A Card & A Trip to London

Hello again my lovelies

I've blown the dust off my inks recently and started to re-educate myself on how to stamp. Or rather, how to stamp successfully. I'd all but forgotten that there was a knack to it. Mind you, I recently flicked through a craft magazine and all the projects had appalling stamped images. Lots of missing patches of ink. I don't rate myself as being that proficient at it but a blindfolded chimp could do better than this mag's contributions. No wonder the publishing industry is having problems. I am subscribed to blogs which showcase crafters who are so brilliant, it makes me want to weep into my stash. And I can get that humiliation for free. I foolishly paid cold hard cash to see badly executed stamping.

Oops, slap hand and remind myself not to be such a grumpy sod - It's like that old joke goes - you know the one - "Oh you have a blog? And what do you complain about?"

So why don't I zip it shut and show you the card I made and let you all rain down a thousand judgements upon me instead lol

Since my last post, I've been out and about meeting friends and strangers and pretty much enjoying the aspect of being busy and doing nothing.

In the spirit of this year's "word"  - Adventure - I took a trip to London to meet up with my talented artist friend  - Richard Pettitt (Quick promotion! If you're looking for a beautiful Christmas Gift for someone and they have a pet - dog or cat - send Richard a photo and have him produce a gorgeous drawing from it - his website's here! - he did my cat a while back and it's stunning).

Anyway, when I met up with him - I dragged him off to the 02 to have him (and myself) strapped into a harness (which was as tight around the crotch as you could imagine, before ascending the outside of the dome on a rubber treadway.

Here we both are on the viewing platform at the top where we were treated to a 360 degree view of London.

Once we descended, we hopped off to the Tower of London to take a quick look at the ceramic poppies - not that we could see many as there was a hee-yooge crowd obstructing the view.

I think that, as I type, they are now being removed. So I was pleased to have seen them whilst they were still installed. I can't add anything to what has already been said by everyone else who has seen them. They were, as my American chums would say, awesome!

Chatsworth Lumiere Experience

Hello again lovelies

Well as I mentioned in my last post, a week later and Nick & I are both back at Chatsworth House. However this time, we saw it in a whole new light. Literally.

For the first time, we saw it at night for Chatsworth's annual Lumiere Experience. And once again, we were lucky with the weather. There was a cloudless sky, a three-quarter full moon and a twinkling of stars looking down on us. There was a lovely autumnal chill and it stayed rain-free.

As you can see from the photo above, the whole house was lit up and one wall had a hyoooge projection upon it.

However, we began the evening by visiting the interior of the house.

It's been many a year since either of us has seen inside the house, by day or by night so it all felt new to us. I couldn't tell you if it was better by night but I have to say the orange glow made the place feel warm and more opulent. Hundreds of candles were placed around the house, nearly all of them were faux flame, electric types. Which made good sense considering the ease with which an accident could see the house turned into cinder by dawn.

And here we are, posing on the staircase. One of the benefits of coming on a night event like this, is that though busy, the house was not over-populated. You weren't having to battle with crowds to see the beautiful rooms, art and sculptures. And you could pose on the stairs uninterrupted. Have to say, I felt quite at home.

A stunning sculpture made more spectral viewed in the dim light. The veil around the face is extremely clever and mind-boggingly realistic. I could swear it was real gauze but it was all marble.

All the rooms are decadent but the dining room tops them all. Oh to sit and partake of caviar, quail and an iced pudding.

The tour of the house leads you through the gift shop, obviously and then out into the garden where you are lead first along the path alongside the house, towards the magnificent spurting fountain. The trail was lit up and each statue along the way had actors reciting lines from Sheakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream piped through speakers. Hauntingly romantic.

The fountain was lit up in changeable colours and I know, this photo shows nothing of the scale but it's rather fabulous to witness.

At one of the ponds en route, you could light a candle and place in a paper lilly which was gently lowered onto the water. By the time we arrived, hundreds of them were festooned.

By far my favourite lumiere experience outside was impossible to photograph. Tiny lasers were projected onto trees creating an effect similar to watching a swarm of fireflies flitting around us. I had Nick stand in front of them to light him up.

As you can clearly see...

