The king's kitchens and my birthday supper

At RBG Kew, one of the most charming areas for me are the King's kitchens and the kitchen's garden.On the second floor is a small room with chairs and some lovely reproduction books and menus from King George's era.One book I was particularly captivated by was The Compleat Housewife 1727!And, as we were making a roast lamb for my birthday supper, I decided to take some points.On roasting......and on roasting lamb.Crikey, didn't learn this in Cordon Bleu. :DBy the time we got home I forgot the lot, so relied on my own methods.But the lamb was amazing.And so were the roasted potatoes and Mediterranean veggies.I did have a bit of an Olde English flourish with my chocolate cake though and decorated with rose petals and wild flowers. :DI might need to add that lovely little book to my old cookery book collection. :DDo you collect old books? Actually, I can't resist old gardening books. Love those.

My birthday and RBG Kew

First I wanted to say thank you so much to everyone, over 100 of my friends, for wishing me a Happy Birthday yesterday on my Facebook. I'm absolutely overwhelmed with the outpouring of love. Thank you my friends. I treasure each and every one of you.And second, I'd like to tell you that I had the most fabulous birthday in the world!As usual and traditional for us, Robert took me to RBG Kew for the day.It was overcast and misty, and, since we usually have hot summer weather at Kew, it was wonderful to walk around in the fresh and cool. We were saying that Paris in April is nothing as romantic as our version of romantic: Kew on a drizzly summer's day. :DTraditionally we head to the Orangery for tea and lunch, plan our walk......and head out to the gardens.Each year there is a new summer theme at Kew, and this year it was all about spice.Various areas in the garden had self learning booths set up with information about a spice, drawers to open to smell them, and historic examples on display. Did you know that one variety of star anise, a native Japanese variety, is actually highly toxic and often used for incense, and sometimes the spice has been mixed up with culinary star anise resulting in deaths? I never knew that!We walked around the student gardeners' beds, (good to see that even expert gardeners have weeds, lol)Love the stick and pot method of keeping the nets up.We took photos everywhere.R is very skilled at photobombing! He makes me laugh so much. :DThen I have to say to him, "Oi, get out of my photos!" And I get the lost little puppy look.At one point R had a rest in a little pergola while I walked around some more of the garden.And late into the day, we climbed the 60" up 6 staircases to walk in the Kew treetops.R ran the last couple staricases taking the stairs two by two, and when I got to the top I looked at him and said, "show off! :D " The middle-aged British couple beside us sniggered ever so politely (although they tried not to show it...in that very British way.)What could have been better for me? I don't know.A day of love, companionship, garden and photos.Happy day. :D

Chickens and eggs and omelettes

Down at the other side of the meadow...around a little summer cottage...is our neighbour's hen house and six hens.The hens are usually left inside their run, but sometimes get to wander out onto the meadow.Most days the hens are left to themselves, and we are invited to visit and collect the eggs. I can't tell you how exciting it is for me (city girl) to be able to reach under a fat hen and pull out a warm egg.For an even trade, every day I bring them dandelions, grasses for them to root thru for bugs, seeds, clovers, and when the fruit is ripe, apples and plums from our garden.They run to the fence when they see us coming.Today we collected five eggs and decided on omelettes for supper.Each time I break one of those hard shells and see the rich yellow yolks, I'm determined to have some chickens of my own.Do you like omelettes? I love them. So simple. As a matter of fact, that was the first thing I learned how to cook at Cordon Bleu. They say omelettes can make or break a chef. Three eggs, a bit of milk, some herbs, a pinch of salt...divine. We usually vary the fillings depending on what we feel like (or what we have on hand.)Tonight: red peppers, onions, and bacon, with feta for R and cheddar for me.Adding a tomato salad and supper is served. :D

A walk in the fields

We live on the outskirts of our village and there are several farmed fields around us. There is a foot path leading thru five fields and a small copse which ends up at the Thames. I love to walk out to the Thames in the mornings, but usually only walk thru the first four fields and turn around at the copse in the evenings. It's a lovely evening walk. Not too far, and just the right kind of summer atmosphere to ensure a good night's sleep.

