A Tonic for a Swarm

Flip to the Bee Side – Paul tells his tale about his bees

As I walked past my five hives of bees this evening, not paying much attention, I heard a deep buzzing noise coming from one of them. I bent my ear close to the hive entrance(there being no flying on this damp dusk) and the buzzing increased as if they were being disturbed. I glanced up and realised that I had failed to observe a medium sized swarm of about 5000 bees, clustered on the outside of the hive 6 inches from my face. Yikes! I thought, along with some other less Enid Blyton like curses!!

Have a Go Beeman.

My challenge, I decided, was to find a way of collecting, hiving and feeding the swarm, within the twenty minutes of daylight left to me. I had to think quick, and this is what I did.

Cakus Interuptus

Firstly, interrupt Pauline making Rhubarb cake in the kitchen to boil the kettle and make some sugar syrup. Then search for a suitable way of scanning the  bees off the flat wooden exterior of the hive. My eyes alighted on a box of 12 Schweppes tonic waters. The empty cardboard box, with it’s end cut off made a perfect scoop for bee collection. So I hoped.

Job Done!

I trotted off to the bees in the field, got my kit on, and slowly slid the tonic box, whilst holding it tight, flat against the hive, until all the bees slipped into the box. Amazingly, I collected all but three bees in a matter of seconds. Two minutes later they were in the new hive with a feeder full of syrup and a reduced entrance to discourage other bees from robbing.

Moral of the Tale 

a swarm in the hive is worth two in the bush !

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Tea for three or more!

Want to make friends, then why not share a pot of beautiful fresh herb tea ! We have a range of fresh grown herbal teas to tantalise the palate and perk up the dulled senses .

Growing on our teashop terrace ,we can nip out and pick the freshest of tips for your pot of delight. Now you read before about the steamy sweaty camels and bedazzled camel drovers …so time for a new tale…

Run your fingers through the glossy stems of our fresh mints …what about the luscious chocolate peppermint ? Smooth  ,seductive and sensual.Rolls into your mouth like a melted After Eight.. The type of After Eight eaten in bed with a wanton lover..and melted on your pillow . The type of After Eight forgotten after a late dinner party but found lurking secretly in the box and eaten with subterfuge and secret glee.The type of After Eight slipped into a leather glove and carried away to a smugglers den where general carousing and making merry may be happening with riotous abandon.You know the type of scene- buxom,garralous serving wench,handsome highwayman with a swagger and a lascivious smile,all tight leather pants and a glint in his eye,and an accommodating dry cleaner.What about the charming rustic , all corduroy and sweaty singlet and a can of coke in his pocket ? Just ready for that advertising break.Or the handsome man of mystery, floral chemise,cravat and oh so  creased linen suit -dragged through a haystack with the boys and then took a ride on the hay wagon .

So we  too can be  the wild rovers of taste, the robin hoods  of  flavour and the buccaneers of  balm .We are the prairie tea queens !

 

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Woof Woof !

Do you know there is a world of gardens out there who welcome  dogs ! YES ! woof woof !

And Sussex Prairies is definitely one of them ! Dogs of all shapes ,sizes, and character are welcome with their  well behaved owners ! Do please keep your dogs  on a short lead when you are in the garden and especially in the borders themselves.

We have installed some special dog bag dispensers at the entrance to the garden and around the garden with dog waste dustbins with them, so all we ask is that you use them .!. or do ask for a dog waste bag at the teashop and we shall be happy to oblige !

look out for the special carved dopy poo bag dispenser boxes and the bins clearly marked for dog waste

not too much to ask we think to clear up after your dog so everyone can enjoy the garden !

The NGS also have a list of gardens in each county who are happy to welcome  dogs and here is the one for West Sussex !  why should your best friend stay at home when you are having fun visiting gardens !

 

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Little Paper House on the Prairie : Chelsea Fringe Paper Performances

Chelsea Fringe -The Headline Acts

The Paper House herself

With the paper garden in tow and now its attendant art gallery coming along for the ride !

The gallery includes some amazing pictures which were so kindly sent to me by a teacher Lisa Wee and her class of pupils from a school in Nairobi ,Kenya… so here they are being exhibited in the garden.. the paintings will also join Anne Kelly’s exhibition in our grade room for the rest of the season.

