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A little jewel of a painting and a view out of the door.

May 23, 2013 By 3 Comments

I rarely do this…you know…because the “Hey, look what I did!” approach feels like so much boasting, so please forgive this little bit of boasting in this post.

A month or so ago I started a new little painting and I showed the under painting on my FB page. And then I put it aside till today. (I do that)
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Today I think I finished this little jewel in sapphire. I’m really pleased with it, but the main thing is it felt so good to paint for a couple of hours.

Why don’t I do that every day?
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Also, my friend Celi of the kitchen’s garden asked what we see out of our door…the daily view. This is what I see Celi.

I’m really enjoying seeing the fellowship’s daily view on Celi’s blog. It’s one of my daily reads. :)
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A British car show influence on our tea cup Tuesday

May 21, 2013 By 28 Comments

I’m so happy it’s Tuesday again because I missed you all last week. :) On the heels of our British car show, I took out my little vintage car tea and luncheon plates for afternoon tea.

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These sweet little luncheon plates are Georgian china, USA origin and are perfect for our afternoon snack of oat cakes and brie.

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I also used our chrome tea pot. It’s the most perfect tea pot in the world! You know how you get tea pots which don’t hold the heat in, or which drip as you pour the tea? This one is so perfect it’s crazy.

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C couldn’t come to the car show, (rock climbing), so we told her of the day and showed her the photos…

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…while we drank cup after cup of Earl Gray stirred with our commemorative spoons of WWI leaders.

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Tea may have slightly collapsed into a fun-fest of who can out British who.

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But we had so much fun catching up and sharing fun stories of our day.

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Oh, almost forgot. At the jumble sale I picked up two authentic 1959 mini hubcaps. Lucky, lucky find. And the man selling them let me have them for free!!! Holy smokes, I would have expected to pay anything upwards of $100 for them. (Must be my charming way with people…er)

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One last shot of our afternoon tea. Here’s my scrubby cat Morgan trying to get in on tea…well, actually she could care less about the tea, it’s all about the brie for her.

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Sharing today with Teri from Artful Affirmation and voting for a lovely chintz on that chair, with Martha and wishing her mother a happy birthday! Love seeing your photo pretty girl. :) , with Sandy and coveting that beautiful parasol, and with Bernideen and thinking, “gosh, I want to come where you are and have some sun for a garden tea party too.” Love to you all.

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Hello from the British car show

May 20, 2013 By 5 Comments

Aint it the truth?!?
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I was just telling Robert that I’m a pretty lucky girl. I have the potential of driving seven cars, three of my own, three of Robert’s highly experimental beasties, (two of which I can’t quite control), and my mother’s waaay too much car for her Mercedes. (If you’ve ever seen my mother drive you’d take over too. )
But you know what I really love?
I love the sculptural aspect of practically any work of art, and, to me, cars can be a sculptural bit of art…and ours certainly are.
So we thought we’d wend our way to the British car show this weekend and have a look.

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Everyone who knows me knows that I’m crazy for minis. Love them to pieces. And this is where our tour always starts, at the mini stand.

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But along the way there is so much glorious sculptural beauty to see.

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From the engine bays to the interiors.

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I love the badges. Some have been restored, some are new. I remember painting the badge of my own mini from the inside out to restore the colours. That was a job and a half that was!

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The hood ornaments are also so beautiful. Don’t you love the heron one? I think it’s my favorite. Although the winged angel is amazing too.

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Some are custom made. I love the queen. She’s got a little photo cell in her handbag and it powers her wave. She stood on a Land Rover waving at all her subjects. (Got to get me one!)

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One more shot before we have to go. Some of the most beautiful bums in the world: E Type Jags. In my next life….

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The bookstore and a Sunday Whirl

May 19, 2013 By 26 Comments

Hello Sunday Whirl! Haven’t seen you in a while.

Actually it’s been a while for a lot of things round here.

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Number one thing is Robbie is in Vancouver.

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Number two thing, we need more books!

Isn’t that the way it always is. I can never bring enough books from our library in Vancouver to our library in Oxfordshire and vice versa. Robert is reading thru the Wheel of Time series and he’s on book nine. The speed he reads at he’ll blast thru the remaining five books by next Tuesday! The only practical thing is to visit Dalyce in her magical book store and stock up.

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It’s lovely to hang out with Dalyce and chat for a while and find all the books our little hearts desire.

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Number three thing: it’s been so, so incredibly busy round here that I’ve started my Sunday whirl poem three Sundays in a row and haven’t finished a single one to post.

