happy easter

A chocolate feast and a wheel barrow ride round the garden!

turner contemporary

We were very excited to go along to the launch of the new Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate. Poor old Margate has been heading steadily downhill since the advent of cheap package holidays, but I do believe this new gallery could be the start of an upward trend. Already there's lots of regeneration going on in the Old Town with cafes and galleries and shops where there were only bordered up buildings before.

The building is designed by David Chipperfield and looks out to sea making the most of the amazing north light that so impressed Turner.

What with all the canapes, speeches and Betty to chase after we didn't get a chance to look at the work properly but we'll return soon for a another look.

gorse flower cordial

The smell of the coconutty gorse in full bloom has been heavenly on these warm days we've been getting recently. I remembered to take a plastic tub with me on a walk yesterday and filled it with flowers. (Forgot gardening gloves though and got a few sore fingers). Last night I made some cordial. There are various recipes on the internet. This a hybrid of a few of them....

Recipe

4 handfuls of gorse flowers

600ml water

250g caster sugar

juice and zest of 2 lemons

Rapidly boil the water and sugar for 10 minutes to create the syrup. Take off the heat and add the lemon zest and juice and the gorse flowers. (I spread these out on a tea towel before hand to let the insects crawl away). Leave for 3 or 4 hours before straining through a muslin cloth and sealing in sterilised bottles. Makes about 500ml. Delicious diluted as a drink, as a syrup on ice cream or other desserts or made into a granita.

Other variations include the addition of orange or grapefruit juice and if I was to pick 10 pints worth of flowers I could make wine from this River Cottage Gorseflower wine recipe.

suspiciously quiet

It went suspiciously quiet in the living room whilst I was making lunch....

bunty bunny

A quick new baby gift I've finished just in time. This pattern is from Debi Birkin's website. Top marks to anyone who identifies the album cover back drop!

salty fudge

I often get a craving for sweet and salty treats. I love peanut butter cupcakes, salty buttery sugery popcorn, sea salt chocolates, salted caramel chocolate mousse.... I could go on. I found this recipe for sea salt fudge on a great blog called Cooking the Books. After licking the pan out I needed to lay down for a bit. Certainly not for everyday consumption!

drawing fluid screen print

Here's a practice print from the course I did in screen printing a while back at the Print Block. I drew directly on the screen with drawing fluid. I actually prefer the drawing on the screen (top) to the actual print (bottom), which came out rather clunky. There are not really any grey areas with drawing fluid, and I was a little over zealous with the paintbrush.