A sophisticated evening out on the town

On Monday we went to Burger & Lobster, a tasty restaurant where we both tried lobster for the first time. The novelty was good and it tasted expensive but the difficulty eating it meant I would choose the lobster roll (basically a lobster hot-dog), which Vicki had, next time.

We then went to the Wydhams theatre in Soho to see Quartermaine's Terms which was very good. The best play I've seen and the first one I would pay to see again. Rowan Atkinson plays an eager but ultimately very lonely St John Quartermaine and the play covers a couple of years at the end of his career as a teacher of English to foreign students in Cambridge in the 1950s.

Reg would have enjoyed it too but he was too fat to fit in the box we had, as you can see from the photo.

Wriggly Tin

Wriggly Tin - 'a slang term for corrugated iron'

Otherwise known as the shepherds hut where we spent the first few days of the Easter break. Jimmy's birthday was Good Friday, and his birthday surprise beginning Easter Monday was two nights staying in a shepherds hut in the middle of a field in Hampshire! A bit risky, but luckily he says he loved it!

Wriggly Tin consists of two very cute and very cosy shepherds huts fully equipped with warm bed and wood burning stove (the bathroom is in another hut across the field!). Our hut, called Butser, was just big enough for the two of us to sleep and cook our breakfast before heading out for the day to enjoy the countryside around us.



We were able to hire bikes, which we made full use of by trying to visit as many villages in one day as we could (we managed 5). It really did make me want to pack up my bags and leave London for the countryside, all the villages so pretty, especially in the sunshine.

Alex, the owner, provided us with a lovely breakfast basket full of local produce which really did taste so much better! Another excellent foodie time was visiting the tearooms in the nearest village of Hambledon, all homemade and very quaint with their collection of over 100 different teapots!


It was a definite wake up call to how much we rely on the everyday mod-cons of electricity and plumbing! But also really peaceful to be completely away from it all, just the two of us. Plus we were blessed with some beautiful weather which always puts a smile on my face!

I found Wriggly Tin on Canopy and Stars, which has lots of 'unique' places to stay including yurts and treehouses - quite keen on trying one of these next!

More info on Wriggly Tin can be found at Alex's website 

Book review...Doors Open

I only learnt to drive about a year and a half ago, and have yet to own my first car so I have always had a close relationship with public transport! Currently living in the middle of London and working in Kent, my closest friend at the moment is the 7:08 to Tunbridge Wells so I spend an awful lot of time reading - meaning I always need a good book in my bag so I don't need to succumb to the celebrity pages of the Metro!

I just finished 'Doors Open' by Ian Rankin - one of Jimmy's that he hasn't yet read from Christmas.
It was probably different to what I would normally read, but I'm broaden my reading horizons a little bit lately and have been trying out lots of different genres and authors.

Doors Open is a crime novel I suppose, but with a bit of a twist in the sense that the main characters hatch a plan to 'liberate' some priceless artworks that are being stored away from public view.

The book has quite a few twists and turns, and although a lot of people may see the ending coming it took me a while! There's some very interesting characters, and the story is easy to read - a bonus for early mornings! It's also set in Edinburgh, and having visited a few years ago it was good fun remembering the landmarks that the characters visited.

ITV made a tv movie of the book which showed over Christmas, so I'm now looking forward to watching Steven Fry's portrayal of the art school professor!

Just a little baking...

I've just made this recipe again, and it was just as good the second time so I thought it was worth posting! I got this from a recipe calendar, but can't remember the magazine it came from...and adapted slightly.

50g unsalted butter
175g plain white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
100g caster sugar
1 egg
120ml milk
125g blueberries
100g white chocolate (chopped)

Heat oven to 180 degrees, and grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
Melt the butter, and allow to cool a little before whisking together with the egg and milk. Beat into the flour mixture.
Mix in the berries and chocolate before pouring into a loaf tin.
Bake for approx 50-55 mins and leave to cool before turning out of the tin.

This cake is so easy, and the blueberries make it really moist. Drizzle with icing, or dust with icing sugar to finish!

Oslo in pictures

Just before Christmas we took a little trip to Oslo for the weekend, to enjoy some serious snow! We woke up on the first morning to this:

It was super cold, and we stocked up on thermals before we went. However, we were amazed at how life simply goes on as normal with such heavy snow yet grinds to a standstill when we have just a couple of centimetres in England!

We got ourselves an 'Oslo pass' on the first day, which worked out really good value as it got us onto buses and into all of the attractions and museums for free.

One of the highlights was seeing two versions of The Scream at the Edvard Munch gallery, which was really fantastic having studied the painting in my school art lessons! (See Jimmy doing his best 'Scream' impression!)

