In Praise Of Rhubarb

It’s rhubarb season and I made the first rhubarb crumble of the year a few days ago. It’s Husb’s favourite crumble and didn’t last long. It’s been around in Europe since the 14th century and it’s popular in gardens and allotments as well as being grown commercially where it’s often forced, especially in the RhubarbContinue reading “In Praise Of Rhubarb”

Visitors And Welsh Cakes

Had a busy day with lots of visitors so I made a batch of Welsh cakes and served them warm off the griddle. In The Welsh language they are called “picau ar y maen”. Maen means a stone and in ancient times before iron was smelted, a bakestone would be used to cook flat breadsContinue reading “Visitors And Welsh Cakes”

And ….. Breathe ……

Finally, I’ve finished the artwork I’m putting into the International Women’s Day exhibition in Swansea’s Cinema & Co, opening Wednesday March 8th. It’s called WMD – Women of Many Dimensions. My piece is stitched Shiohara paper overstitched with printed images of Käthe Kollwitz forming the front part of a late nineteenth century corset.. W.M.D. (above)Continue reading “And ….. Breathe ……”

Cairns, Castle And Garlic

Back to hunting the wild megalith in South Wales with archaeologist Dewi Bowen and film maker Melvyn Williams, visiting Neolithic monuments on the Trail Of The Boar, a legend from The Mabinogion. Today we took off to Tair Carn Isaf (the Three Lower Cairns) near Carreg Cennen Castle in Carmarthenshire. The cairns were a heftyContinue reading “Cairns, Castle And Garlic”

One Of Those Days

Husb and I drove down to Pembrokeshire today to pick up some relatives from the Irish ferry. We went down an hour earlier planning on finding some ancient monuments and do some drawing. Unfortunately the weather had a different idea and threw torrential rain and gales at us. We found a dolmen called Devil’s QuoitContinue reading “One Of Those Days”

Welsh Cakes And Cockle Hats

Today is Saint David’s Day, Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant, in Wales and small girls are dressed in a traditional Welsh costume with a daffodil corsage, small boys are put into Welsh rugby shirts with a leek corsage and copious Welsh Cakes are eaten. For aeons these have been baked on a griddle or bakestone, maen inContinue reading “Welsh Cakes And Cockle Hats”

That Goldilocks Moment

I’ve been experimenting today. I was given some large pieces of robust tissue paper by a fellow artist and invited to do something with them and then give them back to her for her installation. I decided to cover them with rubbings made from a very large woodcut I have been working on. It isn’tContinue reading “That Goldilocks Moment”

Cats, Moon, Sonic Screwdriver

It’s been a very drizzly day and there’s thick cloud this evening so there’s no sign of the Xmas Full Moon, so here’s a photo of the Xmas Eve nearly-full moon that we saw last night bouncing up over the rooftops opposite. And first thing this morning, Sparta Puss and Ming The Merciless wouldn’t letContinue reading “Cats, Moon, Sonic Screwdriver”

Hungry Scribbles

It was the life drawing group’s annual Xmas curry last night at the excellent Vojon curry house. I had a Handi Lamb Polongwala with a Gobi Aloo – no rice or naan as I’m cutting back on refined carbs for a little while. I was still stuffed until lunchtime, a very late lunch too. BecauseContinue reading “Hungry Scribbles”

Cake, Tea, Art

After three weeks of painting, cleaning, drilling, humping furniture, doing risk assessments, form filling, dealing with bureaucracy, getting rained on, labelling and putting artwork onto walls and into browsers, Swansea’s newest artspace, The SPace, formally opened with a Welsh tea on Friday evening. It was great! Such a lovely atmosphere, lots of really lovely people,Continue reading “Cake, Tea, Art”