Hello from Sunday night

Hi everybody! I hope you've had a wonderful weekend all across the old globe.I've had the best luck today at the car boot sale. I set off from home and it immediately started to rain. By the time I got to the boot sale, there was a torrential downpour. A real cloud burst. Well, the entry people who take admittance were nowhere to be found, so I pulled right into the field and parked up. Rock star parking no less.As soon as I parked up the clouds parted and the sun peeked out.But the clouds were gathering again and I reckoned I had about 30 minutes, so I did a quick run around.There was some lovely stuff......but mostly the reason I came here today was to get some orchard fresh and local fruits and veggies. Much better quality and much lower prices than the stores.But I couldn't resist this lot!Sixteen antique bottles, a vintage fish mould, a brass otter statue, a hand turned wooden bowl, a vintage oval bowl and an old bread board.I love this turned bowl. Actually, I love wood and wood grain so very much. Next weekend on this field will be the steam and tractor exhibition, where, a few years ago, I bought a beautiful hand turned cheese platter made from spalted beech. It cost about $40, but I love it. This exquisite little bowl cost me the equivalent of $2! :DI know it's probably a bit kitschy, but how could I resist this sweet little otter face? Honestly, if you look in the dictionary under "cute to the max" you'll see this little guy.And, at first I only wanted the white ink bottle, (middle), because I have a small collection and love them as vases, but when I asked the seller how much she wanted, she said, "Take the lot for a pound, me mam dug them up somewhere and, now she's gone, they've been hanging around for an age." Seriously? How lucky can I be today? :DI think I will use the larger ones for holding paint brushes and, I remember making a hanging flower door chain using some of these vintage, brown Bovril bottles. Maybe I'll do that again this year but make a longer chain. :D Don't you love the makers stamps? I'm going to try to look them up to determine how old these are.Mostly our weekend was a quiet one. We had some friends drop by on Saturday and watched the Formula 1 race today. (Well, Robert's looking at me sideways because I only watched the beginning and the end and ran out to the car boot for the middle)We were planning to go for a walk but got too lazy, so I just went out to the meadow and gathered some wild flowers to try out one of the new bottles. I think I might paint some of the wild meadow poppies this week. What do you think? Oils? I feel like painting with my oils. Hope your week ahead is a shiny and happy one. And, hey, anyone feel like calling a drawing challenge for next weekend? Shall I? :D

How to make a found poetry journal from an old book

Last week I had a brilliant Twitter chat with some members of my writing gang Wordsmith Studio. We've been good social media friends since we came together three years ago.There was a thought that I might show how I make journals out of old books, this one specifically for found poetry.I love making these little journals, they're as easy as pie and as cheap as chips to make. (great, now I'm hungry)I first got the idea from a beautiful book called The Humument, an upcycled Victorian novel, by artist Tom Phillips. Although he's altered over 370 pages, my journals are a bit more manageable, and the pages are sturdier and able to hold paint.So here we go:Go to the goodwill, local flea, thrift, secondhand book seller, raid your grandmother's book shelves, find yourself an old book.Decide the feeling of the book you want. Some books I look thru to make sure I like the content, some books I don't preview because I want each page to be a random experience. This book I previewed.Begin grouping the pages in groups of five or six. It all depends on what you want. If I want a poetry journal, I don't really want my page to be the end of the book's chapter or an illustration, so I'll group six instead of five pages. Also, if you're using a book with very sturdy pages, you might like to consider groupings of three or four pages.I always leave the frotispiece and the dedication/publisher info pages alone and begin with the first few pages of the book.Now lay the book on a side where the pages lie flattest, usually on its back spine, and glue the first five pages together with a glue stick.Each time you glue one page to the next, close the book and give it a little press to avoid buckling. That way, when you pick up your new "page" made from the five pages, it will be smooth and wrinkle free. It's a bit of a tedious task, but goes by quickly.Now the fun begins.Now that you have divided your book into thicker, sturdier pages, open it up to one of your pages and read the content. What I usually do is get a feeling of the poem I want. Maybe one word jumps out at you, maybe just a couple words, maybe a whole sentence. Circle the words/sentence with a soft pencil. Now go back and read your circled words. Do you need to pick up some words to tie your poem together? Circle those too. Decide on your sentences, on your line breaks.Now it's time to commit. Get a pen, (I used permanent ink pens because I already know I want to use paint on the book and so don't want the margins to bleed)......and outline your poem.What works brilliantly for me is the Humument way of linking words together by snaking my lines thru the page margins, between word spaces, and around the gutters. Some words I want to stand alone and so are not linked.Pretty soon you have a visible poem emerging from your pages.And next you have a world of choices.For me, I like to draw on the page behind my poem to have my poem stand out. In this book I decided to draw a meadow and paint it in with water colours. Here I used acrylic paint. Here I used collage. In past books I've used ink or even black paint to obliterate the unwanted writing on the page. You decide what you like. By far the easiest is using felt pens as I've done here. This is also the most transportable system and might work as well for you as it does for me.Once you've drawn your design, gently, GENTLY erase the pencil lines. These books can be pretty fragile, so always use a gentle art eraser and never one of those horrible, pink, school supplies ones.There you go! All that's left is to colour in your design, possibly touch up the lines around your poem......and your page is finished.This poem on this page reads:Wild whimhot airuntil some hour when the moonlight among the pines has drawn up the Earthwoods by moonlightmost beautifulnear, for ever singingIf the night be fine, there is a wild wind, that never rose above a whisperso purewith the moon a deep breath,singingthe wind the singerto whom singing was a little thing in the world.Now lay your new book out somewhere where you can walk by it and read it, admire your work, and smile. :DThere you go guys. Any and all questions are very welcome. :D

