Unusual finds at the Seed Lab...

Late Friday afternoon... its the end of my second week at the Millennium Seed Bank Residence at Wakehurst Place.

Each day has brought new discoveries via walks in the grounds, through the Lab facility, time in the Library or conversations with any one of the many staff here. Then there's my fellow Residents and some other visitors to the site.
An amazing crossroads of cultures and knowledge all up! Much imput and inspiration!

Ive taken endless photos and produced a couple of slideshows using the (for me)  new Origami template that some of you will know from Macbook Pro. A great way to share images in  format that is not tedious when sharing with others. 

However... there is no quick way to get that material onto the library PC I'm writing this post on. I'm off to the Apple Store in Brighton tomorrow... maybe I'll quickly upload some visuals onto posts whilst I'm there. We foreign residents are catching the train for a day to this coastal city which I'm really looking forward to. After two weeks here ... outings being the weekly one hour supermarket shopping trip by taxi and a couple of dinners at a pub down the road when we are up to the brisk walk through the fields in the dark.
There'll be lots to share soon... so I wont ponder tech issues further. Wolfgang Stuppy, a Seed Morphologist who has produced several brilliant photographic books(more on that soon) is my contact person here ... he gave me some wonderful species to draw when I first arrived. Yesterday I decided to photograph everything I'd had on my desk this past week or so in case I didnt get around to drawing it. My camera is a humble Sony number which did not cost a lot... nor have I read the manual on using it...so my images are rudimenary at best. Even so I find the act of capturing something from  various angles ... simply playing around with the limitions ... still yields something of value for further reflection.

Wolfgng has amazing images of these seeds below he'd taken with serious professional gear... and when the seeds were fresh and at their best. I will post those images when I can... but for now I leave you with these most basic of images... I stole them from  my Seed Capsules Tumblr which I posted them on last night... for some reason I can manage that on my laptop!

 











I'll pop back with the name of these seeds and info later... time for dinner now.
Thanks everyone for your warm messages... Ive not been visiting so am missing all your news.
Have a great weekend !
S x

staying connected when in transit...

I know many of you are mobile, quite frequently...  savvy with i-phones and have travel blogging down pat. I had a mobile for two days on arrival in the UK ...but then it hasn't worked since Cornwall. So I lost interest and kept at my laptop for communications but now thats not doable...so this is a quick post to say that I may not be blogging much over the next few weeks. No Wifi at the current base so no laptop ... although the library is very accessible ... but not having been a PC-user these past few years I'm definitely a little rusty and shocked to remember how different things are between  pc's and macs!

I've set up a small temporary studio here which is excellent for my purposes. Pop over to the homage blog for more info on where I'm staying and what I'm up to here.... I've taken lots of photos but as I can't use my laptop I've not worked out how to connect photos to blogs yet.ont have a lot of time really ... thats the point... on to painting and such!  Keeping up with emails is now ten times as complicated... dont ask... I told you I was inept on PC's!

My apologies to all the lovely bloggers who pop in...i'm failing to return the visits at the minute... I will be back and miss you all!



The gardens near the Mansion on site where I'm presently staying!

This photo was found here... with other photos you might want to see. I will get to post my own photos soon I'm sure... bye for now,
Sophie

Inner sanctum - an artist's garden studio in Cornwall

I included details on artist Barbara Hepworth in my Studio blog yesterday. Go and see the various artists I was taken with whilst in Sy Ives on the weekend... and also see the lovely blogger i caught up with whilst there...  if you don't know the delightful Carolyn then do go visit her blogs very soon!

Read all about it here.

Do go to the Homage blog to read much more about the Eden Project where I'm spending this week...  next week off to the Millennium Seed Bank Project... which of course will be reported on at the Homage blog too!

Day Two at the amazing Eden Project

Doesn't look promising does it?

Today I watched the film on the making of the Eden Project. The eyesore that it was has ben utterly transformed and this year was the ten year celebration since it opened. 

I will be posting quite frequently at the homage blog ... pop over there now and see what I put up yesterday!

Hard to keep up at the moment with taking photos, documenting what I've been up to and adding it to the blog... so check over at the homage blog over the next 5 weeks or so... 

bye for now!

S x

Indian summer on the English Riviera

Hello everyone... 

its been very quiet on this front in the last week... 

lots of late nights working, packing to get on a plane to the UK midweek. 

A great stopover in Korea... am really looking forward to spending 3 days there on my return!  

Then a Thursday evening arrival at Heathrow... (not) fun finding my way to wonderful B & B accommodation In Shepherd's Bush... photos soon!

Yesterday I took the midday train from Paddington to St Ives and LOVED that trip...relaxing and scenic... no rushing! The temp in London for 3 days has been around 28 ...thursday Kew gardens had the highest temperatures... 28.8 degrees. I was hanging about Kensington and  Chelsea next day and it was hot.. had a picnic lunch in Kensington gardens to enjoy the cooler air under the trees.

Borrowed inage!

borrowed image... but I did travel by train along this route!

I'm staying at a wonderful hotel just near this view... took lots of photos before it got too dark last night...

gotta run now... pack up my room and go see the day.

Cheerio all!

S x