Okay, if I photoshop the heck out of it, you can just about make out the ghostly apparition of him

And that rounds off our quaintly english evening of romantic charm. We both came away on a high, absolutely buzzing on the atmospheric few hours we'd just spent. The only thing missing was a stall selling piping hot baked potatoes or cups of steaming hot chocolate. Mind you, tea and toast once we returned back home more than made up for it.

Digging It: Kohlrabi from Garden to Plate

We've had a lovely weekend entertaining a guest. One of Nick's closest and dearest friends. Whilst the pair of them went off on excursions together, I relaxed at home and made headway with a couple of DIY projects (which I will share when complete). Yes, my normally pristine hands have been sanding, priming and painting. On top of that, my nails have had further insult to injury by being plunged into dirt to harvest these lovelies

Our Kohlrabis were now all grown to the size of tennis balls and in need of harvesting. As you can see, we produced two varieties, purple and green. And because we planted the seedlings all at the same time rather than staggering them, we now have all twenty to eat up in the coming couple of weeks.

Good job I've found plenty of interesting recipes. The first of which we trialled on Saturday. Kohlrabi Fritters.

After peeling and grating them, they are drained of their moisture before adding to a mix of egg and breadcrumbs, plus a few chilli flakes. They are rolled into balls as you can see here

Flattened in a frying pan of hot oil, using a spatula

And voila, delicious, if ever so slightly naughty, fritters. And yes, it's like you've heard from everyone else who's grown their own produce. They do indeed taste better when you've gone from garden to plate. It's the smug self satisfaction that you've successfully grown and harvested organic vegetables and not killed them off or had them snacked upon by slugs and snails first.

Previous to these, my only other gardening success had been growing salad cress in an empty egg shell, decorated and filled with cotton wool. I was about six or seven. Is this a sign that I'm now well into my middle age? :D

Weekend Wrap

Another weekend been and gone. No Go Karting this time, thankfully. Also no visitors staying. We had family last weekend and for the next, we have an old friend of Nick's. This, however, was a weekend in the middle spent just to ourselves.

So whilst everyone else in the UK entertained themselves with Wimbledon, World Cup, or Tour de France, we spent a mostly sport-free day (however, Sunday was Silverstone's 50th anniversary of holding the F1 - which Nick sat & watched - yawn - cars!!!)

Instead, we took advantage of the sunny weather and summery season to visit a cottage garden we had failed until now, to grace with our presence, The Bluebell Cottage Gardens.

 As we turned into the car park, there was only one car in the parking area and it was leaving. How could this be possible? On a sunny day? In Summer? At the weekend? At Midday? It should be heaving. But what it did mean was that for a wonderful hour, we had the garden to ourselves.

It would be impossible to try and evoke how tranquil the whole setting was. Everything out in bloom, at it's best and attracting butterflies, damselflies and one tabby cat. Sat by the pond, I couldn't have wished for a more perfect surrounding.

Back home, our own garden is in bloom and a couple of new ventures are beginning to bear the fruit of our labours (and when I say our, I mean Nick's). The yellow flower which has popped out this weekend, is from our crop of Spaghetti Squashes,  which were grown from seed earlier this year, transferred to the garden in June and are now flourishing. Later in the year, I'm hoping to have a batch of these rather unique gourds to eat. There are loads of recipes around suggesting them as an alternative to pasta but here in the UK, you can not buy them in the shops. The only way to try them, other than going abroad, is to grow your own.

The other new crop are Kohl Rabis. We've never grown them before and they are now ready for plucking. We have quite a number of them, all the size of tennis balls, to be eaten. They are perfect in salads and I believe some people eat them just like apples. Super healthy too. Hark at me, blogging about health food!!!! Must be sun stroke!

This is more like it don't you think? Sunday was market day and we popped along to a favourite stall and filled a large, bright pink, box with scrumptious Macarons. Salted caramel, Strawberries & Cream, Violet, Lavender and Raspberry are just some of the mouth watering flavours we treated ourselves too.

Who needs sport? I can find much better ways to spend a weekend :D

Quick & Colourful plus a Little Adventure

Just a quick post today - no bells and whistles, showing a card I made whilst the web was down temporarily this morning (something to do with BT Broadband)

I sponged two colours of Distress Ink onto watercolour paper, Picked Raspberry (which I always read as Pickled Raspberry) and Salty Ocean. I used a stitched Lil Inkers Die to cut it out. I then used another die to cut out the sentiment in yellow card. I backed it all onto a glittery green base and stuck the whole lot onto red card.

