Sep 14 2012

Hare!

When I was at Susan’s Home on Tuesday both her and her husband were telling me about a young hare that stays mostly in their garden, sometimes raiding the vegetable patch. Now, if you said it was a rabbit, it would be more believable, but a hare is well known as a shy animal and hard to get close too.

Well after about 45 minutes of standing talking about pots, this fella appeared in the vegetable patch. You can see how close I was able to get before he bolted for it. I have a spot spot for the Irish Hare. This is a young one with a lot of growing still before he reaches his majestic best.

Sep 13 2012

Susan Francesca Hunter Accent Pots

Susan Francesca Hunter is a freelance designer living and working on the North Coast of County Antrim Northern Ireland. Susan works in a variety of mediums and scales from large public art work to smaller scale intimate ceramic and glass pieces. Susan has a B.A. Honours in 3-Dimensional design: Ceramics and a Post Graduate Diploma in Ceramics.

Susan has now turned her talent to the design and creation of accent and bonsai pots, and is willing to create bespoke pots on commission to fit your needs.

Below are some of her accent pots which she has graciously allowed me to add here on my blog for sale. These will be added to frequently to replace sold stock. If you see a pot that is already sold please supply me with the number and a similar but unique pot can be commissioned for you. This can be found at any time under the ‘For Sale’ Tab at the top of the blog.

You can also contact Susan direct :susan@susanfrancescahunter.com

These pots are £6.00 each or 2 for £10 +P&P

: SFH #001 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #001 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #002 £6.00

: SFH #002 £6.00

: SFH #003 £6.00

: SFH #003 £6.00

: SFH #004 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #004 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #005 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #005 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #006 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #006 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #007 £6.00

: SFH #007 £6.00

: SFH #008 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #008 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #009 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #009 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #010 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #011 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #011 £6.00 SOLD

: SFH #012 £6.00

: SFH #012 £6.00

Sep 13 2012

Sneak Pot Preview

On Tuesday I visited Susan, a local Ceramic Artist, who had visited our club show back in June. She showed an interest in both the accent pots and bonsai pots in the display. Not wanting to miss an opportunity we both got talking and Tuesday saw me visiting her studio to collect a batch of accent pots.

We don’t have a single pot maker in Northern Ireland since Jackson Conn stopped making his excellent pots. Now Susan has appeared on the scene, I hope to make this one stick 🙂 As Susan doesn’t have a bonsai background, I was excited to see just what she would come up with after very little direction from me. I was delighted with the results and hopefully the club members will be too when I take her first batch to the meeting this Friday.

Here are two that I’m holding onto to whet your appetite. Watch this space, I will be adding a page of her pots here on the blog for anyone interested and will be giving you more information about Susan.

This was my favourite one. I love the glaze and design with the tilt to one side. I can just picture this with a fern or hosta.

This is the most unusual one of the batch! I’m sure it’s not to everyone’s taste but I just love it. Haven’t a clue as yet to what will go into it. I love the plaited clay design and the variation in colour on the pot.

Sep 12 2012

Haw Haw

My Hawthorn Raft didn’t produce too many flowers this year. Not a problem really as it’s a long way to go before it’s the way I want to show it. It dropped most of it’s first flush leaves a week or so ago only leaving the later growth. This made the few haws more noticable.

Sep 11 2012

Small Tortoiseshell

I’m amazed just how many of these Small Tortoiseshell butterflies are in my garden this year. Never seen so many.

Sep 10 2012

Walking Again

You’d think a dodgy shoulder wouldn’t stop you walking, but it did! I have been back at it for a few weeks but didn’t take the camera. Yesterday normal service resumed.

Our usual path on this walk has seen a few changes. Plenty of big beeches have taken a tumble. This one took a smaller one with it.

I love fungi at this time of year. Never miss a chance for a photo.

The green grass of home

Onwards to the beach at Helen’s Bay

Stephen had an extra dog for the walk

and just to repay the favour, here he is contorting himself for a photo.

Sep 9 2012

Rossii?

I swapped a few accents with Xavier back in the Spring and one of them was this chap. I can’t seem to actually find out more about it. It was labelled Mukdenia Rossi. I was expecting the Rossi to refer to red flowers at some point, but as you can see, there appears to be a red tinge to the leaves starting as we come into Autumn. I have since read that it’s now to be called Aceriphyllum rossii. Anybody know any more about it as an accent?

Sep 8 2012

Confused Rhododendron

This Rhododendron is a variety called Blue Diamond and normally flowers in March/April. As you can see, it’s decided to flower now. I’m not exactly sure why. It may be due to the fact that I removed nearly all of the flowers this Spring to help the tree gain a little extra vigour. The flowers are a little sporadic but will add a nice splash of colour as I wait for the real Autumn colour to hit the benches.

Sep 8 2012

Happy Snapper

A few days ago, I mentioned that I was trying to recover photos from Stephen’s memory card after an accidental delete has wiped out every photo he’d taken since March. [Remember to back up 🙂 ] I was successful.

While I was looking through the recovered photos I noticed that he has been sneaking around on our Sunday walks, taking photos of me taking photos! Here are some of them and a few others besides.

Me getting a shot of the Mourne Mountains from Scrabo Hill, Newtownards

I appear to be getting a shot of some Hawthorn Berries up Cavehill, overlooking Belfast Lough. My Springer Spaniel, Maggie is never far from my side on a walk. My other dog deserts me and ranges ahead.

Taking close up shots of bluebells in Killyneither Woods, Comber.

I think I caught him on in this one 🙂

A colder day walking the beach at Gray’s Point, Helen’s Bay. My squint is probably me trying to spot Smudge running ahead causing havoc, stealing tennis balls from other dogs!

Maggie and I in the Bluebells again.

The best way to discuss bonsai, with a tin of beer in the hand 🙂 Taken at a visit to Josh’s garden.

Taken on our Spring Pine collecting trip.

Cavehill again. Stephen and I walk with my two brothers. That’s them on the path ahead of us. We usually split up as Stephen’s dog and my brother’s dog hate each other!

Capturing Forsythia flowers this time I think.

More plant snapping.

A rare photo of me with my two brothers. As you can see I got all the good looks in the family. Hair is in short supply 😀

I’ll end with this one. It shows the end of one of our walks at Bangor Marina. My dog Smudge’s favourite spot. He’ll race ahead to get in the water waiting for someone, anyone, to throw a stone for him to chase.