Trifle with cherries and blueberries

Posted on July 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Blueberry, Cherries, Cherry, Dessert, Food, Glass bowl, Random, Recipe, Sunday tea, Sweet, Tasty, Trifle10 Comments

Sunday tea. Trifle. Raspberry jelly with cherries and blueberries, raspberry blancmange, whipped double cream.

I made up a pack of sugar free raspberry jelly with half a pint of boiling water. Then I added almost half a pint of cold water (you can substitute a small amount of sherry) and mixed it up. I washed and pitted the cherries and put about a mug full of them into the jelly liquid so they covered the base of an ornate glass bowl I use to make trifles. I added about the same amount of washed blueberries, spreading them out with a spoon to give an even coverage. I put the bowl in the fridge to let the jelly set fully. (there are alternatives that don’t contain gelatin). This afternoon I made up a pint of raspberry blancmange (you could use custard instead). I left it to cool in the pan rather than putting it directly onto the jelly as it’s heat would melt the set jelly. Once the blancmange cooled I spooned it onto the jelly. After a couple of hours in the fridge I whipped up a tub of double cream. I added a bit of sweetener before I whipped it. That goes on top

Serve in a glass bowl if you want to be posh. I just got the breakfast bowls out. In this case the cream slid off the blancmange and the jelly broke up because I’d put too much fruit in. So beware spooning it!

The result was delicious. Yum

On the table….

Posted on July 12, 2020July 12, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Blogging, Books, Cat, Colours, Cotman paints, Fun, Paint, Sketching, Sphere, Stoke-on-Trent urban sketchers challenge, Table, WatercoloursLeave a comment

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Today’s Stoke-on-Trent urban sketchers challenge was what was on your table..

Luckily the cat got on the table as I approached it. Otherwise it’s just books and a box and a carved wooden sphere. The n gauge railway layout my hubby has is out of view. Too difficult to paint! Sketching with a Cotman watercolour set I treated myself to for my birthday last month.

I haven’t painted with watercolours for months. I liked the free flowing colours. Less restrictive than acrylics. Although I did let paint bleed into some parts I dabbed it off with a bit of tissue. I found drawing out with the brush instead of a pencil much easier. I hate having drawn lines in pictures. The other thing was leaving areas white. It’s good to leave negative space and not completely cover the paper. This is turning into an interesting sketchbook. The prompts really make me think.

At the boating lake

Posted on July 11, 2020July 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Boat house, Broken, Housework, Life, Park, Random, Toy Boat, Walking, Washing machineLeave a comment

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My hubby went out with his remote control boat today. He took it to the boating lake in the park. This park is beautifully tended with floral borders and a restored boat house.

I wish I’d gone, but I was busy sorting things out as we are having to get a new washing machine. The old one has finally given up. The thing works but it keeps coming up with error messages. E8, E9. Don’t know what they mean but it’s stopping it finishing the programmes. I can only get it to work on one, 30 minutes 30 degrees…

But what’s this got to do with parks? Only that I didn’t go on a walk. They did about ten miles. I wish I was fit enough to do it. Humph!

What I see in maps (and other things)

Posted on July 11, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Cat, Drawing, Fun, Humour, Life, Map, Pattern, Seeing faces, Time2 Comments

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I took another look at this post about map reading and suddenly saw a cat. I’ve written about finding things in wallpaper, or ink blots or all sorts of different things including the front and back of cars. Grilles on cars can look like grinning mouths, headlights like eyes. I love seeing animals and faces and objects in clouds. Sometimes it drives me mad when I see something over and over again. Once seen, never forgotten. Life is strange, the mind is stranger.

Pattern play.

Posted on July 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage oils, Blogging, Colours, Design, Fun, Layout ap, Pattern, Sketcher free, Sketching, SpiralsLeave a comment

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I don’t know when I did this, probably three or four years ago. It’s a combination of three apps, ArtRage oils, sketcher free and layout. I drew the metallic looking pattern first, then added the spirals and finally divided and mirrored the images.

