art | AJ's Art Journaling

Here is the 2nd spread of my completed Junk Journal. If you click on the image you can view it larger. The content is just some scraps of paper, a list of things, names and symbols I wanted to remember and a some more quotes.

I am pleased to say that I feel my muse is coming back, I am beginning to feel like a really want to be creative again.

The first BIG garden job is finished! It took me much longer than I anticipated it would, but there is just a bit of tidying up to do now and maybe a couple of trips to the tip. I had to rebuild almost all of the middle raised bed because the wood was so rotten. Unfortunately I ran out of wood and money so one end is still the old (rotten) wood, but I’ve painted it with wood preserver and lined all the walls with pond liner to give it more protection. It’s not a professional job but I worked hard on it and it’s good enough for me. If that rotten end does fall apart I now have a pallet I can take apart and use that wood to repair it.

I have handed the repaired bed over to ‘the Head Gardener’ (aka T) to sort out the planting. The bed nearest the street wall has already been planted, it has onions, beans, carrots and courgettes (I think). The bed I’ve just repaired needs topping up with more soil and compost atm before anything can be planted and the 3rd bed has leeks and beetroot planted at the moment taking up about the third of the bed. There are potatoes growing in bags at the front of the 3rd bed and the green thing behind it is a temporary greenhouse we bought to use while our old greenhouse is replaced.

That (the replacement greenhouse) is my next (and hopefully my last) big garden job (ever)! The old greenhouse, which was falling apart, has been taken away to be disposed of. We’ve bought a new one to replace it, but I need to do some adjustments to the existing base before it can be erected and put in place. The temporary one is doing OK at the moment. I can’t start working on the base for a couple of weeks now as we are visiting some family next weekend. When I do start the work I anticipate it will take me weeks to get it finished as it is more hard physical labour.

The three raised beds with temp greenhouse at back

Small area of garden near the back door salad veg planted here

Potatoes and beans growing by the garden wall

I just love this giant tree that grows by the pond.

That’s all my news for now. I’ll be back again soon and in the meantime take good care of yourselves.

Big Love AJ xxxxx

There is an exhibition of art by the Street Artist Banksy in London at the moment and we went to check it out.

I was going to go on my own just for a quick day trip, but then I asked T if he would like to come too. He said he’d like to come but wouldn’t be able to manage it in one day so it turned into a mini trip. Because T can only walk short distances we had to take his wheel chair which in some respects made things easier, but in others much harder. We spent far more money than we normally would have done, but as this was the first time we had any adventure away from home for years, we felt that we deserved a bit of spoiling.

We left home late morning on day 1, got to London by mid afternoon, checked into a hotel in South Kensington that was near to where the exhibition was and went out for an evening meal at lovely Indian restaurant.

On day two we had a very expensive breakfast in a lovely ‘cafe’ (it was much more ‘upmarket’ than the cafe’s we have where we live)! The bill for the breakfast came as a bit of a shock to us, but the service was very attentive and the whole experience was very nice. Then at 12 noon we were booked in to see the exhibition. The people running the exhibition were all very lovely to us and made sure we got to see everything and T was well looked after.

The Banksy exhibition was good, you never know really what to expect of a Banksy exhibition because he never authorises, approves or curates exhibitions like this so it’s all done without his input. A few years ago we went to a similar Banksy exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam which I have to say was probably better than the one currently in London, but if you like Banksy it’s still worth going to the one in London.

At the same venue there was also a photographic exhibition by the Danish photographer Søren Solkær, he is more commonly known for his photography of musicians and as a fashion photographer. But for 10 years he worked on a personal project – to photograph iconic street art and to try and track down the artists and take photos of them with their works. Of course many street artists do not wish to be identified because often they create art outside of the law, but Søren’s exhibition is truly stunning and it well worth a visit. Below are a few shots from his show.

French artist Invader in front of some of his pixelated mosaic work

That evening we went for an even more expensive and delicious Italian meal at Rocco’s. Well worth the cost.

The next morning we were up early and making our way home. Unfortunately it took a lot longer than it should have done because our train was delayed by ‘a couple of horses on the tracks’ at some point that meant we missed connections. We got home exhausted at about tea time on day 3 but having had a very enjoyable time.

That’s all for now.
Hope all’s good with you
Big love AJ xxxx

AJ's Art Journaling

This blog is to share my adventures in art journaling. It's a journey of discovery and you are more than welcome to join me.

Tag Archives: art

One huge job completed in the garden and another spread in my Junk Journal

We had a Little Adventure :-)