Mow Cop Castle

What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?

So I could draw it

I had to do a drawing prompt for an art group that I’m in and I wanted to draw something old with ‘nooks and crannies’ which was the prompt.

I love the phrase, I think of old buildings, of old corridors and priest holes that people could hide in. Like Cavaliers hiding from Roundheads. Of hidden treasures, or pirates gold doubloons.

Mow Cop Castle is actually a folly, it was built on top of Mow Cop Hill that looks out over the Cheshire plain. It was never a ruined castle, but built to look like one, with the walls built to appear like they are tumbling down, and it’s silhouette is very striking as you look up to it. If you go up to it you can see the Jodrell Bank Observatory over at Holmes Chapel.

The drawing is not a good representation but it gives you an idea of how it looks.

Mow Cop

Digital drawing for #bandofsketchers prompt. I thought Mow Cop with it’s ‘nooks and crannies’ would do. Still working digitally because I don’t have a spare sketchbook and I still can’t get out the house. This is in Artrage and I did a digital finger painting. Swapping between the drawing and a Wikipedia photo so it’s not accurate. I liked the metallic effects.

Bottle oven day

Happy bottle oven day! 29.8.23. It’s celebrated every year. I think there are only 47 bottle ovens left from the thousands that used to be in Stoke on Trent. A  lot of them are deteriorating but hopefully the heritage of them will be preserved.  The potteries, with their bottle ovens were the creative heart of the city.

Trying to add a mosaic round the cat.

My cat was lying, belly up, looking at me. He was on the Sunday papers so I decided to add a mosaic to the background. The only problem is the tool has a pointer that magnifies where you are drawing but it doesn’t line up with the edge of the image. It also means a lot of filling in if you use a small nib, and overlap if you use a larder one. It means if you try and draw round the outline of something like the cat it often overlaps and you have to use the back toggle or add a bit of extra drawing to cover over the uneven areas. Still it looks better than when he was sprawled on the newspaper.

Sherry Trifle

What’s your favorite recipe?

Trifle, my favourite treat.

A layer of jelly, a layer of blancmange or custard and a layer of whipped cream.

I make up a sachet of sugar free jelly with three quarters of a pint of boiling water and a quarter of a pint of port or sherry. I add that to large bowl and add chopped strawberries or raspberries or blueberries to make the jelly stronger when it sets (I don’t use trifle sponges as they are full of sugar) once cooled I put it in the fridge to set.

When the jelly is set I mix up a pint of blancmange with boiling milk (you can use custard) this comes in a variety of flavours. I use a sweetner instead of sugar in the mixture, one that doesn’t have an aftertaste. Once the liquid has been boiled and thickened I put the saucepan in a larger one filled with cold water. The blancmange cools enough so that it doesn’t melt the jelly when you add it to the top.

Once the middle layer is set I take a large tub of double cream and whisk it till it is stiff and makes peaks. This is spooned onto the trifle.

You can add decorations such as sprinkles (hundreds and thousands) or glacé cherries, grated chocolate or chopped strawberries etc.

I make it as sugar free as I can, but it is high in fat. You could use skimmed milk for the middle layer.

This is a Christmas or Easter treat in our house. And sometimes I make it for birthdays instead of cake.

Folded Faces

I thought so! If you fold a British bank note you can make the Queen either frown or smile by folding a line through each eye and down the nose…. You can do the same with Grumpy Trump! I just couldn’t resist experimenting by doing a quick sketch of the mugshot of the politician and then folding the paper. If you tip it up it smiles, tip it down it frowns more….

Cat mug

Cat in a hat mug. My design that I draw to make children laugh if they are grumpy. I’ve been drawing it for years and so I decided to paint it onto a mug a few years ago when we went to a pottery to do some decorating. I don’t even remember where I did it, but the mug says 20, so it must have been three years ago. I have black and white cats but I always imagine this as a ginger tabby cat. X