Helen Carpenter
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helencarpenter.bsky.social
Helen Carpenter
@helencarpenter.bsky.social
200 followers 170 following 110 posts
Language(s)/connections. Curious. Interests: culture, identity, people, places (esp. border territory)....and weaving. Positive change/inclusion. FRSA, MBE @50MillionVoices.bsky.social
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helencarpenter.bsky.social
Remarkable autumn collage...every colour and leaf size all at once and the joy of light.
Close-up view of autumn leaves ranging from gren through yellow to different shades of red, with strong sunlight shining through tree branches and the leaves creating strong shadow and light, so the whole appears like a collage
October 6, 2025 at 3:55 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Thank you very much! And here's a close-up of one of the lilies....
Close up photo of ink water lily in bloom with yellow centre on green pad in pond
August 14, 2025 at 7:36 AM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Amazing how restorative just a couple of days spent in a different setting can be.
View of lily pond with a couple of lily pads in bloom, with planting overhanging its edge, part of adjacent paving and small table visible on the right with a pot containing a couple of red geraniums
August 13, 2025 at 9:02 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Part of sketch design by Eric Ravilious, featuring tennis, for the British Pavilion in Paris 1937, designed by Oliver Hill. Currently on display as part of exhibition of murals to 13 July at Fry Art Gallery fryartgallery.org in Saffron Walden, Essex.

Just the thing for the first day of Wimbledon!
June 30, 2025 at 8:47 AM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
I love optical illusions....no smoke here just a well-aligned condensation trail! Things aren't always what they appear to be...
#Opticalillusion
View over wall and garden towards two chimneys and part of roof gable of a house with the rest hidden by tress. It looks like smoke billowing from the chimney into a blue sky but is in fact a condensation trail from an aeroplane, which perfectly aligns with the chimney from this vantage point
June 26, 2025 at 5:17 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Taking part in #SpacesForListening this evening was such a powerful sharing experience - this one reached into places with seriousness, amazing imagery and humour in a truly remarkable way. TY so much as ever @brigidrussell51.bsky.social @charliepsych.bsky.social & all participants.
Seagull with outstretched wings against blue blackground
June 25, 2025 at 9:08 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Do we all do this I wonder? Go past somewhere 100s of times and then, one day, notice something for the first time and wonder how on earth you'd never spotted it before? This is what I spotted a couple of days ago on a rather unprepossessing passageway....
Brick wall with sign that says "I learned to read here I remember this passage"
June 9, 2025 at 7:15 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
So very much this! I have been given a rather amazing bunch just recently. Such a rich red! ♥️
Bunch of large dark red peonies in a black vase on a wooden table against a white wall
May 10, 2025 at 12:39 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Contemplative moment...
Tree in white blossom overhanging canal with reflections in the water of part of facade of modern office building and two of its windows
April 27, 2025 at 8:29 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
A glowing play of light on bricks in the morning sun #London
Oblique angled view along a row of tall terraced brick houses interspersed at regular intervals with tall window openings over at least three storeys. The terrace is visually split vertically by black drainpipes. Some windows have window boxes with greenery from plants
April 17, 2025 at 3:07 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Wow! Last time I passed here the wisteria didn't look like this! Quite the display...♥️ #Spring #CamdenTown #RegentsCanal
House with black railings at the front by path overlooking Regents Canal, London (canal not visible in photo). Old fashioned lamp post on path. The house is painted pale blue and is completely covered in flowering mauve wisteria.
April 14, 2025 at 4:18 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Time and seasons through a window...
Trees through a sash window...one with pink blossom, one with white blossom and two with bare branches...all against a cloudless blue sky
April 8, 2025 at 5:16 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
This Thought of the Day made me chuckle today. One for coffee lovers. Spotted at Golders Green tube station. #London #Quirky

@allontheboard.bsky.social
Thought of the day text says Did you know that simply replacing your cup of coffee in the morning with a refreshing glass of water can leave you both hydrated and in a terrible mood for the rest of the day
April 7, 2025 at 7:43 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Half timbered houses in Rouen by night....♥️
View down an atmospheric and very narrow winding street at night, the street lined on both sides with half timbered houses and with light coming solely rom a single street lamp not in picture.
April 1, 2025 at 9:42 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
#IronworkThursday #ironwork
Detail of iron gate in the gardens surrounding Hampton Court Palace, with view through to gassy avenue lined with trees. Paint on gate encrusted with lichen and part of iron detailing in form that echoes shape of tree trunks and branches
March 27, 2025 at 10:00 AM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
What beauty...and so easily missed unless one looks closely! In the gardens of Hampton Court Palace. www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-cour...

