Paull Holme Tower

Today we visited the Paull Holme Tower as part of the annual Heritage Open Days that have become increasingly popular, and which began in England in 1994 to celebrate the community surrounding many different buildings and places that you may never have heard of. Many places are open to the public on other days of the year also, but this is the only time that admission is free.

Paull Holme Tower is a relic of a building, hidden from view of the main road and probably not even known to that many local residents. Certainly, I would not have known about it if it had not been for the Heritage Open Days. It is a 30ft high, 3 storey structure (although the 3rd storey is not much more than a crumbling walkway of about 10feet long, with nothing to support you as you tread precariously along in the howling wind!)

I took my camera, and as we entered from the rather small hole at the rear of the tower, I could see just how much of a ruin this place has become. The brickwork in the ceiling on the ground floor is sagging so much that you can almost hear the bricks slowly working their way free. Interestingly, a crate of hard hats was placed outside the tower for visitors to wear - but us hardy Brits obviously ignored that, as I saw not one person with a plastic dome adorning their crown!

The "crouch to enter" doorway into the Tower.

Once inside, the ground floor wasn't very inspiring, especially since it was extremely dark in there - despite the fact that a lamp had been fixed into position on the floor via a generator. I made my way up the very steep stone steps to the 2nd floor - where there was a tree growing through the floor, causing even more problems with conservation of the building. I liked the look of this chinese/japanese styled tile which seemed to be a remnant of the original floor:

Originally part of a 15th Century fortified manor house, Paull Holme Tower once had two towers, a moat, crenellations and belonged to the Holme family until 1928. They lived in the manor house until approximately 1700 when it passed through various tenants. A Grade 1 listed monument, the building is now owned by a local resident, Simon Taylor, who is hoping to raise funds by forming a trust to help preserve the building. This would seem to be an almost impossible task, especially since it has been described by English Heritage as being in "very bad" condition, and its priority status has been classified as A(A) which signifies that it is at "immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric; no solution agreed."  I can see what they mean - everywhere you look, there are crumbling walls, floors, archways. Yet still I can see the beauty of such a place. Ruins have always held a fascination for me, even more so when I was a child and my imagination would run riot. I'd sometimes get a very strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, imagining who'd lived there (wherever I was, however old the building) and what had taken place prior to my visit. I got a similar feeling today, and was very glad we made the effort to go there.

You can see a video clip of the tower, taken by Seaside Radio who are based in Withernsea - which also includes an interview with the owner, Simon Taylor - by clicking on this link.

Looking up to the 3rd floor from the 2nd floor.

On the 2nd floor

Looking down to the 2nd floor from the top.

One of the view across the landscape from the top of the tower.

I really hope this tower gets restored, it would be nice to have something like this so close to home.

To finish our Heritage Open Day, we visited an exhibition in the village of Sutton-on-Hull, and Keith was delighted when we spotted an identity book in one of the display cabinets belonging to an old friend of his Mother's - he remembers walking to the village of Sutton when he was a child and visiting the house she lived in. The exhibition was a history of the village, and took place in the Old School in Church Street, which is open every Friday, so we shall now make another trip to see even more history in the future!

New range of greetings cards...

Here is a preview of my newly created batch of cards aimed at children aged 1 to 9. I took inspiration from my notebook designs when my sister asked me a while ago if I did birthday cards with numbers on. I've created a few with numbers on them previously, but these take advantage of all the space possible on the front of the card, and I am pleased with the overall design.

They take about 20 minutes to do each one, as I sketch the outline of the number first in pencil, rubbing out any marks that I don't want seen, if possible. You will still see some of the pencil marks in the finished card, but in my view, that adds to the originality and unique aspect of hand-made cards. I then decide which two colours I'm going to use for the outline, as they need to be painted on very precisely in alternating dots of colour. Finally, making sure I don't smudge the outline (as I very nearly have done on occasions) I fill the centre of the number in using 3 or 4 colours - usually the 2 already used in the outline and one more. I love the textural nature of these and I'm sure they will appeal to children because of that, too. I plan on creating lots of these for the next Craft Fair I attend, which will be at the beginning of November. I am also planning on increasing the range to include older ages (but probably by using the card in a landscape position instead) and then possibly names or perhaps titles such as "Mum", "Dad" etc. I have deliberately avoided using a stencil or template to create the numbers, as I rather like the fact that they are not perfect in shape - it adds that bit more character and individuality to each card. These will only be for sale at craft fairs at the moment, but I will quite happily take orders for specific cards by post if you wish!

