Basketry

Willow and Wire

Today I saw an exhibition of work by weaver Lois Walpole. She is currently exhibiting at the Walford Craft Mill in Wimborne where I volunteer. I haven't been up there for a couple of weeks so today was the first time I saw this new exhibition of woven baskets. The first thing that caught my attention was the smell in the gallery. There was an aromatic smell of wood, even though not all the pieces were wood based. It reminded me of the smell of my parents wicker furniture that they had many years ago. The second thing that caught my attention was the colour used in the work. The pieces are made up of found objects, ranging from bottle tops to corks, wire to paper and wood to plastic to tin. So you can imagine the selection of colour. The third thing that I noticed were the shapes of each of the pieces.

The gallery was an installation piece in itself, filled with a variety of colours, shapes and sizes. The pieces gave me a nostalgic feeling of home because of the materials used within work. I understand that Lois Walpole is a British artist working in France, but looking at her work gives me a sense of something more tribal modern, similar to the work seen in South Africa. Modern weaving in South Africa incorporates found objects such as tin cans and plastic carrier bags, and here I saw a very similar use of objects. There is a definate ethnicity seen in the work that I usually don't associate with European artwork. It is refreshing to see and it twangs on the home sickness strings just a little bit.

Wire, Tin and Baler Twine

Champagne and Beer Muzzles and Wire

Willow Plastic Bottle Tops and Wire

Wire and Wooden Beads

Wine Bottle Corks

Beer Tins and Wire

Orange Nets and Polypropylene String

Crown Caps from Beer Bottles and Wire

Forest Feast

Just a stroll in the park with things to find and create with. What a scrumptious feast I have left for the squirrels.

Today's Special: Crunchy pine cones served with a selection of red berries, finished with a fresh ivy salad and a sprinkling of pine needles.

Sage and Chilies

This is an experiment in out of season growing! I planted these about a week ago and it isn't spring. Will this work? I do love the feeling of excitement I get when the little green shoot pops it's little head above the soil!

My chilies have had a slow start over the past year, mainly because they were in a small pots. I planted six and one didn't make it. These five have been repotted in my new little white pots and have been doing much much better.

So hopefully they will produce chilies a little bigger than these baby ones. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my little dried chillies. My little, wrinkly and home grown by me.

Peanut Butter Cookies

It was my friend Charlotte's birthday on Thursday and unfortunately at the moment money isn't a flowing but I still wanted to get her something to make her smile. Now there is something you need to understand about Charlotte, and that is that she has an obsession with all things baked! She eats cake like it's going out of fashion, and she isn't picky about what kind of cake it it. Whether it is pre-packed, freshly baked, red, yellow or green cake she is on it...and yet, believe it or not, she is slim, lean and looks gorgeous! If only my metabolism could whisk the cake away as well as hers does. So I decided to get my baking goodies out and bake her some yummy little morsels, my favorite peanut butter cookies. They are oaty, creamy, moist, squishy yet crispy on the outside. I think I got the recipe out of an American Seventeen magazine. It was their valentines day issue and in the recipe they were topped with a Hersheys Kiss. As we Brits (not that I am a Brit) don't have Hersheys Kisses at our disposal I omitted them from the recipe all those years ago when I first started making them. Cut - just like that...I was ruthless, I didn't substitute them with anything, and just left them to their peanut buttery and oaty pureness. Now, at first I had a bit of a timing issue so burnt the first batch (sad face)...I timed them but when the buzzer went off they weren't golden brown enough so I stuck them back in without resetting the timer and got distracted...so this happened:

OOPS!

The rest, however, came out beautifully and I couldn't resist having a little taste while they were still steamy and warm. Absolute heaven! I felt they were definitely fit to be a birthday present for my very special cake eating friend. So all I had left to do was wrap them up all pretty like.

All it took was a piece of cellophane, a piece of organic hemp string and two beautiful ceramic buttons to decorate this delicious stack of cookie goodness. Of course Charlotte loved them. We went out for a few birthday drinks and they were sat there on the table looking yummy, everyone desiring just a little taste. But I don't think Charlotte shared them with anyone, and why should she? They were her cookies and it was her birthday after all!