Birds nests and a posh washcloth!

Spring is well and truly springing round here..blossom is bursting, sunny daffodils are beginning to bloom and the crocuses have been and gone! 

The birds are in fine voice - particularly first thing in the morning!! 

Interestingly during the solar eclipse, the blackbird's evening melody was well tuned!

One day last week I saw two seasonal methods for using short ends to provide some material for nesting birds.

As I had the equipment for one of them at my fingertips I hurriedly hooked a version and it was out waiting for the birds the next morning!

 The easy pattern, which I modified slightly (I thought the birds wouldn't mind some stitch counting anomalies!)   can be found here on the amazing String Theory Crochet blog, where a very creative mother and daughter hook an incredible mix of inspirational, colourful and quirky crochet, well worth exploring..

 A week later and the ball of strands is still there - the squirrels have not squandered it, yet!

The base yarn, a Rowan cotton acrylic mix, was given to me by a friend who works in a charity shop...she has passed on some amazing finds in the past few weeks, for which I am very grateful.

I used some more to make this posh dishcloth for my friend!  

It is hooked with Back Raised Treble from Sarah Hazell's  200 Crochet Stitches...

 and has the most amazing ridged texture..

.... finished with crab stitch.

I have been freeforming too - and creating other birthday makes, so will have plenty more to share soon!

Hope you are finding some of the joys of  Spring!

Listed...

Birmingham has many assets, one being its almighty array of awesome architecture. 

Always moving forward, there are fantastic building styles from every era.

 However there is one monumental flavour that is rapidly disappearing due to its crumbling concrete structure. 

One recent casualty, the iconic brutalist, and in my eyes beautiful, Central Library will be bulldozed soon and others are threatened..

However, I stumbled upon a small snippet of good news about the listing of a piece of concrete architecture quite close to home.

It is something that caught my eye more than 20 years ago, and every time I drive past I marvel at its tenacity to survive in the open urban environment.

During half term, on a bright but blustery day I braved the elements to explore

John Bridgeman's fish!

The play sculpture has some relatively recent modern artistic additions...

 

 

There is an image of the original painted sculpture, could these be remnants of the original paint?

Showing signs of age...

Imagine torrential rain channelled through here!

There is so much graceful movement in something so concrete:

and many angles and points!

How many faces can you see?

That newly etched eye is perfectly placed...as are the shark like fangs!

Fish...and chips?!

I will continue to appreciate from afar, and hopefully visit the fabulous fish more often, as it glides silently in its ever changing, brutally busy and climate challenging landscape, protected by a covering of tree lace...

 

Bit of a departure from wooliness...opposites attract!

Hope you find  hidden treasure in your local area to appreciate!