Seminar at The Shillingford Hotel,Wallingford.

The whole point in our trip away was to attend the new acrylic paint seminar which was held at the Shillinford Hotel, near Wallinsford. We had decided to make it a 3 day trip as it is our wedding anniversary next month and things are so busy next month we wont have chance to get away.
So we decided to combine the 2 things and make it a romantic break along with the seminar!
As you can see,The Shillingford Hotel is set in the most beautiful setting.I have taken lots of photographs to remind us of our time there.

Some More Pics For Jan!!!

The latest sky pics were all taken traveling to and from Wellsbourne last week.Every picture was taken out of the car window as we were going along.When I got home and loaded the camera onto the computer I found that I had taken 222 pictures in just over a day,mainly of trees and skies!!!

They are all good for practising techniques, and Jan was going to have a go at skies before the next class, Ive certainly given some food for thought again!!!

From Small Acorns

While we were doing the class this morning, one of my old students called by with her paintings to put into the 'From Small Acorns'exhibition.The lucky thing is going on holiday for a month and wont be here for the private view so she dropped them with me today.

The top 2 paintings she has done in classes, the bottom one she has done at home using the method I taught her.

Its very effective.

I have encouraged students to paint at home and to enter the paintings done without my instruction, into the exhibition-It will make very interesting viewing for everyone.This student has done very well-she has sold 3 of her paintings done in class with me--the last one sold for £180 --she had priced it high as she didnt really want to sell it-but someone liked it so much they paid the money for it--a great buzz for her!!

Lemon and Lime Cheesecake

I have been busy tonight making my popular lemon and lime cheesecake in preparation for tomorrow's Sunday lunch. We have Wendy and Gil, Rita's daughter and son in law coming round for lunch, so its given me the perfect excuse to get creating in the kitchen!

I haven't made this sweet for ages and couldn't put my hand on the recipe as everything is still a bit upside down from when we were decorating the kitchen, so it was a guessing game to some extent!

However with regular tastings of the cheesecake filling I got the tangy lemony,limey topping just perfect.

The cream thickened up lovely when I added the fresh lemon and lime juice and when the condensed milk went in , it tasted beautifully creamy.I baked the biscuit and butter base in the oven to make it extra crispy, a lovely contrast to the creamy soft topping.

What a Difference a Few Weeks Make!

This the same stretch of river just a couple of weeks apart-amazing isnt it, the horseshoe weir is visible again, and Harry the Heron is underneath his tree!!