Saturday selection.

Today's blog post is a simple promotion of a piece of art that I really like the look of.  Created by Van Renselar, this is a one-off canvas print. You can view it on the Rogue Gene Gallery by clicking on this link, but here's what it looks like if you just want a quick view:

Blue Shoes by Van Renselar

My garden in August....

As we don't have a very big garden and neither of us are particularly green-fingered, we (that is, I) tend to just have displays of container plants each year, which I love doing at the beginning of the season. Each year I usually take some photos of the plants to remember them in the winter months and possibly as future subjects for my artwork. However, I've not yet used or shown any of the previous years' photos so thought I'd better display this year's before I forget again. I love bright reds, oranges, purples, pinks and blues so tend to try and stick to those as much as possible. My favourite flowers this year are new to me - a lovely trailing version of the Thunbergia, Orange Beauty variety. I just love the dramatic flower heads against the trailing green leaves.

I'm afraid if you don't like looking at flowers, leaves, hover flies and buds then please stop reading now, as there follows a fair amount of the above in the series of photographs I am about to upload! Nature never ceases to please, especially this time of year, I think, and it is always beautiful.

The gorgeous head of the Thunbergia (Orange Beauty)

 Marigold - one of the many plants I got given this year by a friend

Thunbergia plant in the container on our back wall.

A gorgeous double-headed petunia, also a donated plant.

A lone viola head - these little gems appear each year in one of the containers!

This marigold bud looks like a small creature, ready to uncurl and pounce!

I love the detail on this clump of geranium buds - so hairy!

These geranium buds are a little bit further on than the previous set.

Although leaves may not be as pretty as flowers, I still love looking at them - these are begonia leaves

Variegated geranium leaves - free (flowers included) from my friend.

Marigold leaves.

The succulent leaves of the Portulaca plant, which also bears some dainty flowers.

Having shown you all the photos I took of the flowers, buds and leaves this year, I thought I'd also share the images of the hover flies which are abundantly present in our garden. They are very pretty to look at up close, but I don't particularly like them buzzing around near me!

Just look at the symmetry!

Add caption

Settled on the lobelia.

It's almost as though I arranged for this one to sit like that!

Sketch-book images

I don't often share my sketch-book work online or with anyone, actually - mainly because I don't do as much work in my sketchbook as I'd like to, but also because I'm not sure of the interest it would really create with any of my blog readers. However, having seen my fellow RGC artist and blogger, Andrea Farmer's sketchbook blog posts, and finding them a great inspiration I decided to show one or two of the sketches I did when in Nottinghamshire a few weeks ago.

I always take a small spiral bound sketchbook away with me along with a set of Derwent Inktense pencils - and my usual set of sketching pencils. I don't, however, often find the time to just sit and sketch - not being the sort of artist who can do decent quick sketches, I tend to need a long time of uninterrupted peace in order to create anything worth sharing. Even then, the end results of my sketches are not as interesting as I'd like them to be - but then I suppose they are just sketches and not a finished piece of art. I would have liked to spend longer trying to sketch the whole of the landscape around Thoresby Hall - but my small sketchbook was not ideal for that purpose and I just picked out one or two areas that appealed to me. I hope you like seeing something a little bit different to my usual creations.

I did this one first of all, sitting on the wide window-cill of our bedroom in the hotel, looking down towards what was once the main entrance to Thoresby Hall.

This view was a favourite spot of mine, sitting in one of the gazebos not far from the hall itself. I loved the texture of the bricks in the gazebo, and the view through them all around of the garden and surrounding landscape.

