Monday 1 December 2014

Out & About: Lakes and Dales

Derwent Water
Last week the children had three teacher training days off school (those teachers must need a lot of training!).  So we decided to make the most of them and headed off down to the Lake District/ Yorkshire Dales for a few days.  We stayed in a lovely cottage at the delightfully named Unthank.  There was a gallery right besides us – the UpFront Gallery.  Unfortunately we were never there whilst it was open, but the work looked good through the windows.

CastleRigg Stone Circle
We had a lovely time visiting lots of the tourist sites around Keswick, which of course included a visit to the Pencil Shop!  We had fun trying out our purchases in the evening and I managed to get the kids enthused too.
Trying out our new purchases
Over on the Yorkshire side, we were introduced to a fantastic cheese shop just outside Settle (thanks Louise!) and also had a great visit to Farfield Mill.  We were really enchanted by some of the work on display.  The Bound Together group who made books and other pieces of mixed media art are incredibly talented, creating beautiful, fragile looking objets d’art.  The kids loved Tania Sneesby’s fairytale interpretations in fabric.  In fact, we loved them too.  They were deceptively simple.  Of course, I didn’t do the sensible thing and take photos!
Derwent Water from the hills above Ashness Bridge
Part of the reason for the visit to Farfield Mill is really, really thrilling as I’m going to have a solo exhibition there next year from 21 March to 10 May.  It was exciting to see the space and to start thinking about where the work is going to go (and what other work I want to make). 
Sunset from the Pencil Museum car park!
As well as this exhibition, I have a number of other things that will be going on over the next few months (more info when things are firmed up enough to share), so I’m going to be very busy.  I think the kids are going to be eating a lot of baked beans unless someone can come up with some super fast meal suggestions!







5 comments:

Sandy said...

Hi Gillian,

Sewing Day casserole or we just call it Splodge.

FIRST - While you eat breakfast or lunch
Cook enough pasta for family... al dente is better than too soft.
Drain the pasta, put in an oven proof dish.

Go back to work

SECOND - while the kettle boils for a cup of tea. Open and drain 1 or 2 tins tuna pour into pasta dish

Go back to work

THIRD - when you go to get a biscuit or swap the washing into the tumble dryer. Open and empty
1 tin cream of chicken soup into pasta/tuna dish.

Go back to work

FOURTH - while the kettle boils for a cup of tea. pour in a reasonable amount of frozen peas or sweet corn (or similar leftover veg)and stir in.

Go back to work

FIFTH - After you have been to the loo. Stir together pasta tuna, veg and soup. Grate favourite cheese that melts. Cover top of mixture with grated cheese.
Shove in the oven.

Set timer to Bake on your favourite temperature. ;-) 180 or so for 30-40 minutes and to finish when it is meant to be dinner time. Check before end just in case the cheese is getting too done. If you are in a rush, you can get by with 25-35 min. But it depends on how frozen the frozen veg has made it.

Of course you can do it all at once early in the day if that fits your schedule. and then have the baking finish to set right on the table.

Alternative: if you have a little more time at the first stage, brown mince and use instead of tuna. Use Cream of mushroom soup instead of Cream of Chicken.
If you have bread crumbs, they can go on with the cheese.

another alternative: browned mince and cream of tomato soup. But it is better to serve the veg along side instead of baked in for this one. I like to mix a bit of cheese in the mixture for this one.
Have fun!
Sandy

Gillian Cooper said...

Thanks Sandy. I'll definitely give it a try. Anything to make life easier at the moment!

magsramsay said...

Congratulations on your show at Fairfield - it's such a lovely venue. We normally visit after NWCQ retreat Rydal hall at end of February.

Gillian Cooper said...

Thanks Mags. It really is lovely. I'm working hard to create the work to do it justice.

Maggi said...

I bet you enjoyed your 3 days more than the teachers did!

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