Well, I’m proud to say that there is whirl for this week; the effort of a couple hours this morning.  Thank you Brenda for the wonderful words to play with. Now to go visit all my whirly friends.

nebulous, bleak, cut, vision, timing, touch, hover
crush, opaque, blazing, torch, slab, breath

There was nothing said, there was no timing

You stayed in your room all day and wrote a “this is how I’m feeling” poem…this small and sacred piece of it… printed a hundred copies, and sold them at a “this is how I’m feeling” poetry stand out on the street for a quarter.

There was a summer day and there was your vision.
There were June bugs sunning themselves on the screen door. They hovered expectantly around the windows hoping to touch you in the cool of your room.

You read each cut of your intensity; your torch blazing undiminished even after multiple copies.
Virtue standing strong even as it was spat out of a slot over and over again in a mechanical burden that follows after you loaded the slab of paper and pressed one-zero-zero and the Print key

Your parents were proud holding their breath and peeking at you from behind the living room curtain.
“Our little girl breaks all the rules. How cute, how constructive” they said while you beamed optimism from your bleak little table where stacks of carefully arranged emotions gleamed under the sun.

You, to whom the answer came easily with only a bit of hair pulling and a few bitter post cards. You, who were all seeing and all knowing, who camped out by a stream in the heart of me until you knew your way around in the dark. You are still there, you are still made of that nebulous wilderness which cuts thru my darkness.

You looked down the road and saw the bends filled with a crush of sports cars and mini vans trickling in an opaque haze towards your emotional stand, pulled there by the magnetic force of your turbulence; your printed piece of art.

Quarter-filled hands hanging out of rolled down windows

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When you think of France, what do you think of?

May 17, 2013 By 43 Comments

Paris? Provence? Bordeaux?

Today, the lovely Anita from Castles, Crowns and Cottages invited me to share what my France is.

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My France almost always is the High Savoy.

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One of my ancient family seats is the village and the Castle Allaman in Switzerland, on the north side of Lake Geneva, (Lac Leman).

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As a matter of fact, my maiden name is Von Alemann, a gentle spelling deviation thru the centuries since my family began with a strong Saxon tribe in 1218, but the same name none the less.

I’m drawn back to Geneva, where I’ve lived for great lengths of time in the past and each time I do, I spend every second day in France. France is just a short drive across a simple open border and then suddenly you are in the glorious Haute-Savoie.

I’ve been dragging my children around from village to Alps and back to village since they were very little. Hiking, swimming, eating… living.
I think Chloe’s fondest memories might be of a great big St Bernard named Lou-Lou and raclette, (it’s a long story).

The French side of Lake Geneva has two special villages so close to my heart. Yvoire and Thonon-les-Bains.

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Yvoire, the magical, medieval village with the spectacular le Labyrinthe Jardin des Cinq Sens, and Thonon, in which there is a pool right beside Lake Geneva, is where I can be, normal to me, and suntan topless with the other moms while our children play in the crystal waters. Chloe still has a friend she made at that pool when she was nine who she corresponds with today.

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But then it’s always into the mountains we go. La Clusaz, Chamonix, Mt Blanc. Where the most delicious mountain air makes for the most delicious hikes and small chalet lunches.

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My most favorite has always been the complex salads of that region and a baked potato, lardons, reblochon dish called Tartiflette. I make it where ever I am and instantly bring my France back to me. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll make it tomorrow and post the recipe.

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So please go dig up your treasured memories of France and tell me about them. :)

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Playing with something new in the studio

May 16, 2013 By 26 Comments

It’s a quiet day at home.
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Everyone’s busy doing their own thing,
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and I had enough of photography for the day.
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So I snuck away into my studio and altered a book.
This is a sweet little children’s book with sturdy pages. It is called Sheila Sinclair’s Quest by Muriel Stapley. I loved the little cameo image on the front cover and decided this would be my quest to play book.
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I glued every three pages together with a glue stick to make a sturdy “canvas” for holding paint, collage, anything. This left me with 18 paintable surfaces. Not too long, not too short, just right for a quick fun play.
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The first page evolved into a life-sized petunia blossom from my garden, painted with acrylics and India ink on a backdrop of collages paper.
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The second pages features a found phrase and is painted with black gesso, India ink, colour pencils and white chalk.
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For the next pages I’m playing with constructing pop-ups.
Stay tuned for more.

