Last night's moonlit-torchlit walk

We had a beautiful evening for our walk - the weather couldn't have been better, the full moon rose at just the right time, and a nightingale serenaded us near Iris II.

I'll be putting more images on soon, but for now here is one of me talking to the group at Falling seeds.

Thanks for joining me folks!

Friday's walk round the sculptures was wet but worth it! And thanks to all who came along (I think my coat is still drying out).

Iris II is fixed

With a lot of help from Matt ... and a stick, Iris II is now once again on full display.

Bizarre

Recent high winds have had a very strange effect - Iris II has folded itself in half, but this will be sorted out before the first walk on Good Friday, and I'm hoping for good weather. Don't forget to get in touch if you want to join us on the walk (see my website for details).

Also next weekend I'll be taking part in the walk n talk to open the Barnwell Country Park Nature vs Nurture exhibition - walk starts at 2pm, free, suitable for all. See East Northants website for directions.

Dates for your diary!

Guided walks:
10th April at 2pm
8th May at 8.30pm for 9pm torchlit-moonlit walk (with wine/soft drinks)
6th June at 2pm
27th June *Celebration event* walks starting between 2pm and 8pm

(daytime walks £3 per person; evening walks £5 including wine/soft drink)
Booking essential: tickets available from the Salcey Forest Cafe; or email salcey@lindajohns.com (payment by cheque - details will be emailed upon receipt of ticket request).

Sculpture by torchlight

Back from the Isles of Scilly late on Wednesday, I took a walk in the forest late on Thursday evening and saw half the sculptures as the sun set with the other half viewed by torchlight ... this is definitely an interesting way to see them so I'll be arranging a torchlight walk this Spring (hopefully with moonlight as well) for anyone interested - dates for all walks and workshops here, and on my website, soon!

Early March and the mud is gradually drying

Finally, after all the rain and snow the forest paths are starting to dry, although the area between Geodesic weave and Regeneration still has many muddy sections - and Wellingtons are still necessary to undertake the whole walk in comfort.

It was great to visit the forest in the beautiful weather we had on Friday, and it gave me a chance to spend some time looking at Iris II which is settling in and starting to attract attention - more sunny days, mist, rain and frost will be working their magic and the copper will soon darken leaving the stainless steel wires to shine.

I'll soon be posting details of more guided walks and a workshop or two between now and the end of May.

Iris II is installed ...

and I had an unexpected adventure in a MEWP which really gets you where you need to go! View from the tree was great, and it was really good to be able to install the work myself. Thanks to Matt, Adrian, Jo and Cheryl.

Looking really trendy in my wellies and hat!
But getting up there to do the installation was worth it ...

pictures of Iris II coming soon

Want to keep up with what's going on

I've now added a 'followers' section to the sidebar - click on the 'Follow this blog' link to keep up to date. You may also want to view (and follow) Emma Davies' An Artists Diary which inspired me to get back to blogging and keep this up to date ...

New year new intentions

Having got back into drawing and making post-New Year, I had hoped to start regular (will try for once a week) updates with the news that Iris II had been installed to replace Iris which was taken from the forest just before Christmas. Unfortunately, despite spending a lot of time there yesterday, we were unable to complete the installation as there is a lot of dead wood which needs to be removed first. I'm hoping this will now happen next Friday and I'll post an image once its there.

In the meantime here is an image of Regeneration in the snow.

I also now have a Facebook page which you may want to visit.