Back from a 'Blogging Sabbatical'

Firstly, I'm so sorry I haven't posted anything for most of this year - oops! It wasn't a deliberate thing and my family and I are all fine. I'm tempted to say that life has been too hectic and certainly we've had lots to do in all aspects of our family life but I think that's an easy excuse and also perhaps I just grew out of the habit a little. But I'm feeling re-invigorated now and I thought I might just do a few posts with a little look back over the year starting here with some of the more interesting harpy highlights AND... I couldn't resist putting this picture up first! Yes early this year we were graced by a very special visitor, none other than His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent!!

He seemed to thoroughly enjoy his visit and we loved the fact that he was very relaxed and 'hands-on'.

From left to right John Hoare (fellow harp maker), Dame Sarah Goad (Her Majesty's Lord Lieutenant of Surrey),  HRH the Duke of Kent, Captain James Scott-Barrett (Equerry to HRH The Duke of Kent), Councillor Beverley Connolly (Chairman of Tandridge Council), yours truly (and proud father), and Anna (my daughter playing to HRH - not bad for the CV!) .

If that wasn't enough, few weeks later we then found ourselves playing host to all the mayors of Surrey
and I'm certainly not doing the 'from left to right' thing with this picture!!! In fact it was a delight to have them and we especially liked the way they all wore their chains of office.

Phew, next up, a TV crew visited to film an episode of 'How do they do it' - which I think is due to go out fairly soon on Discovery Channel. I'll try to keep you posted as to when that's going out.

..and as this post seems to be largely an exercise in name-dropping - we've had some interesting harpists playing for us including the very talented Tom Monger who is harpist with 'Florence and the Machine'...



... and Scottish harpist Katie Targett-Adams who lives in Hong Kong and is extremely popular in China...

... and Welsh harpist Iona Thomas who is Harpist with charts star Laura Mvula.

Iona and Tom also were amongst the performers at our late Summer Workshop Open Day...

... as was the International Youth Harp Orchestra. The Open Day was so much fun; we hired this lovely marquee and opened up the workshops for tours and demonstrations and ever popular was our tasty barbeque.

But it's been nice too when we have just had the place to ourselves to get on and make a few harps.

Compare the above to this picture which was taken in the early 1980's - we've hardly changed, hmm!!
But that's not quite it for this post, we have just recently been filmed for Living Surrey TV and here is a link to the programme which went out last Friday on Sky Channel 192. The bit which features us runs from 17:02 - enjoy!
http://www.livingsurrey.co.uk/ep14.html

Christmas Remembered

No apologies for a little look back to Christmas -
it was so very enjoyable for us and I am feeling rather reluctant to forget it all!
Much of the fun was in the preparations - including making up our own hampers for presents from
some of the preserves and brews we had been compiling. 

Karen made several Christmas Cakes (including one for us of course!).

I filtered off my Sloe Gin infusion...

Sloe Gin gets even better with keeping so some of these have been stashed away for future years!

Homemade fudge - yummy!!

Karen found that these mixing bowls made great containers for all the goodies
and of course can be kept and used afterwards!

But the main reason why it was a little different for us this time
was that it was the first spent at our Norfolk retreat!

I was great fun decorating the place - my favourite was Anna's crocheted snowflake bunting.

Soon after we bought it we discovered that the bungalow was called Meadow View
and we enjoyed our Christmas lunch looking at the wonderful view.

Christmas lunch would not be complete without Christmas pudding...

... then letting it go down in front of the fire...

...or walking it off down the Loke.

 

Dragon Harp

Firstly here 's the design traced on

Right, deep breath, and initial colours blocked in.

The finished painting...



detail of the head...

and as you can see, the dragon's tail and wings wrap around the whole soundbox - great fun!

Finally, the name of the harps' eventual recipient is incorporated in the tail.

Harvest Home!

 

 

This time of year we are usually very busy making the most of the produce
that the garden and countryside has to offer - and this year is certainly no exception.
Karen kicked off by making this amazing Spiced Blackberry and Brandy Liqueur.

The finished bottles of delicious liqueur.

 

I pinched the left-over pulp from Karen's liqueur and added it to my Blackberry and Elderberry wine.
It filled two demijohns (9 litres or 16 pints).

This is also the time of year when Karen passes the bowl of Christmas Pudding mix around
for everyone to give a stir. As you can see, Anna enjoyed it and I loved being a good stirrer too!
The aromatic smell from the bowl was fantastic!!

Finishing touches...

One Christmas Pudding for this year and one for next year.

 

Not wishing to be outdone by Karen I set too with this Sloe Gin. The recipe is simple:
1kg Sloes - or in this case I used the very similar Bullaces picked from 'our' loke in Norfolk.



200kg sugar (it may need a little more at a later date but I don't want to add too much). 

Then I filled this 3 litre Kilner jar with 2 litres Gin - you can see it instantly
starting to take on some of the wonderful colour of the Bullaces. This is now
shaken once a day for two weeks then once a week for a couple of months.
Later I may add some almond essence, a stick of cinnamon and one tsp. cloves.
Yummy!!



We then turned our attention to making Cider -
first we cleaned and sterilised all the equipment...



then cleaned and chopped up the apples ...

crushed them to a pulp...



and pressed out the juice. With the addition of cider yeast, we now have
four gallons (18 litres or 32 pints) of Cider bubbling away in the fermenting bin.
It should just about be ready for Christmas.

Karen finished off by making some bottles of chilli oil and tarragon oil.

 

Here is a hint to our next project, plus of course the Pickled Onions, Christmas Cake etc...!!

 

A Special Day Out

Many venues describe their grass as 'hallowed turf' and this is surely some of the most legendary ...
but where is it?

Well here we are at the front of the members pavilion, at Lords cricket ground - the home of cricket.
We ignored the fact that  as Surrey supporters of course we think that the Oval is the true home of cricket
(especially as it was the first ground in England to host international Test cricket in September 1880).
But Lords is the most famous ground of all and the staff there were so friendly and couldn't have been more helpful.



Thanks to a kind collaboration of ShootingStar CHASE and the MCC
we, and several other families supported by SSC, were treated to a fantastic box...

an amazing menu ...

an exciting days cricket (Middlesex v Somerset) ...

and a guided tour of the museum and ground (here is the back of the media centre).
Photography is not allowed in the museum but we saw the actual Ashes urn and a bat and boots used by W G Grace!  

We didn't go hungry!

'W G' in a lovely, leafy corner of the ground.