Perhaps a still-life is not a typical subject for a holiday sketch - but I just thought this arrangement of apples and oranges was so pretty I wanted to capture it in coloured pencil rather than just take a photo of it. I love these white rectangular plates that are popular in restaurants too and think it really sets off the fruit beautifully. The fruit was rather tasty, too!

Latest painting

Finished a while ago, but only just uploaded online, this small ink and acrylic abstract painting is available to buy from my website at www.helendavison.co.uk

Named "Undersea Adventure", it was inspired by an improvised group mime done by members of the Youth Section of B.A.D.S. several years ago at a festival. The title of the mime was "Undersea Adventure" and I will never forget it.

Summer Production - some pics!

OK, so this is slightly later than anticipated, but here are a few photographs that I took of some of the children involved in the Summer Production at B.A.D.S. last month. I have also included a photo of the ark we made for the Noah play, along with the rainbow that appeared at the end of the play and the tree stump that Noah sat on.

All the plays that were performed on the two nights were so well done by all the children and we were really proud of them all. Each time we start rehearsing for a junior or youth section play, we wonder how on earth it will ever be ready to show to their parents, but somehow it always seems to happen. Children who we thought weren't listening to us at the last rehearsals before the night suddenly do everything you asked and more besides - the younger members perhaps impressed us more this year than ever before, simply because there were no prompts required from any of them, which is quite an achievement for them. We did tell them that one of our aims at Bilton is to never have a prompt, but fully expected to give one or two out on the night due to nerves or lack of concentration. However, it would appear that we are actually having some influence on them, which is so rewarding and fuels our passion for passing on our skills even more. I think one of the best things about watching the children (whatever their age) perform is to see the joy on their faces at the end of the night, when everything has worked and they receive the applause they rightfully deserve.Considering the fact that we were several animals short with only a couple of weeks to spare, we are immensely grateful to Mr Jowett from Preston Primary School, since he helped us fill those places by sending along some keen members of his drama club - they all performed really well and we look forward to their return in September.

Mrs Noah with the girls in the family

The three "boys" (even though one of them is a girl in real life!) of Noah's family.

Noah, Mrs Noah, Rebecca, Japheth, Shem, Ruth, Rachel & Ham.

The animals as they walked to their entrance with me.

Waiting to make their entrance via the auditorium!

This animal also made a convincing God - see next pic!

God - complete with obligatory white beard!

The final scene when the rainbow appears as if by magic!

Youth members backstage waiting for their turn in "Panto Question Time"

"A trio of lovely girls" from the Youth Section - backstage ready for "Emporium 2".

Unfortunately, these are the only photos we managed to take - we didn't have time to take any during the performances as we were both tied up backstage.

The first night was a huge success. We invited some of our patrons to support the younger members and was happy to see that a fair few of them came along. To the delight of the audience (with the exception of one or two of the junior members who happened to be sitting on the front row at the time) a chair that is pushed to the floor during the course of the action in "Last Tango in Little Grimley" ended up rolling off the stage and onto the auditorium. This rendered the remaining cast speechless, the audience were screaming with laughter and the cast members were trying desperately to finish the scene without laughing.There then followed a moment of absolute farce when one cast member (during the scene change which was done in blackout) retrieved the chair from the audience, and another cast member came on looking for it without realising that it had been taken into the wings! Thankfully, nobody was hurt and the 4-strong team continued to the end of the play without losing control of their emotions. Credit to them all - it was a difficult play and they certainly did it justice.

I am pleased to report that our N.O.D.A (National Operatic & Dramatic Association) representative managed to watch the plays on the second evening and I spoke to him at the end of the night. He was impressed with them all, even if he wasn't too keen on one of the Youth Section plays (he's at least honest, which I like) and he seemed most impressed with the junior section's production of Noah.

Our next task is to source material for the Hornsea Speech & Drama Festival -this takes place in November each year and all our members take part in various classes to try and win trophies, but mainly for the experience of being adjudicated by a professional drama practitioner. We start rehearsing for this as soon as we meet again in September, so not much time now for us to get enough material prepared - we haven't yet received the syllabus either!!!