When we thought about our week (31st May until 8th June 2014)  of paper related happenings,workshops and exhibitions  for the Chelsea Fringe down on the prairies ,we knew we would have wealth of stars to help us get into that groove and here are the best stars we have been able to line up for you

Pages by Stages : Alison Crosthwaite

Prairie hens in paper kilns : Sabine Dahn

alongside these stars are their co-stars

Anne Kelly : our talented textile artist  in residence who will be inspiring us with her textiles ,and guiding craftwork in paper ,textiles and beyond from the prairie wagon in the garden room

Jill Tattersall  : an artist with an eye for paper making who will be helping you send out postcards from the prairies and who will be constructing concertina books to baffle and bamboozle and she will be showing you how to make your own Matisse masterpiece

 

 

Jill Staples : a lovely local photographer working with images applied on to Japanese papers.She also makes beautifully colour co-ordinate photographic books

Paul Cox: sculptor extraordinaire turning his hand to big paper sculpture

Lydia Crook: paper sculptor whose work we shall be exhibiting via our virtual online gallery

Julia Widdows : writer extraordinaire who will be promoting her books and will be running a win a book competition

the ways of paper are many and mysterious.. And it is time for you to experience their many layers and latitudes..

And don’t forget the strangely challenging and wonderful Paw People exhibition by Tom Barker now showing in a marquee in the garden.

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Giving Nature a Prairie Home : How to be a part of it !

 Anne Kelly – Artist in Residence & The RSPB

Anne Kelly, our textile artist in residence for our 2014 season, is making a large collaborative wall exhibit in support in The RSPB  with us at Sussex  Prairies ,and we want you to join in the fun of creation.

How you can be a part of it !

Please send us drawings, cutouts, collages, pictures of plants,animals, birds, insects, reptiles, fish, amphibians – our natural wildlife – small sized- no bigger than A5 size, which can become part of the work. Maybe you have a poem, piece of writing or phrase which you feel would fit in with our theme and which you would like to see incorporated. All your work will be credited with your name. We are happy to accept pictures, images by email or you can message/send items through Face book or Twitter. You are also welcome to send original pieces if you wish which we will copy and return back to you. Visitors to the garden will also be invited to contribute to the piece by making textile craftwork. Let’s make it really wild!

Please send contributions to either Sussex Prairies at morlandsfarm@btinternet.com or mail@annekellytextiles.com  or you can also send pieces to us in the post .Please check our websites www.sussexprairies.co.uk  or www.annekellytextiles.com  for all our contact details.

Sussex Prairies will be open  for its 2014 season from 31st May until 12th October 2014, 1pm until 5pm ,six days a week , closed Tuesdays.If you would like to bring your contribution with you in person , you are very welcome.

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Bring out the Gimp

Autumn time is the erotic time, the time to be dominated by big lary plants with attitude. These are the Christian Greys of the garden world . The plants that will always say yes and yes again and make mine a handcuff and silken scarf and be damned.

Grasses first : architectural and arch with it

. Giving fabulous structure , colour , muscle and brawn. They are the bouncers of the garden, standing up straight  in the doorways fiddling with their mikes and manhoods. Twitching in the wind ,and giving the shoulder and the eye to the plants around them. Our garden is 25% grasses of all kinds which are woven through the plantings . As you walk through the borders it is the grasses that give you that shelter and which block the sun from time to time. They can also be  brash with candy bar colours in their leaves. Sometimes they are like  Brighton rock laced with pinks, oranges and reds , and sometimes just burning crimson and vermillion . Their seed heads can also be subtly or not so subtly coloured: beaded jewels with the early morning mists and dew or heavy with embroidery thread tassels. Some of them are woolly and crinkled like chips , some of them are smooth and silken. This is the way where madness lies as you try and get them together en masse. Did I tell you about the romance and the softness too ? the way they lend a wispy texture to the garden that catches the light and shimmers it through the borders. Lucky us , when the bouncers show their hearts of  gold under their butch veneer.

