Making Chutney

With a abundance of produce from the allotment I spent the day making chutney. One was a courgette and tomato chutney and the other a marrow chutney. Using spices and apples and home grown shallots

I am quite pleased with the results.

Sneak preview

After a long break I thought it was about time I got back to blogging. I took some photos of bags today to go on the web site here's a sneak preview

David Nash's Sculptures

Also at kew was the work of David Nash the sculptor who is exhibiting at kew until April 2013. Nash's work shows a comitment to the enviroment helping inspire visitors to Kew to understand our place in the natural world. The work is spread across the gardens unfolding like a narrative. Many are found in the temperate house nestling amonst the plants. The sculptures are often charred then oiled but retain an essence of their original form. Whilst he is there he is creating a new sculpture from a three hundred year old tree one of the oldest in the park which has come to end of its natural life. He is resisident at the gardens for one year so the displays will change over time. Well worth a look.

Kew GardensTreetopWalk

Whilst in London I also visited the Rhizotron and Xstrata treetop walkway which was opened in 2008. It was designed by Mark Barfields architects who designed the London eye. The design is based on the Fibonacci numerical sequence. The word 'rhitzotron' is derived from the greek word 'rhiza' which means 'root'. This 18metre high 200metre walkway towers up from the ground supported by rusted steel colums. It was inspiring to be so high amongst the tree tops.

Old Spitalfields Market London

Whilst in London last week I visited spitalfields market for the first time. Set in a old victorian market hall it a had a mixture of traditional market stalls and also unique designer items one of which was upcycled clothes from a designer called Enienay have a look www.enienay.com which really stood out.

Afterwards we wandered over to Fournier st which has houses which date back from the 1720's. The houses were built to house a significant community of French Huguenots around spitalfieds many of whom brought silk weaving skills. More recently it has been known for the famous residents artists Gilbert and George

new colours for autumn

I'm looking forward to making up these lovely new autumnal colours. I have a new design in mind to make these hides into.

Technoviking

In All Saints Park in Manchester I saw a 4-metre high inflatable head. Apparently this gigantic viking head was the work of Wafaa Bilal and is called technoviking which was linked in some way to the no of tweets it recieves to keep it inflated. Life is full of surprises.