The past month has been full of travel and time spent with dear friends. Now I'm back in the studio gearing up for the busy holiday season which will be here before we know it.

First things first — I should start with tidying up because the work table looks like it's been hit by a bomb and it's hard to find things.

Outside the garden is full of flowers and the insects are showing up in crazed hungry...

Part kitchen tool, part sci-fi monster.

Last month I wrote about my artist grandmother's childhood in Germany. This month I'm exploring the way her family was on both sides of the second world war, and her escape with my infant mother to a new life in Canada.

By the end of 1940, aged only 26, my maternal grandmother Gunda was on a boat to Canada and a whole new life. She had my 1 1/2 year-old mother with her and was pregnant with my aunt Bettina. They were on the last government-sponsored ship taking evacuees from England.

This giant spool of twine is a very useful tool when it comes to wrangling tomato plants.