Yesterday evening I went on my first Photowalk with my Camera Club. During the day it was touch and go whether it would be on or not as the weather was wet and miserable. The sun, however, eventually made an appearance so we were good to go.
We met up at a local Marina, so I expected, not unreasonably I felt (!), that the walk would be mostly on paved paths and roads and dressed accordingly.
How wrong I was!! There was mud up to the eyeballs on several parts of the route, some of which we navigated more than once as the walk leader decided that we needed to double back on ourselves at least twice. Can you tell that I was not a happy bunny???
There were a couple of themes for the walk, namely Contrast, Texture and Motion. I completely ignored the Motion theme and just concentrated on Contrast and Texture. I am always on the lookout for inspiration for my embroidery so kept an eye out for anything that would help in that regard too.
When I wasn't dodging puddles or trying to avoid the ankle deep mud, I came across lots of this wonderful lichen clinging on to the tree trunks. I am itching to work on an embroidery piece inspired by these :)
These frilly fungi are just begging to be recreated in textiles aren't they? I love the blowsy nature of them, don't you?
There were lots of ferns around, busy unfurling themselves from their tight buds. The next theme for the Endeavourers Quilt group is spirals, so I had to take a photo of this beauty for inspiration too.
Our walk took us away from the woods and along the shoreline of the Firth of Clyde (on a paved path at last!) where the contrast between the rocks, leafy plants and the rusty looking seaweed caught my eye.
It wasn't the only thing to catch my eye as this German cruise liner sailed serenely by us heading off to Belfast after its' passengers had enjoyed their day dodging the showers in Scotland! I would certainly have swapped my muddy surroundings for the elegance of a classic cocktail before dinner watching the scenery slip by :)
And speaking of classic cocktails, Ardgowan House whose estate we were visiting featured in the recent adaptation of Agatha Christie's
Ordeal by Innocence, so has undoubtedly hosted the odd cocktail evening or two in the not too-distant past.
No time for cocktails here though, I have a pair of very muddy shoes to clean!
