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.

Birdhouse cane toppers

Some little cane toppers I have been making over the last few days - with the chocolate clay I picked up in February. It has meant I have had to invest in some earthenware glazes, which should arrive today I hope!