The Muscle : Big Plants , Big Egos

By autumn time we can clearly see the plants that have ambition to be the biggest and the most glam with it. They literally put on all their jewellery and bling and pimp it up rotten. They are shamelessly wanton and wanting attention. And they can do it by height and bravado and staking their claim to be the first into the nightclub of autumn.They even have tattoos and piercings ! My Big fat gypsy plants. They slip their clothes on and off with languid ease and shameless lewd loveliness.And take colour as their watchword.

negligee and slipper , corset and bodice : our plants will work their way through their wardrobe as the season progresses, shedding and shucking them off as the mood suits.Their jackets are lined with shocking colours to make you blink and their buttons and fastenings provocatively taut. Wardrobe malfunction is their trick.

Are they coy and winning or buxom and blousy ?

Where is the lustre of youth and vigour ? where are the dimpled thighs of the Moulin rouge muffin tops ? the glistening sequined décolleté and the supermodels of shameless glam ?

are they in their dressing rooms painting their nails and eating jelly babies, pulling on their rubber suits and skin tight stockings ? are they on the couch with their casting directors ?

Beauty and beast we love them all !

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Anne Kelly : Queen of a thousand Stitches

Anne Kelly – Textile and Mixed media artist –  BFA ATC

www.annekellytextiles.com

We are very excited that textile and media artist Anne Kelly  is coming to be our artist in residence in our 2014 summer and autumn season. Howver in the meantime she will be joining us on the Prairies for two wonderful workshops.(see details below)

general information : in Anne’s own words

 ” I trained as a fine artist in Canada and the UK and my work reflects these conventions by interpreting them in cloth. Many pieces are box framed and larger work and installation pieces hang without a frame. I also produce smaller pieces for private and public exhibitions and have work in the vatican collection.

In 2013, I continue to collaborate with other artists and am exhibiting in the UK and abroad. I’m available for consultancy work and I am also happy to accept and advise on commissioned work. I have just completed a major public commission.

i have a studio and teach part time and am co writing my first book on textile collaborations ‘connected cloth’  with Cas Holmes.”

This wonderful book is  now out and on sale !

Anne Kelly – about me

“I collect recycled fabric, paper and ephemera using collage, stitch, photographic and print processes to create a range of work, most of which is framed. My inspirations are travel, memory and vintage imagery from a variety of sources. These have been described as ‘small worlds’ and my current layered mixed media work started life as mainly botanical in subject matter before developing into larger more narrative works. I assemble and reassemble the components of each piece using sketchbooks and digital imagery. Often it can be a small scrap or remnant of fabric that inspires a whole piece.  I am inspired by natural history and gardens. Collaborations are an important aspect of my work and I enjoy working with other artists and teaching. I also produce commissions for private and public individuals  – examples of these ‘collages in cloth’, based on special places, people and spaces can be found on my website.”

What will these workshops give me ?

A chance to create a piece of garden/nature-inspired textile art in the inspiring surroundings of Sussex prairies gardens with Anne Kelly. All ages and abilities welcome. The cost fo the day will be £ 50 – you are welcome to bring a picnic lunch. you should bring materials and equipment for stitching including a sewing machine if you wish.

September 29, 2013: vintage/recycled garden –old and vintage fabrics enhance and give depth to many projects. students will be asked to search through their collections for florals especially to applique onto a square sample. a mixture of couching and hand embroidery will be used to complete the work. The sample can then be made up into a cushion cover, tote bag or framed piece. materials list to follow.

October 6, 2013: Birds – are everywhere in textile art at the moment – we will make a small bird stencil using a mixture of contemporary and vintage images as source material. this will then be printed onto various types of fabric and used in a range of samples. these can then be incorporated into larger pieces and embellished further by hand and machine. materials list to follow.

Please contact Anne to book a place on either course and please send your booking request  with a cheque for £ 50 per course  to A. Kelly, 29 Dynevor Road, Tunbridge Wells, kent TN4 9HP

or contact her on mail@annekellytextiles.com  to arrange payment using Paypal.

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Unusual Plant & Art Fair 2013 : The Big Bold One

The Fair is a comin’ hurtling straight towards us on Sunday 1st September 2013 and its a big one.

Who is Coming for Plants ?

