Weddings are back on and the art of beautifully written invitations, table plans, and place cards is bang on trend again.
But its not just the ‘soon to be wed’ that are getting in on this wonderful craft. Lockdown gave plenty of us time to hand write notes and spend a little more time putting pen to paper to our family and friends.
Stunning garden chalkboards for those summer gatherings, hand written quotes to adorn your walls or hey, just because its another great art to improve your neural pathways and happiness just like the studies on knitting.
Emma and I enjoyed an evening online of calligraphy earlier this year and it reminded us what an all consuming technique it is; which led us to call up our good friend Martie from The British Quill to see if she fancied coming to hangout at the tent and run a few workshops on the subject. Lucky for us and maybe you too if you fancy trying it, she said yes and is running two sessions on Friday 6th May in the afternoon and Saturday 7th May in the morning.
She came from a family of story tellers - her dad has an unpublished book of the most gorgeous short stories gathering dust, and her uncle avidly pens his experiences and thoughts in long letters and emails. She dabbled in a bit of poetry and short stories many moons ago before husband, children and fur baby days. But nowadays she regularly creates beautiful wedding stationery, bespoke gifts, runs corporate calligraphy workshops and also finds time to writes the stories of her occupational therapy clients who sustained life changing injuries.
"It is both an honor and a responsibility. While I meet them at one of the worst seasons in their lives, I am deeply humbled that I am able to journey on that bumpy road with them"
All is well with Larkswold this week. We have had the most wonderful afternoon making candles again with guests and fun working out which of all the beautiful images we have of the tent, guests and crafts to add to our latest leaflet.
On the flock front I realise that Batman the runner duck has got a bit of a thing for Olive one of the two olive eggers (Its not a breed, more a combination of one bird that lays blue eggs and usually one that lays very dark eggs). He is below with his beautiful life partner Daphne (who is very understanding about his cross-breed obsession). But the good news is that Flora, Dora (also Olive eggers), Flappy and Melony the Bantam who are now all 6 weeks old have settled in with the big birds now and all is one with the coup.
Emma has also been filling her time trying out the art of Dorodango (Dorodango is a Japanese art form in which earth and water are molded, then carefully polished to create a delicate shiny sphere, resembling a billiard ball!). She's had fun and who knows, maybe you‘ll see them adorning the tent.
So, enjoy the lovely weather this weekend; phone a friend or hook up with family and make a date to come to eat cake, drink bubbly and hang out at the tent soon.
Melinda x