We went to Cantabria, in Northern Spain for our holiday. It's on the Atlantic coast and it's a very mountainous region. We stayed on a campsite, but it was cheat's camping because we had a little cabin with its own bathroom and kitchenette. My favourite spot was our balcony and it was here that I set up my little still lifes. A kilo of white peaches from the market, a three euro metre of spotted fabric, my watercolours and a little morning sunshine...I could feel the tension rolling away. There is something very relaxing about being on a campsite too (especially when you're not sleeping on the ground!). All those morning rituals that you can savour rather than dash through as fast as possible. Here is the view from our cabin:
We're going away for ten days, so I won't be posting for a while. Plenty to report when I get back, though, and I'm really looking forward to taking lots of photos. I've packed my watercolours and a pile of books, so here's hoping I get chance to take it really easy.
Thank you to everyone who is reading regularly and to my latest followers. Come back soon!
* Thanks for your comments. I can't reply to them today, not sure why. I am hoping it will be warm-ish where we're heading, but we'll be near some large mountains, so I don't think sunshine is guaranteed. Fingers crossed anyway....
This was the view from my hotel room, overlooking Lake Constantine. When we arrived, the area was in the grip of a huge thunderstorm, the clouds were down and you couldn't see a thing. But after a couple of hours, the sky cleared completely and revealed this amazing vista. I went for a quick stroll around the town, Arbon, before dinner and found this:
The window is like something out of a fairy tale - but how do they see out??
We saw a rainbow later on (and I think that is a little bit of Germany on the horizon). We had a busy schedule and there wasn't time for shopping, but I did sneak off to the kiosk to buy these:
Yes indeed, they are magazines that I can't understand, but I don't mind because the design is lush. I'm a magazine junkie anyway, and I do love to browse foreign interiors titles. My absolute favourite is Swedish, and it's called Bolig Liv. If ever I hear of someone travelling to Scandinavia, I have to beg them to bring me back a copy. But these are German titles and they are pretty gorgeous.
I've just returned from a two day press trip to Switzerland. I feel as if I've been gone for much longer as we were very busy and saw lots of interesting and wonderful things. The aim of the visit was to go behind the scenes at A.Vogel, makers of herbal remedies and natural medicines. This being Switzerland, everything, even the factory, was incredibly clean, efficient and photogenic.
Echinacea is one the best selling products, and this grows in fields around the factory, so it is picked and processed within a couple of hours. But the company was founded in 1923, and started life at this beautiful natural health clinic in Teufen.
The garden is the public face of the company, and visitors come to enjoy the flowers, herbs and organic vegetables that are still grown on site.
Even though it's at 900 metres, the garden was full of flowers, organic vegetables and fruit, all looking incredibly verdant and lush.
We made our own fresh echinacea tincture, chopping the flower and stem, and adding a combination of alcohol and water.
After lunch, it was off to St Gallen, a small university town, where we visited a library containing some of the world's oldest manuscripts, and did a bit of sightseeing.
We ate some sublime salads. I vowed never to even look at an unhealthy food ever again...wouldn't it be great to live on things like this.....
And this...the cheese was seriously good. You wouldn't even consider a sausage roll or a bag of crisps if this was at your fingertips on a daily basis....
Back tomorrow with a few more impressions of Switzerland.
With buildings like this, we could only really be in one place: Stratford-Upon-Avon.
We arrived mid-afternoon to have a wander round before going to see Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. My husband was given four tickets as a present for his birthday last year, and we'd been planning our trip for some time. We were so lucky to have a beautifully sunny day for the excursion: warm but not too hot.
The town centre was packed: Shakespeare's birthplace still stands, but it's in the middle of a high street surrounded by chain stores, and was mobbed with parties of tourists and charges an extortionate entry price to get in. The pretty side streets were more peaceful and beautiful. And then of course there is that famous river.
Love these boats with their Shakespearian names: Ophelia and Rosalind. There was a river festival taking place, with a parade of colourful narrow boats gliding past and mooring by the banks. Quite a spectacle.
What we'd really come for was this:
It didn't disappoint. Younger son has been studying the play at school, so it was a good choice. He was able to fill everyone in on the story beforehand, and the production was so well acted that the speeches made perfect sense. We loved the special effects: instead of three witches, there was a trio of ghostly children who made their first appearance like three broken puppets dangling from the ceiling. The only music was provided by three sombre cellos. But there were plenty of sword fights, blood and gore, too! We all agreed that it was an amazing experience.
As the new theatre is by the river, you can stretch your legs on the banks at interval time, and enjoy the balmy evening.
We all agreed that we'd love to come back again.
It has been a very busy week, and not enough hours in the day to post. Here is the latest issue of my magazine. It's a lovely summery image taken by Lesley Anne Churchill. The little Brexton picnic hamper is an original. I love those real china cups and saucers and the leather straps holding them in place.
Summer is truly here. Yesterday, I had an outdoor swim in the London Fields Lido, in Hackney, London, where I met some old friends. It was 7.30pm in the evening and it felt as if I was on holiday. It was wonderful. I didn't take photos, but as it was a proper sized Olympic pool and I am not the fittest person on the planet, I am not sure my aching arms would have held up the camera anyway!
We're going on an exciting family trip tomorrow, so I hope to be back here shortly with lots of lovely shots.
Our gooseberry bush is groaning with fruit. I can claim no credit for this. It was here when we moved in some 15 years ago, in an awkward spot under a large, untamed walnut tree. It fights for space with nettles and long grass, and all it has received in the way of attention is one dose of compost early on in the year. My more pampered fruit bushes have not fared well, my raspberries are disastrous and the birds ate all the redcurrants. But the gooseberries are looking very fine indeed.
Today's mission was to harvest some, and put them to good use. I never really liked gooseberries until last year, when I visited Riverford Organics' Travelling Field Kitchen and tasted the most incredible gooseberry fool, made with real custard and fresh cream. It got me thinking that I should try harder with my own crop.
So, today's task was some strawberry and gooseberry jam.
Half a kilo of each into the pan to simmer for ten minutes. Then, sugar, around a kilo, or according to taste.
Dissolve the sugar, then bring the pan to a rolling boil. Gooseberries contain loads of pectin, so there are no problems getting this jam to set. It was cooked in under ten minutes. I let it cool for about half an hour, and then ladled into the jars which I've been storing since last year's jam season.
Jam for tea! My sister in law is coming to stay for the night, so I made a cake at the same time. I found a great new recipe in this book:
Honey and ginger cake with a fresh raspberry sauce. More summer fruits to relish....