From the plant world we have handpicked the best in specialist plant nurseries : Blueleaf Plants,Brighton Plants,Charleshurst,Daisy Roots,Desirable Plants,Diane Cole Hardy Plants,Dysons Nurseries, Hardys Cottage Garden Plants, Herbal Haven, Eastcroft Roses, Longacre,Ockley Court, Madrona, Pennard Plants,Phoenix Perennials, Pineview, Plant Base,Scarecrow Plants, Nymans,Sweetbriar, Plant Specialist, Usual & Unusual , Wild Flower Lawn and Meadows, Rose Cottage , Chris Ghyselen, Swallowfields,Little Omenden Farm ,Swallowfields,Kevin Hughes, King Johns , Plant Heritage, Rapkyns, Decoy, The Garden House , Fat Plants and Borde Hill

And on the Arts Side ?

Adele Scantlebury,Alison Chesman & Jose Heasman,Bev Burt,Chris Burchell Collins, Coalshed Pottery,Colleen Vaux,Dave Unsted,DC Designer Jewellery,Dragonfly Glass Art,Fibreactive,Ewan Rogers carpentery,The Luddite,Janet Mitchell,Janine Creaye,Louise Durham,Lou Johns Sculptor,Michele Carnie,Pamela Holmes, Pauline Findlay,Driftline,Rowdy & fancy Chocolate, Tom Critchley, Sue Petty,Terrapot,Terry Guile, Saxon Stickmakes, Holly Bell, Glassfollies, Jackie Sweet,Wellgreen Lewes,Cathy Hart, Anne Kelly, Si Uwins, Carol Wagstaff , Jill Tattersall, Miranda Ellis  and Tom Smith.

and the countryside interest is provided by :

Butterfly Conservation Sussex,Sussex Gardens Trust, and Sussex Wildlife Trust.

What more could you be asking for except wonderful homemade cakes, teas , coffees from our teashop and a mouth watering line up of refreshments from the catering tent including those succulent mouthwatering Shetland lamb burgers , warming homemade soup and ploughmans rolls.We’ve got everything for you !

Directions how to find us – on the website.www.sussexprairies.co.uk. but there will be pink buffalos to guide you all the way ! Read more about it on the Sussex Prairies website including much more detail about all the exhibitors and links to their websites.

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Burn Baby Burn : Prairie Inferno

burns day !

when everything comes together perfectly in a crescendo of good drying weather and a wicked wind we get a ‘burnin ‘! yesterday with our trusty squad of Friends of Sussex Prairies we made a huge impact on the big border with burning squads , cutters,snappers and fire feeders. Exhileration and wild abandon as flames licked and roared and caressed the garden all at once. Gradually we worked through the groups of tinder dry stalks and seedheads… The grasses are the best to catch alight but still have green in them which is unheard of normally at this time of year when all should be sepia tones and black and white through repeated frosts and winter squalls. You soon get to know which plants are the best kindling pieces, which plants are a soggy mess and which plants are Ray Mears dream. Bush tracker skills live in action as swathes of the garden burn in fury and fearsome fervour !

the fire captain Paul

Now , it is not so good on your face , this burning lark . The hidden costs of extreme guerilla gardening. I am sure Laboratoires Garnier would have quite a bit to say about ravaged skin , ruddy cheeks and windlashed epidernis. In fact it is the horticultural  equivalent  of a facial peel without the subtlety of soothing ungents.Have also discovered a potentially  winning  fragrance : Eau de Bonfire. Subtle woody notes tempered with a beguiling hint of ash and crispy cinder. Coming from the anarchist wing of the La Prairie stable .. this one is sure to be a runner !

prairie going up in smoke

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ole !

Charge !

or When good animals turn bad !

This is a story about a very amenable and friendly ram (Othello) who turned into a monster ! in this case it isn’t jealousy so much as machismo that has made him into a horror. He is currently up in our top field with the girls doing his ram-ly thang and hopefully in due course his offspring will be the sweetest little lambs ever. But for now we have a problem, and unless one goes into his field armed with at least a suit of armour one is liable to be gored and unkindly treated. With his matador accoutrements in place , Paul is the only one who dares to enter the bullring for the next round of ram butting and aggression. And this is annoying as I cannot get into the field to pet all my favourite girls… having to content myself with the young ‘uns who are in a different field ; Barra’s Little Sister,Mask, and Chocolate.

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