Salt Breezes and Other Stories

Hello.

This has been a funny old week - one of restless mind (yes, again) which was partially soothed by a nice morning making Rocky Road but followed by a general unsettled~ness which began with a very tiny need to be by the sea, and which turned into a bigger and bigger one as the week drew on.

Saturday promised to be a fine day, and without much persuading we gathered ourselves, buckets, spades, shrimping nets and hefty picnic and drove off pronto to the east coast, to Filey, where we set up camp on the vast sandy beach and enjoyed a warm and happy day which we finished off with delicious salt and vinegary fish and chips on a bench overlooking the Brigg.

I'm so happy by the sea, I can hardly put it into words. Its all the simple things like the wonderful scent of the salty sea breezes, the fresh and tangy air, the views, the light heartedness that inevitably comes from being by the coast...There are other little moments too, like that divine feeling of soft white sand under your feet, and cool crystal waves lapping about your ankles as a seagull cries overhead...

It was a tonic, but alas we had to drive home that evening as the following day there was a rather Important Job to be done.

We were off to buy our tent!

Well, at long last we have brought it home, along with a few other goodies such as a little stove and cooking set...and you probably want a peep at it don't you? Oh - well alright then!! Here you go!

This is our new portable home!! Next weekend it will be coming with us to the Cotswolds for its first outing. We are having a trial run (a sensible thing to do we've been told) and are going to put it up in my parents back garden first, to familiarise ourselves with it, and then probably go loopy with excitement and jump about in it a bit, like you do!

We are all looking forward to the adventures we are no doubt going to have, and I will try my hardest to remember to squeeze the camera in the car somewhere and take lots of pictures.

So what else has been going on here?

Well, some art work has been done - here are a couple of line drawings that I did and rendered with greyscale watercolour. These sorts of drawings are fairly quick to do and great fun, it's almost like messing about and not 'proper' drawing at all, the imagination can go wild!

This one above looks a bit like me, going wild in the kitchen on baking day...!

...and this one was inspired by my two little nephews, I think they're monster hunting or something boyish that boys generally do when equiped with torches and much mischief!

The picture at the bottom of this post is from my sketch book, and was done using watercolour and inks. It was just something I did for fun, but overall I'm liking the effect of ink and watercolour together, and the rather scratchy way I've edged it all. I generally work with acrylic paints and so it's nice to experiment with new stuff to see what works (and what doesn't) and move away from what's familiar. I think I'll be making some new pictures with the ink in future!

Well, someone Small is in the sandpit, the sun is shining and I can feel a spot of crochet coming on, a nice and relaxing pursuit for as long as I can get away with it methinks!!

I hope you all have a nice weekend, we are off to my Mum's village tomorrow for the yearly Carnival, I just hope the weather holds!

Til next time, much love and thanks for visiting me today!

J x

Lemon Shortbread, Raspberries & Apricots...

Hello!

We've been busy again. :)

My dear friends, despite the hot weather, the Little One and I found ourselves rushing into the kitchen yesterday to concoct an exciting recipe, something of an experiment ~ which was to become Lemon Shortbread.

It all started with a punnet of raspberries and a bag of apricots that I'd brought home the previous day.

I found my mind wandering to them at intervals and suddenley an idea was born, to eat these delicious, soft summer fruits with a generous daub of creme fraiche and a little shortbread biscuit, flavoured with the essence of the warm Mediterranean: Lemon.

Searching high and low for a recipe proved a little difficult believe it or not. And so, after some pondering and some musing, we decided to forge ahead and make up our own, adding zingy lemon zest to a long standing family shortbread recipe which I will share with you today...

Just look...what do you think?

Dear souls, I cannot describe how deliciously Melt-In-The-Mouth these little biscuits are, you will just have to try them for yourself and see. The lemon is a wonderfully subtle flavour that seems to emerge at the end of each mouthful, and seems to work beautifully with that buttery flavour without being too rich.

Ok, here is the recipe :D

Lemon Shortbread

Ingredients:

150g plain flour

100g lightly salted butter

or

100g unsalted butter & a pinch of salt

50g golden caster sugar

Grated zest of 1 lemon (add more if you prefer a stronger flavour)

sugar for sprinkling

How to make:

Preheat your oven: 150c/130c fan/Gas 2

Put the flour and the butter (and salt if using) into a mixing bowl and rub together until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

Mix in the sugar and lemon rind and knead until it all becomes nice and soft.

Roll out on a lightly floured surface about 5mm thick.

You can then cut out biscuit shapes, or if you prefer smooth the shape into a circle and mark triangles out.

Prick the surface with a fork, and pop in the oven for about 25-35 mins. The shortbread will retain its nice pale colour when cooked.

Sprinkle sugar on top when you take them out of the oven!

Eat when cool.

I hope you enjoy them as much as we did - in fact, we have none left and I can feel another batch coming on pretty soon!

Well, the sun has shone relentlessly this last week, just a bit of cloud now and then but almost continental temperatures that have left us all a bit weary not to mention hot and bothered. It's a faff to do much when it's like this but I'm not complaining at all - I love the warm weather and love getting out to enjoy it (pity there's a pile of ironing about 5 feet high crawling up the wall but c'est la vie...life is to be enjoyed, and we can iron when it rains!! Ha!)

So, yesterday - ignoring the ironing pile and walking hurriedly past the hoover, the Little One and I decamped outside with our paints and whiled away an hour under the parasol painting Lemons and Things.

