This year has been a busy one, with the completion of a book, lots of talks for craft guilds and other organisations, and workshops a plenty too. It’s always great to meet and teach newcomers, and a real compliment when people come back for more. I have been experimenting recently with different construction methods for making 3 dimensional needlefelted forms, and this has been the focus of a few of my recent workshops.
Today is winter solstice, and suddenly I seem to have replaced making work, teaching, talking and writing about it, with a frenzy of Christmas cooking. I’ve been concocting my Christmas Day turkey accompaniments, like apple sauce, and Dutch style red cabbage with apples and raisins; and a massive quantity of Vietnamese beef in red wine with cinnamon and star anise, for a pre New Year’s Eve party with our lycra clad cycling gang of friends.
As always, I cook whilst listening to music. I love some of Astor Piazzolla’s tangos,-particularly a track called “Oblivion”, and Scarlatti’s Sonata in B minor K87 played on the piano by Ivo Pogorelich. Very ethereal.
I went to a wonderful lunchtime tango concert at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, last week. Stunning! What a pity it only went on for an hour- I could have listened all afternoon!
As well as seeing Grayson Perry’s tapestries at Manchester Art Gallery, (definitely worth a visit,) as every year at this time, I went to see the Dazzle exhibition, which is also there this year for the first time. I’m a big fan of Clare Hillerby’s jewellery, and heavily hinted to my husband what particularly lovely piece I coveted this year. And who knows…..it may just appear in my Christmas stocking!