Busy Weekend

Each day I have continued to repair the bead work on this dress.

The weekend started out warm and breezy - perfect conditions for laundering my collection of domestic linens, acquired over the winter.

Outside in the breeze until damp dry.

Then "polishing" with a steam iron.

This process took 2 days!

Otters & Cream

A leisurely walk beside the Otter River....

 

...ended with a Devon cream tea at the old flour mill. 

We confirmed this was the best Devon cream tea in the land.
I had mine with a delicious pot of nettle tea.

Art at the Whyte

Lesley Turner 'Valuing Women's Work' 81" x 62", composted, hand stitching; cotton
An afternoon tea cloth was left under a maple tree during fall to be incorporated into the decay cycle. After many hours of washing, ironing and stitching the work goes largely unnoticed as the restored cloth is sacrificed again to protect furniture while the hostess serves tea to her guests. This installation is a metaphor for much of women's work not accounted for in our national accounts system.

Mary Shaffer's jacket...

...was the inspiration for a number of works placed around it.

Likewise, Catherine Whyte's engagement dress, shoes and portrait  inspired Ingrid Lincoln's panel. The artist statement reads: 'This is a homage to Catherine Whyte. A strong personality in a soft guise.'

The curators Michale Lang and Mary-Beth Laviolette did a very good job pairing and arranging artifacts from the Whyte collection with Articulation's art works.

More Sampling of Food While Travelling

Of course i also sampled cream teas as we travelled across the English and Welsh countryside.
So far my vote goes to the cream tea in the Old Stables Tea Rooms in a small village in the foothills of the Welsh Black Mountains, Hay on Wye.

They have won many awards with their own fresh clotted cream, yeast unbleached flour scones warm from the oven when you order, rose-flavoured strawberry jam (all ingredients from their garden and their father's garden), and a delicious blended tea, all served on a piece of slate.
But i will not decide on my favourite cream tea until we have explored the Devon coast next year when we return for my graduating exhibition.

Each village has a bakery or two with a bow or glassed window where they display that morning's baking. All very tempting.

What i couldn't resist was a cone of vanilla-flavoured sheep's milk ice cream - that's the cone on the left. It was delicious. We sat out in a market square with our backs to a 700 year old church wall and watched village life pass by while licking.

Afternoon Tea in the UK

While traveling around the UK we sampled afternoon tea in lots of different places.
This is the Bantam Tearooms in Chipping Campden.

They have an inviting display of baking in the window, causing many passers-by to stop and look.
It is also a 2-room B & B and we stayed up stairs for the night then had the tea rooms to ourselves for breakfast.

By Chipping Campden I had discovered flapjacks (called oat cakes in Canada) and sampled them often.
They are made plain....

...covered or half dipped in chocolate...

... or have dried fruit added.

I stuck to sampling the plain ones.

They go very well with tea.