White, not crisp – salted and unsalted

Last night we had tickets to see 'Neighbourhood Watch' at the theatre in Cambridge; snow had been forecast to fall at some time on Saturday and it seemed as if the whole country was 'on amber alert' as the Met Office had labelled it, but undeterred we drove into town and as we neared the outskirts of Cambridge the first skimpy flakes were flying past the car windscreen.

At the interval we bought our ice-creams and stood at the theatre door watching the snow accumulate, the street was white and huddles of bicycles were disappearing under fluffy white blankets of snow. The mood of the audience returning to their seats, was a mix of excitement and slight trepidation of what the journey home would be like . . .

 

. . . a tad hairy to be honest! Cliff seemed confident driving my 'tardis' with it's new winter wheels, but as we passed a rather crunched little hatchback we worried about whether the car behind us would be able to brake without sliding into the back of us!

As we headed out over the Gog Magog Hills we were almost alone on the road, the snow was coming down thick and fast and by the time we turned down the little country lane to the village we were relieved to have made it to within easy walking distance of home, should we have got stuck . . . which we didn't.

This morning I peeped trough the curtains and this was the scene . . .

Bright sun and freezing temperatures would have made everything sparkle, well you can't have everything . . . the palette of white, greys and umbers has its own beauty. When we saw that the road through the village had actually been gritted! (at 7am it hadn't so Cliff had decided not to join his walking group 20 miles away) we decided to go for walk up through the village and out the other side.

At the top of the hill we had a choice, salted or unsalted . . .

. . . we took the road less traveled

And I had fun taking lots of photos of the twiggy textures and distant woods.

I think this next one is my favourite . . .

Near the village playing field are two trees which always seem to hold on to there fruits right through the winter

and underneath, a Robin was thankful of a snack.

Back home, the snow outlines pruned structures and bright stems glow – the garden is unfamiliar under its coating of snow.

The hens are confused – most of them chose not to leave the hen-house; but Pearl was out and about – but not at all sure of what to make of this snow stuff!

My hunch is the snow won't stay around for long, we'll be back to chilly, muddy February very soon.

In the mean time, I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon sitting by a cosy fire and looking at the snow-scene while it lasts.

Celia
x

PS someone's just mentioned going for another walk to see if we can spot the Barn Owls hunting in the snow - mmm? might be worth doing before I get snuggled down ;-) Naah! tea and biscuits by the fire won!

Enter February

February has arrived blown in on a chill nor-easterly, plummeting the temperatures to well below freezing by night and only just a little warmer by day; will we have snow? who knows, but today the sunshine is glorious, so despite the cold (and the wind-chill) I decided that a lunchtime walk with my camera would be a good idea.

This is the south-west corner of Suffolk, the views take in the edge of south Cambridgeshire and north Essex; here the countryside is nearly as high as it gets in East Anglia, my short route of a mile and half started at 65ft and took me to 115ft at the wood . . . so around here that's a significant hill! The village is tucked down in the valley, the church tower hardly visible among the trees.

Back home my flock is happy to be in a sheltered garden with a sunny spot under the pine tree; and look who's found a girlfriend? Cheep is inseparable from Pearl and even wants to guard her while she lays her egg!


Celia
x

BTW the music is the gavotte from Gluck's 'Orfeo ed Euridice' played by Les Musiciens du Louvre (my favourite album on my iPhone this winter).

Perfect winter weekend = walk + bake + knit

On Saturday we decided to venture west for a walk in the Midlands, Cliff did a quick search on the web and found a good location . . . Pitsford Water in Northamptonshire.

 

We started our walk at the popular Brixworth Country Park visitors centre and circumnavigated the southern half of the reservoir, a total distance of 7.5 miles – just the right sort of distance to blow the cobwebs out of the mind and put roses in our cheeks!

On the way we passed some recently done hedge-laying . . .

and lots of birdlife, including a large flock of Lapwings (including one of two Golden Plovers) and these beautifully plumaged Greylag Geese . . .

After our walk we went into Brixworth village to see the church, it's set on the edge of the village on the crest of a ridge which overlooks the surrounding farmland, and it is huge . . . and very very old!

Brixworth church was build at least 1200 years ago, only a couple of hundred years after the the Romans upped and left Britain; the Saxon builders reused Roman terracotta tiles to make the massive semicircular archways. The large ground level arches (which have been infilled with stone and windows) where originally interior entrances into small side rooms, chapels or shrines off the main nave of this great basilica, maybe built when Offa was king of Mercia.

Just think how long it's stood here . . . it was over 300 years old when the Normans invaded Britain! Look at how carefully the tiles and stones have been placed to make those simple archways.

Maybe I was still thinking about those Saxon arches when I made this pear up-side down cake for our Sunday lunch?

It was easy to make . . .
- spread creamed butter and soft brown sugar over the base of a lined cake tin;
- over it, lay slices of pear and glacé cherries in pattern;
- make a sponge mixture (100g softened unsalted butter/100g caster sugar/2 eggs/100g self-raising flour) and spoon carefully over the fruit;
- bake at 180˚C for about 40 minutes until the sponge is firm;
- cool slightly and turn out onto a plate;
- eat with a generous helping of freshly made custard.

 

. . . and even easier to eat!

On Sunday evening I finished the shawl I've been knitting from Kauni yarn; I've been knitting this for months; it has been knitted and unraveled a couple of times because it wasn't quite right and I'm a perfectionist; it has traveled with me on trains down to London and up to Liverpool many times, until it became far to big to carry easily.

The shape and size were inspired by the shawls in a Kaffe Fassett knitting book from the 1980s. I chose two colourways of the Kauni yarn and then used a Fair Isle technique to create the patterns, which I made up as I went along and then repeated a few times.


Let's see it outside in natural light where the wintery colours really glow . . .

I was fun to knit, and became cosy and organic as it grew and grew. I worked on 1 metre long double pins, but by the end it was quite a struggle to manipulate all the stitches; so although I still have some yarn over, I decided it was big enough. I probably have enough to make a hat with the leftovers.

And lastly . . .

Thank you to everyone who signed up to get my studio newsletters, there are over twenty who missed the mailing, so I'll be sending out another batch later this evening. Then the next one will be sent at the end of February.

Celia
x

Studio newsletter

I've been playing with Mail Chimp!

It's part of my plan to keep in regular contact with the galleries that sell my prints and cards . . . then I thought, perhaps I should send a newsletter to previous customers and maybe followers of my blog? So I'm experimenting with setting up a mailing list specifically to receive monthly news from my studio by email . . . with links to Magic Cochin's Emporium and PPPs and my website and galleries and anything else that I'm excited about.

Above is a preview of this month's newsletter – it hasn't been posted yet, so if you'd like to add you name to the mailing list just fill in this little form (you can unsubscribe at any time, of course and I won't share your details with anyone else or deluge you with messages).

Celia
x

Subscribe to my mailing list