Edale & Chatsworth

At the weekend we went up to Edale to stay at the lovely Western House B&B. On Saturday we took a walk over Hollin's Cross to Castleton. After a refreshing cup of tea and some cake (lemony madelaine's at the Cinnamon Bear Cafe) we walked along the geological trail to Treak Cliff Cavern.

Its one of the few places you can see Blue John stone in situ. Our guide was very funny and we had a great time pottering through the caves - seeing the fossils and stones and even some rather nice stalactites.

On Sunday we went to Chatsworth - now unwrapped from its year long face lift and scaffolding. It looked stunning and the Caro sculptures were an interesting addition. We paddled in the cascade, licked ice creams, wandered in the maze and bathed in the sun.

baby bird

Possibly not a great photo but this is one of the baby blue tits taking a peak at the world, we saw both mum & dad come and feed it. Now I think they have fledged - we'll need to go and check for sounds of tweeting!

Blue clay

I made a little surprise for my new nephew in New Orleans - and here it is all arrived there - just about made it with an ocean of bubble wrap. Many thanks to Callum's Dad as I had totally forgotten to take any pictures. It says Est 2012 down the edge of the M and is made from Sky Blue tinted porcelain. We had a lot of fun trying to stick it all together - go epoxy based glue, even if you do smell a bit nasty.

Weekend joys

This weekend I tucked into a blue frog chocolate all the way from New Orleans, tasty, though I did look like I had become a Chelsea supported by the end with my blue teeth!

I also whipped up a little apricot, fig and ginger cake from the Sainsbury's magazine - no butter but lots of nuts so not sure it will actually do anything for the waistline! Tasty though!

Blue tits in the garden

I have to admit straight up that the photo was taken by Nick, he's had much better luck at seeing our little residents in the garden house! This morning I popped out to get some rain water for the pitcher plants and I could hear plenty of cheeping going on, meant a swift return back inside so as not to disturb them.

Piccolinos

Last night Iain took out the team to celebrate the start of our latest clinical trial - its going to be a tricky one, so we went before rather than after when we'll all be pretty tired and in need of a summer holiday. We went to Piccolinos for a very tasty meal and we also celebrated Mike's new Consultancy position! Though it did involve the smashing (accidentally) of 10 champagne flutes at my feet - all well though and no damage done. Above are swordfish and scallop skewers and rhubarb compote with panna cotta - mmmmm!

Relish

On Saturday night M&D took Nand I down to Relish in the new complex in Guildford for a very yummy tea! Wobbly stilton cream, crab salad, roasted cod and desserts galore - excellent stuff!

Quilt update

I found a fabulous little shop in Dorking to finish off my quilt using a long arm sewing machine! We popped in on Saturday and choose this lovely Kaffe Fassett material for the backing and the pattern below for the stitching. It'll be back in 5 weeks or so - can't wait!

While we were wandering around Dorking enjoying browsing in the antique shops we found the Fluff-a-torium - a shop dedicated to all things felty! It was fab andrun by Gillian Harris with whom Mum & I went on a course yonks ago.

Diamond

On Bank Holiday Monday I went down to the Diamond Light Source on the Harwell campus near Oxford to run (or at least help run) some experiments to look for metal ions in tissue taken from around a failing hip implant. It was really very exciting to see the workings of the synchrotron, and though it rained almost the entire time we were there, it didn't matter as we were deep inside. This picture was from a brief trip to the canteen for a spot of dinner.

Paul's Bottesford

We popped up to LB at the weekend for Jean's birthday and went to Paul's for a very tasty lunch - this was roasted cod on smoked salmon risotto!

onion cane toppers

I used the chocolate clay to make some onion shaped cane toppers - the glaze is an 'ox blood' glaze, which unfortunately doesn't show up very well on the dark clay, but nevertheless I think they're pretty good.