#Gardens #Spring #Narcissi #HamptonCourtPalace #HistoricRoyalPalaces
A double white narcissus flower in peak bloom, with yellow at its heart, then crinkled middle, then white petals, surrounded by green foiage
March 22, 2025 at 8:51 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Whenever I pass this it makes me smile, and today I finally got round to finding out a bit more - londonopia.co.uk/the-stickmen...
Also @kit_artist on instagram
#StreetArt #Stickmen #Whimsical #Quirky #London #Holloway
Figure made of yellow tubing attached to lamppost with Father Christmas red hat with white edging, yellow dark goggles, red gloves, tinsel and baubles, with one arm raised and red-gloved finger pointing upwards . Blue sky, clouds and top of block of flats with chimney in background
March 17, 2025 at 3:26 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
#London #Spring
Tree with pink blossom at back of a Victorian brick house with three sash windows and chimney visible through the branches with blue sky and white cloud above
March 16, 2025 at 11:56 AM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Brooms and blooms 😊
Detail of display outside shop with red and white artificial roses placed directly in front of red,yellow and bright green upended brooms and white floor mops
March 15, 2025 at 11:34 AM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Small in number but big in interest, impact and surprise elements - paintings from the Oskar Reinhart villa museum Am Römerholz in Winterthur, Switzerland on display in "Goya to Impressionism" at the Courtauld Gallery, London. It's made me want to go to the gallery in Switzerland after it reopens!
Oil painting on canvas, titled The Break-Up of Ice on the Seine by Claude Monet (1840-1926) painted 1880-81 and acquired by Oskar Reinhart in 1924. View along the river depicting dissolving patches of ice, with tinges of pink, blue and grey in the late afternoon light. The river also has broken reflections of the bare poplars alongside. The treatment of the ice and water has an almost abstract quality. the Seine froze over and flooded its banks when the ice broke up in the winter of 1879.
March 11, 2025 at 7:51 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
A happy accident! Something unintended has led to texture and interactions between yarn and colour that I really did not expect. #weaving #texture #interaction
Detail of woven scarf in progress made from Yorkshire Dales wool tweed. Pink and grey green warp and, in the part in this image, beige, flecked weft. Shuttle lying diagonally across work in progress.
March 9, 2025 at 10:25 AM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Spring is springing...savouring the moment...😊
Very small stream in woodland with fresh shrub greenery and blue sky above seen through tree branches that are beginning to take on spring hues before their leaves appear
March 8, 2025 at 7:32 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-Seen is a thought-provoking exhibition, providing a different kind of gaze from within of working class experiences and identities by artists from the 1950s to now, all in a surprising venue. To 20th April: twotempleplace.org/exhibitions/...
Exhibition catalogue cover showing a work by Kelly O'Brien, depicting a female cleaner with mop head completely covering her face and head. She is wearing pink gloves, a black top and three quarter length jeans with turn-up, socks and flat ankle boots. her pinafore over her top has a logo which says No Rest for the Wicked. She is standing on two bricks, one under each foot. In the exhibition itself, there is a different hidden image of her on the reverse of the canvas, only visible if you walk round the back to look.
February 6, 2025 at 5:26 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
Whenever I pass this musical version of Fish and Chips, it always makes me smile on a grey day. And I love the shadows on the wall behind....
#FishandChips #Grafitti
Graffiti on a white wall with two guitarists, the left hand one a substantial fish, with tail and hat, the right hand one thin and chip shaped with a long blank yellow face, a cap and coat with collar turned up. Microphone between them, their shadows on the wall behind and a sign saying fish and chips to their right.
February 3, 2025 at 12:26 PM
helencarpenter.bsky.social
I enjoyed this view of Sloane Square London on my way to a guitar concert by MILOŠ Karadaglić at Cadogan Hall. Loved his playing and his comments about valuing the spaces in-between and then when I came out, I saw the same view but in the light of those comments and his playing, in a different way.
A multitude of tiny twinkling white lights covering the bare tree branches and part of the trunks on trees in the middle of a square, outlined against spaces of dark night sky in between. Row of bollards marking edge of square and road in foreground and a taxi and car to one side.
January 22, 2025 at 7:56 PM