Soda Bread

Soda bread...strange but nice!

500g plain flour + some for dusting

2 tsps Bicarbonate of Soda

1/3 tsp salt

400 ml buttermilk (or plain yogurt)

combine flour, bicarb and salt together. Add Buttermilk/yogurt on and mix together until combined but sticky (use your hands but beware, it's sticky) Make a rough ball and place on a greased baking sheet, or grease proof paper. Sprinkle with flour and bake in a hot 180 degree oven for 30 minutes (I did mine for 40).

Eat hot out of the oven with butter...or you can wait a bit so not to burn your mouth. I used buttermilk and it has a weird tangy flavor. Might try yogurt next time.

Balancing Rocks - or so it may appear

This is what I have been working on for my MA. My study has taken a complete turn from what I was initially thinking about doing (doesn't it always)...This idea came to me while walking on the beach at Hengistbury Head. The sun was beaming in a crisp blue winter sky. My shadow was cast across the pebbles, it was on of those really long and interesting shadows. This got me thinking about what else would create interesting shadows and the pebbles were right there in from of me.

The idea at the moment is to re-scale and use much bigger pebbles (rocks to be precise) to cast shadows across the beach. This is something completely new for my practice and I have no idea whether this will work or not. I have to fond a drill to put holes through the rocks so that I could lace these onto a pole. This is going to be problem number one. I tried drilling through a pebble with my Dremel and that didn't work. I glued these little ones together but somehow I don't think that will work with the bigger rocks. Obstacle number two is to getting the sculptures to the beach and photographing them on a sunny day...it's winter and they are few and far between. I will keep you all posted. This is going to be an interesting experiment.

Smart Phone Blogging

So I've discovered a Blogger app for my HTC and this is me testing it out. I like the idea of being able to blog wherever me and my Android might be but I fear it may be way too time consuming. I'm lying in bed about to read my book but have been distracted by this little experiment. I will log on tomorrow and see if it has worked...photo and all! Night all x

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Christmas Cards

Here are a few sneak peaks at the Christmas Cards I have made this year. They are on sale at The Walford Craft Mill on Wimborne. The images have been mono-printed and then coloured using pencil, watercolours and oil crayon.

Crostata di Fichi

There were figs at the fruit stand at the market near where I work so I decided to get some and make a tart. This is how it has turned out. What stared off as being a disaster with forgetting to put the egg yolk in the shortcrust pastry has turned out quite yummy indeed. (I just chucked the egg yolk and worked it in with some more flour at the end... surprisingly it has turned out beautifully short and flaky!)

I even made some little cupcake tarts! Yum!