Many of Oslo's museums are on Bygdoy, which is a peninsula to the Western side of Oslo. This was great as we headed over there and were able to walk from museum to museum around the island. We saw a lot of boats including the Polar Ship Fram, Kon Tiki (to the left) and some Viking boats.




We also visited the Norwegian Folk museum, probably my favourite as it was an open air museum that allowed you to walk around houses and buildings through the ages.






However, the best was yet to come...on the Sunday we went toboganning! Neither of us had done anything similar before, but both agreed it was awesome! We had to get on a little train up to the top of the slopes, which was pretty eerie at first as the train dropped us off in the middle of what looked like an arctic wilderness!

However, we found our way and spend the whole morning whizzing down the slopes and occasionally falling into snowdrifts (mostly me). Even Reginald enjoyed himself!

An amazing weekend away, and a fantastic way to get in the festive spirit!

Fairfield Mill

On our second holiday to Sedbergh in Yorkshire, a lovely little village, we stayed just outside in a house called Oakdene. A former B&B the Victorian house originally belonged to a mill owner, presumably the owner of Fairfield Mill which was a 5 minute walk down the road.

Fairfield Mill is now an arts and heritage centre, which includes about 3 floors of some amazing craftwork and hosts loads of working artist studios including people practising traditional weaving techniques. I was of course in my element, there was some really beautiful stuff, it was a real find. Below are a small selection of some of my favourites. I've tried to give credit/link to artists websites where possible. I can't wait to inspire my A-Level students with some of this work.

This was in a display of work by some students at the University of Cumbria. This wool piece, by Elizabeth Birch, really caught my eye. I've experimented with heat forming synthetic fabrics before, but not tried it in wool and now can't wait to give it a try. It gives some really exciting texture, especially with the changing colours.

 One floor played host to lots of different styles of spinning wheels and looms, and artists were in residence working on these. It's something I'd love to have a go at but am pretty sure it involves a lot of patience and precision which isn't my strong point.

 There were quite a few wool and felted pieces due to the mill producing woollen products up until the 1990s. This piece by Abigail's Attic reminded me of clay beads, as well as some felted sushi a friend of mine made at college! A really unique way of using wool to make jewellery!

 This was one of my favourite pieces, I loved how delicate it was and the great way of combining fabric, papers and wire to create 3D structures. The artist had made a whole collection of items including teacups and spoons. This was by Priscilla Jones, whose website you can find here.

 Another favourite - so many things I loved!! I've experimented with silk painting before so I know how difficult and fiddly it is! This was just beautiful, I would love to have this one my wall. My photos don't do any justice to the colours, but the image of a spiderweb was really striking. Can't find a website for her but there is a little further information here.

It took me a long way to drag myself away from these pieces by Mary Taylor. The artist combines various fabrics, layering them up, embroidering into them and burning away to reveal different layers creating beautiful representations of Cumbrian landscapes. Due to the inclusion of synthetic fabrics and metallic threads these pieces catch the light beautifully.

Summertime

Well this summer has certainly been eventful, which might account for it speeding by so quickly! I had 8 weeks off from school and work...and I can't believe that I start my first proper, actual career-related job tomorrow as a Textiles teacher.

I spent a couple of weeks at the beginning of summer at school, one induction week at my new school which I love so far!, and taught a Summer school on Photoshop designed t-shirts at one of the placement schools I was at during my PGCE.

Then we moved into a bigger flat, just down the road but with a lot more room and it feels much less studenty! Still working on getting things just right but pretty happy so far!



 Best part of the summer - for my birthday Jimmy surprised me with 5 nights in Monaco! Amazing, especially as I thought he was taking me to Harry Potter world! We came home on Friday night, then headed to Yorkshire the next morning for a second holiday with Jimmy's family in a big old house in the middle of the country. More on that later when I get hold of some photos,  but for now here's some visual loveliness from Monaco!

We spent one evening after dinner wandering around the harbour looking at all the MASSIVE yachts. Some even had door mats outside, as well as beds and hot tubs on the deck. Pretty amazing.

In Casino square, just behind the fountain is the Grand Casino. At night this filled up with dozens of supercars, and we spent several evenings joining the throngs of people just standing around watching the Ferraris and Bugattis roll up and their owners to step out and throw their keys at the nearest valet!

Monaco was a great experience. It was wonderful to spend 5 days in the sun, getting thoroughly burnt, and a real eye opener as to how much money some people have to throw around. The yachts and supercars were amazing to look at, but I'm pretty happy with our one-bed in London!