I probably used a photo editor too. I’m not sure.

The feeling I get from making these gives me great pleasure. I can’t explain, but it takes me out of myself.

Three years ago

Posted on July 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blogging, Commissions, Etruria flint mill, Jessie Shirley's bone and flint mill, Landscape, Paintings, Three years ago, TimeLeave a comment

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I was doing a couple of commissions of Etruria flint and bone mill. I had done one painting and a couple of people liked it and wanted copies. This is when I started using long thin canvases. It makes landscapes more interesting I think. Is it like letterbox TV? I don’t know. I’m hoping I can get back to doing things like this when we get back to something like normality.

Park tree

Posted on July 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Blogging, Drawing, Life, Nature, Park tree, Poem, Poetry, Sketching, Tree, Urban sketchLeave a comment

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Strong tree,

tall tree

Sycamore.

Standing proud in the park.

Green tree,

branches waving,

fluttering.

Never still.

Giving shade,

cooling air,

softening the edges.

Buildings round

have pleasant views.

Park trees,

pleasant days

sunshine and showers.

Quick figures

Posted on July 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Black ink pen, Blogging, Drawing, Fast, Figures, Fun, Quick sketches, SketchesLeave a comment

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Quick sketches of figures while I sat on a roundabout in the park yesterday. I added a little dog, sitting next to one of them. And an older female figure stooped over. Our project this week at college was to do various things, including drawing a person walking. I must do a better job, but these were a couple of minutes each, max.

They could be neat and tidy, but you can’t nail people down to make them still when you try and draw them.

Long day

Posted on July 10, 2020July 10, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Busy, Cat, Covid, Lecture, Life, Meeting, Tired, Tree, vetsLeave a comment

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Well that was a busy day. I didn’t sleep because my female cat was having an inoculation this morning and I’d got to get up early. She’s sneaky, she doesn’t like cat carriers so we have a soft big bag that I can put the cats in. I had to hold her by the scuff of the neck while my hubby zipped the bag up. She yowled a lot on the way to the vets, but then settled down as I spoke to her quietly.

All was fine, she was inoculated and I bought her home. She was relieved and so was I!

Later when I went to do some college work she snuck behind me on the chair and went to sleep so I think I was forgiven.

We had an interesting talk about illustration online for a couple of hours. Looking at the use of collage and text in illustrations. Then later I met up with my two friends in the park. I sat and drew a tree and calmed down. I was so tired I could have fallen asleep in the sun. Sitting two meters apart on a roundabout. We gave it a few spins but I’m getting too old for things like that. Dizzy!

Then shopping, home, a bit of tidying and cooking. I have got a few more things to do. Not much of a diary entry. But it was at least busier than normal.

Old map of Lancashire and Morcambe Bay.

Posted on July 9, 2020July 9, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 1950's and 1960's, 2 shillings and sixpence, Bartholemews, Blogging, Cloth covered map, Ctc, Cycling map, Height above sea level, Map, Navigation, North Lancashire2 Comments

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An old ctc (Cycle Touring Club) map, 2 inches to the mile. Paper on cloth. Cost 2 shillings and sixpence. Printed to show heights. As it is in ‘old money’ it predates decimalisation. Probably printed in the 1950’s or 1960’s but there is no published date on it.

The area shown is North Lancashire, sheet 5, Bartholemews, coloured. I’m amazed it’s still held together and the edges of each little sheet are only slightly worn. Some of it will be changed now, new or improved roads, villages sunk under reservoirs, that sort of thing.

Nowadays everything is on line, or people use satnav. But having the skill to read maps is useful. Having a compass helps you know what direction you are moving in. When I go places I have a big compass on my dashboard of my car and I use large scale driving atlas. We also use smaller scale walking maps that show more details. If you’ve never used a map buy at least one. You can find more interesting places on a map than you might on an online one.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Blogging