Chairman's Chat June 2012

Seems ages since I did an update so thought I better get the virtual pen out.
Here we are now halfway through the year and no summer yet. What lousy weather we seem to be getting - we should be getting the barbecue out this time of year not drying out wet dogs and coats and still wearing wellies. I do vaguely remember a few nice days in May though on one of which Barbara and I took a short walk with Ollie near Ashley Chase (just off top of Abbotsbury hill). Bluebells were out and pink and white campion - one of those days when you feel good to be out in the countryside.

We strolled on a bit further  down an absolutely deserted lane (apart from the dog!)

 very peaceful and the view opened up

 There were cows trees and cows

I also took a view of this gnarled tree

and decided to try  a technique called solarisation. this is the result - I like it

Finally a picture of Ollie doing what he loves - getting wet

Sorry got a bit carried away with tweaking photos.

Anyway May saw us doing a calligraphy taster workshop which I enjoyed, albeit the pen caused me some grief with ink not flowing properly, although by the end of the day it was working okay. Pictures on web site and Facebook (www.facebook.com/royalmanorworkshops) This has just gone live so if you want to post or have look.

The other May Event was a new collaboration with Portland Camera Club having a joint exhibition of photography and art. Six or seven photographs were given to the art group to interpret in their chosen medium and displayed side by side.  Very successful and loads of pics on the web site

Had a nasty tummy bug over the Jubilee which lasted about a week. Lost about 6 or 7 lbs so had to eat loads of chocolate to get back to where I was!

Next task for me is the news letter due out 1st July(ish)

Don't forget Art in the Park plus coffee morning on 7th July and Have a Go Day on 14th July where children and adults can try beading, felting and other crafts and painting. This is a free day so why not come long. Lots of other crafts will be demo'd as well and of course a coffee, cake and a chat.

See you soon

Best Wishes
Martin

Chairman's Chat April 22nd 2012

Now we are officially in British Summertime although the last week hasn't felt much like it.  The daffodils have been and gone, apart from a few stragglers. The weeds are growing well as are the lawns.
We have seen a lot of birds in the garden - collared doves, lots of greenfinches, some goldfinches, chaffinches, a couple of pairs of robins. We see from time to time a sparrow hawk, after the finches I expect, although I haven't actually seen it do any dastardly deeds. We do have some nesting blackbirds in the garden, father has been very busy feeding the little ones, but they seem to be starting to feed themselves now. Below is a picture of one of the blackbird families in the garden.

Blackbird feeding it's young

I am currently working again at the moment for a couple of days a week at the company I used to work for, although not on the mobility service side. I am doing some web site updating so office based at Poundbury. The extra cash helps with the vet bills for Ollie who is still suffering with inter-digital cysts (now coming up to two years with this complaint), so what with his epilepsy he has cost us about £1000 in last 3 months, still we wouldn't be without him.
One rather wet dog last month in the fleet

Ollie enjoying himelf in The Fleet in March

You'd be Surprised Who Paints was well supported with 92 paintings entered. The most popular picture in show was a depiction of the old wreck on the fleet foreshore painted by Carol Old, one of our art group members. Junior prize went to Marilyn Norman's granddaughter Chloe.

Our next workshop is on 5th May and is a calligraphy taster workshop - there are two places left if anyone is interested. It's a long time since we did this so if all enjoy it we may do a follow up.

This is followed by a new venture - a combined art and photo exhibition on 12th May. The art group are interpreting some photographs taken by Portland Camera Club members and these will be shown side by side, along with extra photographs and paintings , plus of course the usual yummy cakes and tea or coffee. The admission is free and the show is open from 10 - 4

I have done a little bit of fused glass work last month - a couple of pics below

If any of you are interested in how ancient stone age man made his cutting and scraping tools the Mesolithic Site at Culverwell  out near Portland Bill have a demonstration of flint knapping on 7th May from 2 to 4:30. No charge although a donation would be appreciated. There are also guided tours of the site on Sunday 6th (also 2:30 - 4)  and Monday 7th. You can park on site.

Wishing you happy crafting, painting etc

Martin

Chairman's Chat 11th February 2012

What a cold few weeks we have had after that warm spell which allowed roses, geraniums etc. to keep flowering. Daffodils started to bloom, camellias also started blooming then very cold frosty spells and frozen daffodils, camellia blossoms and roses frozen and ruined although the daffodils have recovered

Walking along the edge of the Fleet earlier this week with Ollie at 7:30am (and -5 Deg C!) the ebbing tide had left, as usual, rock pools and seaweed draped across rocks but the pools and seaweed all had a coating of ice. The rising sun was also quite dramatic:

Sunrise over Portland

Frozen rock pools and seaweed

More ice on the foreshore

Also this week I have been helping with the archaeology survey at St. George's Church Portland. The Churches Conservation Trust have started on a course of conservation and heritage by setting the gravestones which have toppled, or are in danger of falling, back to a perpendicular position. This work is ongoing with a team of conservationists and masons on site for a couple of months. The part of the project I was involved with was a survey of the churchyard working with Wessex Archaeology, recording the position of each plot, monument and tombstone using mega expensive (about £7 - 9000 per instrument) high precision GPS surveying equipment allowing us to fix the position of each one to an accuracy of about 2cm. We also plotted the floor plan of the church again using laser optics to measure angles precisely and distances within 1mm. The Dorset Echo ran an article this week and there was a bit on BBC local news on Friday night. The Army had a presence with some soldiers who had been serving in Afghanistan who hope to become archaeologists when they leave the service.

