all the Beary gang

on their way to my Sister's Cottage Doll House!

They are very much alike and completely different at the same time....

just like Sisters so often are!

But I must confess there is only one little problem......

The Minute they arrived here they flew off to the nearest Dollhouse.....

And so it was that Beatrice awoke one afternoon from her nap 

and found the two Fairy Bearys standing in her room!

"Who are you?" asked Beatrice in her most polite voice.

(She was familiar with seeing other small creatures talk.... 

so she was not surprised when they answered her!)

"We are Buttercup and Marmalade" said Buttercup.....

"And we have come to visit the Cloud Palace" added Marmalade.

"There's a Cloud Palace?" said Beatrice, her eyes opening wide!

"I've never seen a Cloud Palace" she added, 

"all I've seen is the Old Castle ruins. 

But they are Dangerous and I'm not supposed to go there!"

 "Hmmmm...."  said Marmalade...

"I am certain there is A Cloud Palace somewhere here...."

"We're supposed to visit our Cousins 

on our way to our new Home...." added Buttercup!

"I've never heard of the Cloud Palace," declared Beatrice.

But privately she thought that maybe she would ask her 

brother Tommy if he knew anything about a Cloud Palace.

But she didn't want to let Tommy know that she was talking to Animals again...

it made her Family a little worried!

Meanwhile, Buttercup and Marmalade asked if they 

could stay for a while and rest from their long Travels....

Beatrice said "Only if you promise to hide when anybody is coming!

They must'nt know you are here!"

"That's easy" said Buttercup...

"We'll just fly off when they are coming..." added Marmalade.

So it was decided that they could rest a while 

and tell Beatrice all about their Journey!

Well, Dear Readers, I must leave you here, 

at the Beginning of another Long Journey.....

For in case you hadn't guessed, 

The Fairy Bearys have arrived in the Right place...

But in the Wrong Time!

(Beatrice lives in the year 1852.....)

So I hope you can forgive me for leaving you here

After Traveling Far and Near

And Losing All track of Time!

Under The Lilacs.....

A Sweet Dream.....

Lilacs are a Hardy and long-lived shrub, Dear Readers, and because of this they are found nearly everywhere in New England, many specimens long outliving even the homesteads they were planted beside a hundred or more years ago! For most of the year they are unremarkable, enduring where they were planted, slowly growing and spreading, green in the summer and bare stems in the winter. But for one glorious week every May, they are unforgettable in their perfumed and lacy splendor! I walk under these lilacs every day at my place of work, and there have been lilac shrubs of various sizes at nearly every place I have lived, and there is even a small (badly damaged by last winter) specimen at my current home. So can it be any wonder that I should think of making a Lilac bush for the garden at the Folly?

And in my mind's eye it is tall and graceful 

and covered in glorious clusters of blossoms!

Somewhere In blogland, a long time ago, 

(I am sorry I don't remember whose blog it was!) 

I saw a lilac shrub where the person had made all the blossoms individually 

and I thought that Someday I would try to do that too to make my lilac for The Folly!

So it was that a while ago, when it was still deep and cold and snowy winter, 

I started to make my miniature lilac blossoms....

one floret at a time!

I cut a punched circle into thirds, 

and serrated the edge of each third into four sections..

and glued each section to a piece of thread.....

and then folded the section around the thread and splayed the petals.....

Here below you can see the florets attached to their threads....

And then I paint the florets....

a lovely lilac color!

But is it really small enough?

Is it truly 1:12 scale???

 For this I had to get scientific, Dear Readers, 

and go measure my own lilac blossom...

The single solitary blossom cluster 

on my poor battered shrub this year!

And then trying to get a measure of an individual floret.....

It appears that each floret measures just under an inch across!

Here below you can see a floret up close with the mini versions....

But is the mini one one twelfth of the real one?

Perhaps we can judge better if we line up six of the mini florets....

Well, they might be still a tiny bit too large... six of them are 1/2 inch....

and the RL floret is less than one inch across...

Well, perhaps we will have to claim they are Robust and healthy lilacs!

And when the florets are glued onto the stems in clusters.....

there are eighteen florets on each of these clusters.... 

and I think they should have at least a half dozen more florets on each cluster....

at a minimum!

And so far I have made five of these clusters!

(Just how many clusters will I need for my shrub?)

Ah, Dear Readers, It is another one of those Projects

that I Will be working on for a very long time!

But Someday I will have my Tall and Graceful 

Blossom covered Lilac bush growing beside The Folly porch!

It is Such a Sweet Dream...

Under the Lilacs!

'Twas Early In The Month of May...

Projects Old And New.....

I hope you will not be Too Surprised, Dear Readers, to see that I have picked up my needle and Magnifier and continued the embroidery of the Tiny curtains for the Pagoda Bed in the Tree House Chinoiserie Bedroom! The first of the two curtains has been mostly done for ages now, and the second curtain had only just been started. The curtain panels each are only 2 and 1/2 inches tall! They fit together inside a 6 inch embroidery hoop with room to spare. So what has been holding up the progress, you ask? Well, I needed to decide whether the second curtain would be a copy of the first one, or whether it could vary from the design. I have decided that it will be basically a copy, in that the flowers will be of similar color and design.... but it is very difficult to copy exactly! It seemed pointless to make an entirely new design, when one of the curtains faces the wall and will rarely, if ever, be seen! So they will be a matching pair! And I embroidered most of one blossom and part of another on Sunday morning as the beautiful May breezes wafted in my window!

There is still a Loooong way to go, but I made progress!

And another project that still has a Loooong way to go 

is the adding egg-carton stones to the Guard Tower of the Cloud Palace.

I had a Dream one night that all the Beary Guys 

were standing around Playing Cards in the Guard Tower,

and I realized they would need some seats to sit on!

I decided to make some built-in Stone benches....

And Hamish Harry came by to see if they were the right size!

Yup! He says they will do nicely!

So I got to work adding the "stones"....

Starting with the window openings.....

I found a piece that would bend over the opening and

stretch to the sides on both the inside and the outside!

They needed to look like a single piece of "stone"

forming the base of each window.

And then the remaining structural pieces for the window 

could wrap around the open edge....

And the same was needed for the bottom steps...

It needed to appear as though it was a single thick piece of "stone".

I started on the edges for the open doorways too...

And the "stone" bench....

There is a Looong way to go on this project!

And because there was such a Looong way to go, Dear Readers, 

did I work at it diligently?

No, I am afraid I got distracted by the Beautiful May Morning....

And remembered Another project....

Painting the walls of the Willowcrest Bedroom....

trying to capture that Perfect Moment on a May morning....

when the apple Trees are burst into bloom....

And the lilacs too......

(I know the colors don't look right here.... 

it is the dark purple variety of lilac!)

And before you can even catch your breath, 

the Quince are blooming too!

(Just starting to add the color in the above picture)

Yes, believe it or not, Dear Readers, there is still a Looong way to go 

with painting these walls, trying to capture that Perfect moment....

Here you can sort of see how they look in place in the Willowcrest....

These are modeled on the murals I have been painting 

on the walls of my RL bedroom...

Trying to hold onto that perfect moment...

early on a May morning....

As if that were possible Dear Readers!

But Twas Early In the month of May....

And as you can see, Even though there is a Loong way to go

I made progress on Old Projects and new!