Garden and field

Everything is where it belongs.I like that.I may leave England, but pretty much everything stays the same, waits for me.So glad to be here, so happy to walk out into my garden and see my flowers.So happy to walk out into the evening meadow and watch the sun set thru the pines. The birds are singing, the bees are so laden with pollen that they can hardly fly at the end of the day.It's hot here, the air smells sweet and damp. Thunderstorms are in the forecast.Life is good. :D

Last post from home, next post from ... home!

Well here we are again. The summer is here and it's time for me to move countries for a couple of months. So I've cuddled our babies, hugged my children, and especially Chloe, who I hate to leave for two months, watered the garden, bought groceries, petted the cats, gave instructions, cleaned the house, and packed everything I can think of. Oxfordshire is waiting, Robbie is waiting, home and garden at West Cottage is waiting, and I'm on my way.

Drawing challenge: Plate (gelatin plate)

Since Joke announced her lovely drawing challenge: plate, I thought and thought about "plate" as art.And, you all know me, I'm not happy with an actual plate, although I wondered about going to one of those "decorate your own pottery while we fire it for you" places, and, while I've done that before and really liked it, time wise it wasn't something I could do right now.So I thought about plates and kept coming back to printing. Printing plates. What kinds of printing plates could I do with limited time and my three little granddaughters under foot?Gelatin plates!I made one in a very shallow tray using my old favourite Oetker gelatin sheets right out of my kitchen. I just made the gelatin a little harder by keeping 1/2 cup of water out of the normal recipe. Then I went outside and got some grass and a piece of sword fern from the garden.The first colour I chose was blue. Cerulean blue acrylic, squished out on the gelatin plate and spread with a paint roller.Then I spread out a few grasses on the blue paint, lay a sheet of smooth watercolour paper on the gelatin plate and pulled a print.Then I rolled a light green paint on the gelatin plate and pressed a piece of sword fern down, and placed the paper back down.I love the second print on the first. I love this! How is it that I've never done gelatin plate printing before...omg?!? :DMind you, it's 30 degrees here today, I did this printing in my studio under the roof, where it's 35 degrees, and I ruined the gelatin plate after the two prints. But it was so worth it!I took the print to my dining room table, (where it's not so hot), and decided to draw some grass and Queen Anne's lace on it in ink.Love it. I can see more gelatin plate prints in my future.Pop on over to Joke's for a big plate full of fun when you have a chance. :D

Our little girls are here

There are some lovely new toys round here. Among them are two frog princes and two beautiful porcelain dolls, (one with red hair), sitting, waiting to be discovered, because Kerstie is bringing our little girls, (one with red hair) down for a few days.I'm just three days away from leaving to England for the summer, which I'm so very excited about, but always miss my children, so love having my middle child and my beautiful granddaughters in town before I go.Kerstie ran into heavy traffic driving down, so the girls got here practically just in time for bed, but with a little play, a snack, a little cuddle and a story from "auntie Chloe", off to sleep they went, Ever and Isla in the huge brass bed and Zoe in her cot in Kerstin's room.And how tired were they? Kers says they always get up at 7:30, but it was 9am by the time we saw their little faces! Hooray for a sleep in! Kers couldn't believe her luck.Today was raspberries for breakfast and afternoon Barbie picnics. It was such a hot summer's day that Chloe attached the hose to the water mister...which should have only cooled down the garden, not soaked the girls...lol...they had other plans, so, a change of clothes later, and snuggles at the TV for a cartoon. It's amazing how children "zone" out!I walked around and watered the garden this evening. I'm so happy to see the noble privet in full bloom. I left the blossoms on it for the bees and they seem to appreciate it to the max. It's positively buzzing. Bees need all the help they can get. The hummingbirds have been camped out in my garden lately and absolutely loving the crocosmia. I keep trying to take their photo. Darn speedy little things! If they'd just hold still for a minute...We're planning a beach trip tomorrow. The heat wave is supposed to intensify, so I already hear the ocean calling our name. :D