The work at the church is ongoing with some more precision photography to hopefully record some of  the inscriptions which are no longer visible and 3D laser scanning of some of the monuments to come.

Change hats - back to Royal Manor Workshops - we have had a great start to the year with the new textile Saturday group getting off to a good start and Stained Glass group up to 13 members now.

We have some major publicity events planned this year with the first being at the Sailing Academy on the 31st March when they academy have  a "Outdoors" show with an opportunity for people to try outdoor activities like kayaking, windsurfing, sailing and a whole host of other activities. I was approached and asked if we would like to participate by showing what else the Island has to offer and they are delighted we are showcasing our talents. Their web site is http://www.wpnsaevents.co.uk - there are taster sessions for all sorts of things which you can book on the website and admission is free. Tasters include Sailing, Windsurfing, Stand up paddle boarding, Surf-Ski-Paddling Yachting, Bike demos, Kayaking, Skate park, mobile climb wall, Coasteering. Might be a good place to take children or grandchildren for a day out. Open 10 - 5.

We have a workshop on 17th March with Jennie Rayment (the Muslin Mistress - wonder why she changed from being called the Calico Queen ). This workshop is entitled Fizz Bang Wallop - this is what it is all about :

Fizz, Bang Wallop - beautiful textured quilted squares

Play with shape, form and pattern and construct two or three innovative 12” square textured designs. Amaze at the ease with which intriguing manipulated effects can be produced by just folding, rolling, tweaking and twitching squares and rectangles. Combine a selection of the blocks for an innovative quilt or utilise individually in cushions/bags/quags and all!

and you can find details here http://www.jennierayment.com/?q=node/998 . Jennie is an accomplished tutor running workshops all over this country and in the States so RMW are once again lucky to get a tutor of this calibre. You can book a place by contacting Babs Budd on 01305 774674 or Kath Sanderson 01305 826820.

Finally we still have a vacancy for minutes secretary - not too onerous we meet about every 4-6 weeks and would like a volunteer to record the proceedings. If you can help with this task it would be much appreciated. (we have thrown away the quill pen and now use word processing program on a PC so you need to have a PC and an email address). That's all for now so as I finish this on Saturday afternoon in between Barbara and I making and bottling Farmhouse Chutney, Barbara is settling down to knit and watch Six Nations  and Ollie and I are off for a walk along the edge of the Fleet on what is a lovely sunny albeit cool afternoon.


 Take care and hope to see you at events or workshops or at one of the groups.

Martin

or
Kath Sanderson 01305 826820

Babs Budd 01305 774674
or
Kath Sanderson 01305 826820

Chairman's Chat January 11th 2012

First of all - Happy New Year to everyone. Most groups have restarted after the break , Monday 9th saw an enthusiastic stained glass group raring to go on new projects (and a few that didn't get finished before Christmas - still should be done well in time for next Christmas!).  The group now have a microwave kiln so we are hoping to get some small projects done on our next all day session on 28th January so may be we will have some photos to show what we have done in next blog.

Thankfully both Barbara and I are nearly over the dreaded lurgy so we are more or less back to normal now.

I re-completed a lop ear bunny - why re-completed? - well I finished it and then dropped it breaking both his back legs and all of his body plus his ear broke in half. Happily still had enough glass to make again all the broken bits. Here is a picture of the completed bunny - he survived the surgery and is now on his way to East Sussex. (It is bunny because we don't say the R word on Portland as it is considered unlucky - a superstition dating back to the days when quarry workers worked by hand) .

The superstition is believed to be because they would see rabbits emerging from their burrows immediately before a rock fall and blame them for increasing the risk of dangerous, sometimes deadly, landslides. If a rabbit was seen in a quarry, the workers would pack up and go home for the day, until the safety of the area had been assured.

We have a couple of new opportunities to showcase the work of  Royal Manor Workshops so perhaps time to make something special to show off your talents. The first will be an exhibition at the Sailing Academy on 31st  March and the second a 10 day exhibition in Weymouth in August while Olympics are on so a really good opportunity to bring our talents to new audiences.

By the way - did anyone see the bit in Countryfile on Sunday 8th Jan about David Hockney - he has created a video using 9 cameras to record familiar scenes from his paintings but giving a close up on foreground, middle ground and background as a collage of 9 moving images through diffrent seasons - it was brilliant albeit only an excerpt as it is not published yet.