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First treat from the spring garden…rhubarb crumble

May 15, 2013 By 6 Comments

In Britain, the word “tart” has many meanings.
But in this instance, it completely and utterly describes my crumble, in fact, it has become accepted practice to view the world thru only one eye for about five minutes after ingestion.
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You take your first mouthful, including the sugary crust, and you think, “Ooo, that’s nice and sweet,” and then the tartness of the rhubarb hits you and you involuntarily have to close one eye and then you have to take your second mouthful to balance out the tartness with the sugar and you can’t help it…you just keep eating…

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Wait for it….
(Is this becoming a food blog?) :)

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Biscotti for mother’s day, my favorite thing.

May 11, 2013 By 12 Comments

If I’m going to eat a cookie I want it to be made from real butter, sugar, eggs, chocolate, nuts…you know, all the good stuff and none of the unpronounceable, unidentifiable stuff.

Would you agree with me?

Today I wanted to make something lovely for us all and also for my mother and mother’s day.

My favorite go-to cookies are biscotti. Who’s made them? Aren’t they just the most versatile, crunchy, satisfying cookies in the world? I make them in about seven different flavours but my most favorite are walnut and chocolate or almond and anise seed.

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Today I made walnut and chocolate.

Would you like the recipe? Of course you would.

1 ½ C toasted nuts
½ C butter
1C sugar
3 eggs
1tsp vanilla
3C flour
2tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 ¼ C semi sweet chocolate bits

Method:

The dough is a little stiff and so it really works out the arm muscles…or…alternately, stick it into the Kitchen Aid with the flat blade and save your arms.

Cream butter and sugar together, add eggs and vanilla, sift dry ingredients (like I bother), add dry ingredients and mix, add nuts and chocolate and mix again.

First baking:

Line a no edges baking sheet with tin foil and divide the dough into two and shape two rectangular logs on the foil. Try to imagine that after the first baking you will cut the cookies into the angled slices and so try to shape the rectangles to make the job easier on yourself with straighter sides and angled ends.

Bake them at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes. Take out and cool 5 minutes.

Second baking:

Carefully slide the foil off the baking sheet and onto the counter. Cut the two rectangles by slicing with a large knife from the top down but try not to go from side to side. Return the cookies to the baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes more to dry the cookies.

There you go.

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Now go make a cup of tea. :)

Were you seriously going to wait till they cool down?

Silly girl…lol.

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Sharing with Claudia at Mocking Bird Hill Cottage because they are definitely my favorite things. :)

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We’re definitely out of the closet!

May 10, 2013 By 25 Comments

C and I are having a bit a spring clean round here and part of that is taking everything out of our closets, storing away winter clothes and freshening up the summer clothes.

So while we were finishing up the organising I complained to C that I haven’t posted in a few days, the photo challenges are Artificial light, and patterns, and didn’t know what to post. She said, “look”.

So I give you:
Our clean and organised closets, with tons of interesting patterns and overhead lights.

This is my closet.
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And this is C’s. The pink dress is for a Saturday wedding she’s going to.
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I love Sarah Jessica Parker’s saying, “I like to see where my money is; hanging in my closet.” But our stuff is only about 10% really expensive designer had-to-haves, 25% vintage, 25% pret a porter, and the rest is an assortment of travel finds, imports, hand-me-ups, (C’s case hand-me-downs), and one or two pieces of wearable art which we probably will never wear but is fun to have.

Now to go take away that huge charity bag in the hallway.

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Where she doesn’t actually have that cup of tea!

May 7, 2013 By 34 Comments

Today I wanted to tell you a little story and share a very special cup.

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My father was British and a doctor and a collector of antiques.

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His very old leather doctor’s bag sits on the high shelf in the “James Bond” bathroom and holds the aspirins, bandaids and cough medicines. Another, larger doctor’s bag with drawer, holds my collection of fun and vintage jewellery.

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He particularly loved wooden boxes of every kind, especially Victorian British medical boxes.

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Yesterday I was doing some work on my Vanitas photography and left out two of his medical boxes to photograph for this post.

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Years ago, I can’t really remember, but I think I wasn’t a teen yet, he gave me this cup for my birthday. The mark suggests it is 1940′s Kunst Kronach Burgund.

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It always looked like a jewel to me. I always had it sitting on a shelf or, later, in my china cabinet and always loved it and looked at it.

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I know it was made for tea, to drink tea from, but I worry too much about pouring the hot tea into the delicate, irreplaceable cup and so I don’t use it.

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It stands on display as a treasured jewel and looks beautiful, and that’s enough for me.

Linking with Teri at Artful Affirmations and thinking a lot of the country is stormy right now, and Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage and saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her uncle Doug, Wow 90 yrs young! And to Bernideen and thinking I’ve got to get me some chalk paint. :)

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