Oh, I almost forgot. Though I'm not posting about it as regularly, I'm still incorporating Adventure into my life and yesterday I attended something for the first time which Nick had arranged. It's an adventure I would never dream of doing - Go Karting! At an indoor centre in Manchester called Karting 2000.

(Not a photo we took. It's from their website)

Up front I'll say I'm happy to have tried it once but it really, REALLY wasn't my thing. Nick had a great time, which makes me more than happy enough to have attended. But I am not the most ambitious person when it comes to speed. I even have little old ladies overtake me on the motorway.

For 15-20 minutes, I stayed in the left hand side, pootling along at the slowest speed possible, cringing whenever I hit a tight bend. Everyone else happily squealed their tyres, threw themselves round the course and overtook me, many, many times. Oh and the noise! Those karts don't half make a racket. I was relieved when the chequered flag was waved to indicate the end. I am so glad there weren't any photos taken of me in shabby overalls, complete with a hair net and racing helmet, gagging on the taste of petrol that seemed to be permanently in my mouth.

If I hadn't come across exactly as a petrol-head to Nick before, then I think it sunk in afterwards. Boxing, I can do. Boys' toys, I don't. My normally pristine palms, had blisters. I was in danger of developing callouses!!! I couldn't wait to go home, run a bath, add lots of smelly salts and wash any evidence away that I had been near oil and grease.

Today, inking up a card in bright colours, I feel more at home.

A Mini Adventure with Birds of Prey

As hinted at in yesterday's post, I had a mini excursion which I had booked earlier in the year as part of my one little word - Adventure.

There's a bit of a history to it. Many, many years ago when Nick & I first knew each other, he bought me an "experience" for my Birthday. It was for a day having birds of prey, especially falcons, land on an outstretched arm etc. Back then, I certainly didn't relish the idea. Horrid big birds flapping around my face? No thank you! So the gift was exchanged for a pair of good quality and much-worn and loved walking boots.

Cut to the present day and I open my email to discover that there's a deal on offer for a local Hawk Walk. Remembering the kind but nevertheless spurned gift back then and my resolve to have adventures this year, I went ahead and booked it.

The place: Stockley Farm Birds of Prey Centre. And we couldn't have picked a better day to go. We have been so lucky this year. Again, we were blessed with sunshine, blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

I must admit, I'm still not keen on giant Birds of Prey landing on my arm and though that's what we all had turns with, I was happy to let Nick have the pleasure. Me? I was there for the owls.

Now isn't this Tawny Owl  - Darwin - an absolute sweetie? I could have happily tucked him into my coat and taken him home.

Oh and the best part? When I stroked his head and back. The feathers are unbelievably soft. It's like nothing I've felt before. It's what you imagine clouds should feel like. Soft, fluffy and delicate.

Yes I did have this handsome chap land on my arm and boy can it swoop down hard and fast. But you're not seeing those photos. My face is not as relaxed and composed as Nick's was.

After we had fun taking photos of the birds on our arms, we set off on the walk with a juvenile hawk, Stan (who names a hawk Stan?). He'd only been on two other walks so was fairly new to the experience. To everyones surprise, not least our falconer, Gary, our young feathered friend who was joining us on our stroll, instead of swooping down from the trees and onto our gloved hands, dove straight into a hedge in front of us and before our eyes, caught and devoured a live field mouse. And the speed he did it was astounding. Gary managed to call him back but no sooner had we got the hawk out of the hedges, he swooped and nearly caught another. And that rather spoilt him lol. The scrawny scraps of chicken we were tempting him with weren't nearly as exciting as the juicy fat mice in the hedgerows.

But we did get a rare glimpse at the hawks' behaviour in the wild and how they gruesomely capture and feed from their prey. Again, we have photos but you'll be thankful I'm not sharing those either.

It was a wonderful experience and I'd happily do it again and again. Looking after these magnificent birds must be a dream job. Especially if you can go into work everyday and stroke a tawny owl. Ahhhhh.