I dug out my old watercolour paintbox from my college days and presented them to the Small Person who asked what all the holes were in the paint pans! I hastily explained that Mummy had painted lots of pictures when she was younger with these paints to which she proclaimed me to be a 'Naughty Girl' for making such a mess of them. Anyhow, she seemed quite taken with the fact that she'd been gifted with some real Big Girl paints and set to work.

It wasn't long before she wanted to do what Mummy was doing, which at that moment was painting a lemon (which you can see at the top of this post) and this is her effort here!

Bless her, she's even managed to do the paint splatters and was enormously pleased with it.

Talking of finished paintings, I have completed the watercolour piece I started last week. I must say a big thank you for all your nice comments about the sneaky peek I showed you, but I appear to have misled you all a bit. I was telling you about my tree problem if you remember and bless you, you all said how smashing they looked thinking I meant the small background ones....little did you know I had not taken a shot of the culprits who were causing me so much grief, they were the big beasties at the front of the woodland scene!! However, after much messing about, I'm happy with the final outcome and can now show you what it all looks like!

This will be finding its way to the printers in the next day or so, and then on to the Agency. I've been fretting a bit lately that I just don't have enough time to create as much work as I would like (I think I've always set high standards for myself and sometimes suffer because of it). I suppose I just want to make the best of what is a wonderful opportunity and not blow it, it's my absolute dream to eventually have a book to illustrate.

Well, the day is still young and there is still oodles of time to start work on another painting, or perhaps begin some more line drawings. Must make the most of my time as I'm being whisked out to Cafe Rouge for something to eat en-route to picking up the child from Mums house later on, and I'm really looking forward to that...moules et frites are calling me...

Have a wonderful weekend folks, thanks for stopping by!

Much love

J x

Days Full of Sunshine

Hello.

I've been busy painting this afternoon. I've been having a play with my watercolour paints and enjoying myself with this little camping scene. I admit it, I'm very inspired by the current camping excitement that has swamped our little house of late and so it seemed quite natural to create a picture with a camping scene in it. There's quite a bit to do to it yet, but I have decided to do this blog post after having a small argument with the trees in the painting (that is, they weren't going to plan) and I find it's usually a Jolly Good Idea to come away from a picture when I feel cross with it, otherwise I usually spoil it.

Oh I do love painting, why oh why weren't we blessed with more hours in a day than what we've got - as I never seem to have enough time to do enough! It's absolutely not possible to paint a Proper Picture when the Little Bean is about, as quite naturally (and rightly so) she wants a turn, she wants to do a picture, and of course she wants to help Mummy with hers...you can imagine it can't you?

So painting is still very much an As-and-When sort of occupation, and I'm beginning to feel that when she begins her little pre-school sessions in September, I might just be able to manage to squeeze a few extra hours in each week while she's there...Lately I am sensing a big urgency to paint more and more, I have Little Voices telling me it is Very Necessary to build up my illustration portfolio to bursting point. And I have to listen to those Little Voices as they are generally right.

Anyhow...!

Summer is still very much in evidence in this little corner of Yorkshire. The sun has been blazing hot and we have been gifted with stunning blue skies.

Summer to me is an excuse to indulge in certain things.

Things like this:

We had a little baking day the Little One and I, and this was the result of our efforts...the lightest, most scrumptious scones (thanks to Queen Nigella's recipe) ~ onto which we lavished Roddas clotted cream (hastily purchased by the other half on his way home) and generous amounts of strawberry jam.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

That's all I can say. :D

As well as nice things to eat, the sunshine has created an explosion of delicious colour in our garden...

Oh I do love this time of year!! Everything is so colourful and alive. Our hanging baskets are a feast for the eyes and the tastebuds - we have tiny wild strawberries growing in one and cannot help but pinch them as we pass!

On Monday we decided to celebrate the solstice by having a special picnic tea. We drove out to Fox House and set up our rugs by the little stream that twists and turns, gurgling it's way into the valley. We told the Little One that she could have a late night as a treat and she was delirious with excitement! A picnic, a late night AND a place to paddle!

It was a relief to stand in the cool water, splash about and plop stones into the deep bits. It was still 27 degrees at 7 o'clock...but by then, someone had had just about enough...

There is something so very special about the Summer Solstice...

...and that night, I went to bed with the curtains and the windows wide open. There was a warm breeze blowing, filling the room full of the scents of summer...flowers, grass, and a slightly peppery scent that you only get when it's been really boiling hot. It was still light as I drifted off to sleep.

Now, I'm changing the subject a bit here - this is one of those rambling sorts of posts full of all sorts of things isn't it ~ are you still with me? Well done if you are!

Well, I can finally show you my Pot Holder that I was telling you about last week. As you know, I sussed out that I'd been using the wrong sized hook and after starting again and persevering with a teeny tiny (very fiddly) 2.50 hook, I came up with this:

I created it from a pattern in one of my Japanese crochet books...it's this one here.

It's ever so slightly bigger than the 15cm it says it ought to be...but I don't mind a bit!! I am rather thrilled that I managed to navigate a symbol only pattern in a Japanese book and come up with it at all!

Here's the back:

I'm wondering if to take it camping with me...or is that going a bit too far? ;D

Well, now I've had a rather lengthy chat with you on here, I suppose I'd best get back to my painting! Look, there it is on the table (aka my studio)!

Hopefully if the trees behave themselves and turn out how I want them to, I will be able to share the finished piece with you next week.

Best get cracking!

Have a lovely weekend folks, thanks for dropping by!

Love J x

PS: OOH! Almost forgot - thank you so very much for your excellent and helpful camping tips on the last post ~ please send more if you think of any won't you! x