Don't ya wish you could go to this "scrap" yard? We came upon these sculptural gems being stored on the inside of a covered stone bridge in Strasbourg, France. We had parked in a car park that was quite a ways from the downtown as I remember and we had to cross part of the canal on a covered stone bridge to get downtown. One other memory from this trip are the juicy fresh red raspberries that we bought at a stall in the market and we ate them--the whole box right there and then.
I think I have a theme going here...things that time forgot. I love the colors of this old row boat--the beautiful turquoise it once was with the rust of time adding its patina. My neighbors would rightfully have a fit but I would love to put this boat in my front yard among the shrubs and flowers. It would remind me of happy water, beach, summer, boaty kinds of memories. ;-)
Have you lost a shoe? Maybe the pretty pleated slipper with the elf-like turned up toe? These two shoes have been tacked up here awhile on these fence posts--I have seen them repeatedly over the years--I look for them as a sort of touchstone to reassure myself that this little corner of the world hasn't changed much.
The girls and I are going visiting and will be away for a week or so. We go to see family and feast ourselves on the trees and rocks and home-land. We are sure to be knitting/crocheting, crafting and going for lovely walks in the woods. I am going to pretend it won't be sticky with humidity, too. :-)
Two of my favorite things--polka dots and berries! Last week we visited a pottery painting place and I painted up this curvy bowl. I'm like a kid with a new toy--I've had my cereal in it, fruit with cottage cheese and of course ice cream--even hand washing it so I can use it again right away. :-) The first night I slept with it next to my bed on the table--am I crazy?--made me smile when I awoke. 
For summer camp last week I made each of the girls a rubber stamp --Em the kitty and Meg the owl--made the babushka for me. :-) I put the stamps into little cloth bags stamped with a "blind brownie" stamp I drew and then carved. We had kind of a secret santa type thing--thus the "blind brownie" at the beginning of camp. Each of us had to make a secret present for the other "campers".
I had forgotten how much I like making rubber stamps. I just drew a little doodle in pencil, flipped it over on the pink rubber, rubbed the pencil back and forth all over the back of the drawing to transfer the sketch to the rubber and used linoleum carving tools to cut around my transfered lines.
Last year the girls and I played on vacation and left a fairy house in a hollow in the roots of a tree near the cabin. This year imagine our surprise to find a fairy ring of mushrooms in the front yard of the very same cabin. Meg said they are supposed to be dangerous places, that if caught inside of a fairy ring one can be snatched by fairies. For me it just added to the enchantment of an already beautiful spot on earth. 
This is Harry Hedgehog sitting among the fairy toadstools. He is dressed in bathrobe and has his hot water bottle under his arm. This is just the outfit I need today and a hot water bottle is just the thing 'cause I feel kinda out of sorts at the moment. 
Here is the newly refurbished fairy house. It was a little weather worn when we first saw it this year so we put together some new accouterments, like a nutshell floor lamp and acorn bowls of red berries, which disappeared during the night (?). Yellow flower tops served up with small pinecones made a splash on a center table of bark.
Also a comfy deer moss bed under a bark shelter. Slightly out of focus beside the bed is an acorn bowl with a snail shell in it. Must be French fairies enjoying escargo in bed. :-)
