Copper Beech Glade

We had the perfect weekend here at Copper Beech Glade. Three sweet gypsy caravans with room for extra tents

 all under the shade of a magnificent Copper Beech tree.

It was Suzi's 40th birthday and there was no better place for a party.

Everyone was so happy to see the sun after the darkest, wettest, foggiest morning (well actually week) and it was so nice to just to be outside.

We played croquet on the lawn 

lots of badminton (renamed 'goodminton' by Taylor).

and even a spot of Sumo wrestling.

There was a lovely fire pit 

for toasting marshmallows 

singing songs 

and staying toasty.

Me and Ffion slept in a caravan which had the comfiest, snuggliest duck down duvet'd bed and I was lulled to sleep by the rain on the roof and the night time noises of the woods. Morning yoga by the stream surrounded by bluebells was just magic.

It was a very special party with so many lovely people. Most of these lovely pictures are Ffions. She captured it so well.

Maartje van den Noort

My favourite hour of our twenty-four-hours-in-Amsterdam was going to visit Maartje van den Noort in her studio.

I wrote about Maartje's work in Illuminate but I never got to meet her at the time. 

I wrote about her studio - an old sailors home on the dockside with grand stairs, high ceilings and huge windows. It was as lovely as I imagined.

Look how beautiful the light was.

I love her work. Her drawings excite and inspire me. She makes such beautiful lines.

It seems we are inspired by similar things and we had a lot to talk about.

It's always nice to talk with other artists about their processes and their dreams.

I could have stayed chatting and drinking tea for many hours but it was time for us all to go.

Maartje, thankyou for having us. It was a joy. I look forward to seeing you next year when you come to visit England.

Have a look at Maartje's lovely work on her website here.

Salad Day

My friend Helen at Dixon Hill inspires me with her glowing health and her cupboard full of weird and wonderful  ingredients. When I went for lunch once she rustled up the most beautifully zingy lentil salad, apparently one that everyone wants to know how to make. So Helen being the creative that she is put together a salad workshop and invited a group of people to her beautiful home to learn how it's done.

Helen has eaten a predominantly raw diet for many years and is a wealth of knowledge about eating this way. She showed us how to make five salads, all beautiful to look and bursting with nutrition.

Let me see if I can remember what went in them. This green salad had lettuce and rocket as a base with goji berries, currants, fresh basil, mint and parsley, hemp seeds, sea salad (a mix of dried sea weeds) and a macadamia nut oil dressing. Not forgetting the marigold on the top of course..

Helen would normally pick edible flowers from her garden in season but for the purpose of the workshop she bought us some to play with. What a pretty thing. I didn't know you could eat pansies.

This was rocket, apple, fennel, sunflower seeds and an incredible olive oil and cider vinegar dressing with a drop of orange essential oil in. Amazing. She finished it off with roasted sweet potato chunks.

Raw cauliflower is the base of this one. She calls it cauliflower couscous because that's what it looks like. It was so fresh.

I can't say I liked the thought if the 'sea spaghetti' much but it was surprisingly good. It looked a bit like tagliatelle. Helen mixed it up with potatoes, spring onions, rocket and sun dried tomatoes, a dressing I can't remember and some borage flowers.

Time to dig in.

It was possibly the healthiest meal I've eaten, ever and it was so, so tasty.

Helen sent us home with a goody bag too (lime green of course to match her kitchen) with some ingredients to experiment with and some seeds to plant. It was an absolutely gorgeous and inspiring afternoon.

Thanks Helen x

Paper paper everywhere...

 I have just been up to Edinburgh for a few days to lend a hand to my dear friend Rachel Hazell.

Rachel is an artist, book binder, paper sculptor, workshop leader (remember the Summer Isles) and a big collector of all things PAPER. 

Ever since Rachel moved to her new house there has remained an overwhelm of unpacked boxes, folders, bags crammed full of artwork, books, maps, memorabilia and scrumptious bits of paper all waiting to find a new home. 

But Rachel is a busy lass you know She's not called the travelling bookbinder for nothing and she spends a lot of time on the road teaching workshops and writing. 

So I offered to lend a hand (as well as getting to hang out with her in lovely Edinburgh).

I loved finding pretty places for her handmade books.

I enjoyed arranging her tools on the wall.

It was good to collect things together in colourful piles

and find pots for pencils.

The highlight was making a washi tape dispenser out of a curtain pole. Oh yes!

Stationary addicts will understand the joy this brought to all concerned!

There was many a set of alphabets stamps...there might be a slight obsession here ;)

And now the workbench is clear and Miss Hazell is a happy bunny. And me too, we had lots of fun and nice cups of tea along the way. 

Now I'm home in my own studio and it looks positively bare in comparison. I bought some big wooden letters from a beautiful shop called Homer that Rachel took me to in Edinburgh. They will be my souvenir of a lovely papery, lettery weekend.