Me and Phil took part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch today, in our (small) garden. We didn’t do too badly, we saw blackbirds, sparrows, blue/coal/great tits, wood pigeons and a robin. Hopefully next year, once we’ve spent some time working on the garden and making it more nature friendly, we’ll do even better. […]
Moderate success at the big garden bird watch Read More »
I attended a linocut printing workshop at the Barber Institue today (there was an old fashioned gender divide in our house as I did some chores and went to a craft workshop, while Phil went into Liverpool to watch football!). This is the second printing workshop I’ve attended at the Barber. They’re more relaxed than other workshops
Good Fortune (福) in Linocut Read More »
I managed to do a spot of baking this week, including these Pacman butter biscuits. Unfortunately I ran out of icing sugar so I created quite a few red Blinkys but didn’t managed the Pinkys, Inkys and Clydes I was also planning to make.
To see in the Chinese New Year, me and Phil went to see a traditional Chinese music concert at the Midland Arts Centre (MAC) yesterday evening. The Jasmine Moon Ensemble played a selection of folk songs from across China, as well as more modern songs in the traditional style and a handful of film scores. They
新年快乐! Seeing in the Chinese New Year with the Jasmine Moon ensemble Read More »
This week my Mandarin teacher taught our class a quick and easy method of creating paper cuts to celebrate the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. This paper cut features the Chinese character 春 (chun) which means spring and is the first part of the word 春节 (Chūnjié) which means Spring Festival. All you need to
Quick and dirty Chinese New Year paper cut Read More »
Lately one of our neighbour’s dogs has been breaking in to our garden. A few weeks ago Phil caught him chomping a hole in one of the fence panels big enough to put his head through and watch what Phil was up to. Since then he’s moved on to creating dog-sized holes that he can
My Mandarin teacher asked the class to each try and write a few sentences every few days. I thought I might post my attempts on the blog , as a way of encouraging me to do it. Let me know if you spot any errors! As you can see these posts are necessarily going to be a bit
我的花园 – practicing my Mandarin Read More »
This weekend me and Phil went to see the Lost in Lace exhibition currently on at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG). It included a really diverse collection of works inspired by lace, by both UK and international artists. Enclosed below are images of three of my favourite pieces from the exhibition. These give a
I thought I’d post an updated image of the embroidered Lum I’m working on at the moment. I haven’t had much time to work on her over the last week, but I’ve managed to fill-in her hair and bikini. I’m working on Lum’s boots at the moment and then plan to add in a background
Embroidered Lum – stage 2! Read More »
I’ve finally been to see The Artist at the cinema this evening. I read about it months ago in a copy of Empire at the hairdressers’ (the hairdresser being my brother). I am very thorough in working my way through the magazines when I go to the hairdressers’, I start with the film magazines, then
The Artist – a rambling kind of film review Read More »