Smart Car Football

And here's what happens when you combine a 21st Birthday, 4 smart car cakes, a Moomin Mama back massager, a film enthusiast and four Fothergills!

Christmas Sock Puppet Mayhem with the Fothergills!

Well...here we  are and its Christmas!!! Family fun and mayhem as usual....Duvet day post Christmas and nothing on the Telly so we made our own entertainment instead!  Watch out for the surprise guest appearance by Truffle the Dog!!

Travels with my Art - The Cities of Umbria 2010

A snippet from Forages and Finds...

www.foragesandfinds.blogspot.com being my frequently updated blog. This was a collaboration between me and Henry, who did all of the fantastic editing work. It's just too good to miss.



Incidentally, on a family note, I was looking for a USB stick to use and found an old one which appeared to have been Henry's at one stage or another and it contained a 10-Step guide to World Domination. Which I am now in the possession of. Mwahahaha...

Truffle's Troupe

Truffle, though one of the more spoilt dogs in the universe, loves her toys unconditionally. Here we decided to pile them all back into her box (this is minus the random 'fluffy things', and tennis balls of her collection) - where they won't stay for long. To Truffle, toys don't belong in a box, they need to be thrown around the house as much as possible.

So here is a rare occasion on which you may be introduced to Truffle's troupe. From the left we have the Dulux dog, who actually forms part of her doggy day bed next to mum's computer, large enough for Truffle to sleep on, chew a bit, and fling around occasionally if she's really bored. To the right of Dulux, we have brown bear and above him the mini-Truffle who are on a par currently in Truffle popularity terms. Finally, on the far right, we have the latest addition - Doggleberry. Doggleberry is currently Truffle's pride as he used to belong to me and she had had her eye on him for a while. And, rather hilariously, his head is about the same size as Truffle's, but she still loves to lug him around and present him to you several times a day.

In fact, by now I think the box is now empty again.

Horseradish Relish

Living as we do -  in the countryside, we are lucky to have access to many 'fruits of the fields'. Last week on a walk with friends I gathered enough wild plums to make 4lbs of yummy jam - all for the cost of a few bags of sugar!

This week I spotted some wild horseradish (it looks a bit like Dock but without the red veins) and with a bit of help from Henry managed to dig up enough tubers to take home and make into a relish.

It's pretty easy to make - but a good idea to wear goggles/sunglasses when grating as the juices are pretty powerful!

Here is the method:

Ingredients:

• One tuber of horseradish
• Creme Fraiche
• White wine vinegar

Method:

1. Clean, peel and finely grate the horseradish (this is when you might like to wear goggles)
2. Mix in 2 tablespoons of Creme Fraiche
3. Add 2 teaspoons of white wine vinegar

That's it! Serve as a dip, an accompanyment to beef dishes or add to mashed potatoe to give it a bit of zing!

Judy Adamson's Art and Design blog: Guest Post by Chris Fothergill - On the Back of an...

Judy Adamson's Art and Design blog: Guest Post by Chris Fothergill - On the Back of an...: "I'm sure many of our readers will be able to identify with today's guest post by Chris Fothergill - I certainly can and frequently bemoan th..."

Feeling inspired?

Well I'm not, and Charlotte's stolen her graphics tablet back... things will be so much better when I have an ipad
...So here's a picture of Truffle as a seal, though she does look an awful lot like a cow-seal

The Mocky Soose

Perhaps I should introduce myself, I'm little Fothergill (to go by Clanger naming rituals) known to most as Henry. Charlotte has created this blog for our family to record and recreate our interest and eccentricities onto you, I'm the youngest and the tallest of the Fothergills and thought it was high time for a little introduction of myself. That was just it.
Here however is the Mocky Soose, a wonderous dance, to inspire you and give you chronic mouth pain if you actually try it:

Piaggio Van Plans...

It has been so many years now that it's hard to remember where the Piaggio dreams originated. It has been a sort of family emblem and dream ever since we discovered these tiny one person Italian vans which were suitably silly for us to be hankering after our own personalised versions.

While I was at university a few weeks ago doing exams, I received a number of facebook updates from my mother which turned out to be a spontaneously drawn Piaggio van from each member of the family, followed by '... and now it's your turn!' My cries of 'but I'm taking a French grammar exam tomorrow morning' were engulfed after a few seconds by the thought of 'oh, alright then' and I spent the next hour of the evening in a trance-like state, absorbed entirely, and finally realising how much I had missed doing art this year at university. Trust my family to be able to distract me from revision, even from 50 miles away. On the other hand, pre-exam relaxation is never really a bad thing.


What would you do with your one-person, iconic Piaggio?

The General Election and what Truffle thinks of the coalition!

Suspense...

Work is in progress and soon... there will be posts! Hooray! Truffle is excited.