Martin

Chairman's Chat January 2012

Now Christmas is over we have the New Year to look forward to. What a difference to last December when we had all that snow and ice, much milder this December but perhaps we will pay for it in the early part of this year. I hope you all had a good Christmas and enjoyed yourselves. We had a bit of a quiet Christmas due to my wife Barbara going down with a particulary nasty cough and chest infection so our plans to go to our son in Wimborne were scuppered.


A bit of Christmas Eve turkey hunting saw us with a bite for Christmas Day (and Boxing Day and the next day and ..... - just how many ways can you do cold turkey leftovers!!!).

My daughter and her husband had a very hectic  Christmas Day with her four children (ages almost 5 to 17). The eldest got a provisional driving licence for his birthday early December and some driving lessons for Christmas. On one of her children's  Christmas wish lists (have you noticed how long they are nowadays and how many really expensive things appear like a Blackberry?) there was a zachzoomer  - eventually determined to be a satsuma so not everything was expensive! However this was later substituted for by a Terry's Chocolate Orange - must have inherited his granddad's love of chocolate, talking of which we caught a bit of one of Jamie Olivers Christmas treats programmes - Epic Hot Chocolate drink seemed like a really good idea. It is made with grated organic dark chocolate, Horlicks, icing sugar and cocoa and cinnamon. Tasted really good and it is a thick consistency so you could dip in to it. Recipe here - Jamies Epic Hot Chocolate. 

Here are some pics of a recent afternoon walk along edge of the Fleet with Ollie.

Ollie (and Portland!)

Wonder who will be off for a row?

A wonderful afternoon with that lovely winter sun light

 Ollie guarding the Xmas Tree






Anyway having had a surfeit of turkey and mince pies (and hot chocolate!) it is now time to get down to some more crafting. I had a set of glassline pens for my gift from my nearest and dearest so time for some experimenting. They are used for writing or painting on glass and the design is fired making it permanent.I am looking forward to making use of them in my fused glass work. I am also experimenting with a microwave kiln for small pieces - up to about 2 - 3" diameter . The big advantage with these kilns is the really short process times - 10 - 15 minutes for firing and about about hour and a half cooling time. This is really quick compared to conventional kilns - even the small ones can take 8 - 10 hours for a cycle.Two or three layers seem to fuse well.



Barbara had a try at needlefelting and produced this as her first attempt at three dimensional work

















Look forward to seeing you in the New Year - why not make a resolution to try something new this year - we have lots of workshops booked as well as our regular groups and we now have a new monthly group on the second Saturday of each month from 1 - 4pm. They are focussed on textile work and are planning needlefelting and wet felting as well as other things. Needlefelting can be very creative as you can make 3 dimensional objects as well two dimensional pictures and objects - take a look on our website under textile group for a 3D santa and snowman - follow this link RMW Textile Group 

We are always pleased to help beginners to crafts so if you want to have a go at something just come along to the appropriate group.

Martin

Chairman's Chat 24th November 2011

Been in driving seat for just over a month now. What a month it has been - so busy think I might go back to work!!

Marilyn and I have been extremely busy setting up a brand new web site. We think it is a great improvement over the old one , cleaner and no ads and more information.

I have had quite a few feedback comments - all positive. If you haven't already visited it, have a look by following link in "Links" box.

We have started on a new programme of events for next year - lots of good things to come - we are trying as far as possible to get a good spread of workshops and talks to appeal to members of all groups. For workshops already booked with the tutors see the programme section of the website. We are taking bookings from January for these new workshops, although if you want to book the 23rd January you can do so now - places are limited so please contact Babs Budd (contact number on web site)

The newsletter will go out late December hopefully just in case you need something to read over the holiday break!

I have to say that it is quite nice not to have to walk round the fields in the dark with the Ollie (our Golden Retriever - age 8 and 3/4) , no invisible badger dug holes to trip me up. Ollie doesn't seem to mind whether it is light or dark as long as he gets his biscuit treat (or two) on the way round.

This picture is grandson Sam chasing after Ollie along the edge of The Fleet (for those of you who don't know the area it is the narrow brackish inlet between Chesil Beach and the mainland). It is such a wonderful place to walk with wild deer in the fields and lots of birds (hundreds of skylarks singing away for most of the year) kites and terns and sea gulls and the fields are a picture in spring and summer with a profusion of wild flowers.

This another I took in September walking along the fleet foreshore - it is interesting to see how this wreck has decayed over the 30 years I have been dog walking along the beach

This was it just 7 years ago - more or less intact - now the bow section has almost disappeared.

Talking about photographs the winners from the annual Island of Portland Heritage Trust Photographic Competition can be found on their web site - link in side bar. Some really stunning photographs and a very difficult decision for the judges with 593 pictures to choose from.

We also have a new section on the web site - so if you want to share a favourite photo with us email it to us.

Also we would like some more recipes - perhaps something hearty to beat the winter blues. Today (23rd November) was a taste of what is to come - scraping ice off the windscreen and walking  through a frosty field along the edge of the Fleet  - Brrr!

Anyway  I think I have rambled for long enough - don't know if I am going to
blog again before Christmas as next job is the newsletter - if I don't - have a good Chrismas and New Year

Martin

November 2011 - start of a new membership year