Blue Jellyfish No.10

 I find it hard to believe I have painted ten of these blue jellyfish over the years, all because of some photos we took at the New England Aquarium in Boston.  It's not just the watercolour paintings, I've painted jellyfish on ties as well - perhaps I should get around to t-shirts too!

This has been painted in watercolours using a limited palette of Cerulean blue, indigo and purple.  I used clingfilm to get the rippled effect on the background, and salt on the fronds of the jellyfish to add a lacy texture.  No matter how many different versions of this I paint, it never gets boring.  This is now for sale in my Etsy shop.

A couple of weeks ago I forgot to buy filo pastry and had to make my own Greek pastry for a spinach pie.  It was so nice, I decided to do it again today.

Look, not a soggy bottom in sight! This and home made lentil soup are on the menu this evening.

A year ago, our garden looked like this.

Then for a very long time, it looked like this.

Now it looks like this - we finally have trellis fixed to the fence and are ready to grow whatever will shield us from this:

Short of putting up a twenty foot fence, nothing is going to prevent us from being overlooked, but at least we have insisted the builders do what they can.  Now we wait to see who moves in...gulp!  The plus side is that the noise must surely be nearly over?

If You Can't Find It, Do It Yourself (..or why I'm feeling a little smug today...)

If you were to follow me around the shops (please don't though, I'm paranoid enough!) you would quite often hear me rant about the sudden decision to take a product I like off the shelves for good. It seems that if I, or any member of my immediate family, express a liking for something readily available from your average supermarket, that is the signal for some higher power to withdraw it from circulation - I could make a list...but I won't.

Today's cause for exasperation (other than the usual fruitless hunt for Chappie Chicken & Rice dog food, which might as well be the Holy Grail in my town) was Waitrose's continued lack of Cypressa Filo Pastry. Having lived in Greece for many years, we still enjoy Greek cooking and I regularly make a family favourite, Spanakopita (spinach pie), and have so far been able to almost keep it authentic by using this filo pastry from Cyprus. Last week it wasn't there and I had to buy a nasty English subsitute which shall remain nameless but was gummy, alternately stuck together and fell apart and made for a very sub-standard pie. Today again there was only this revolting stuff on the shelves and I threw a small tantrum, stomped off and decided I'd damn well make it myself......something I never managed to to with any great success when living in Athens!


But after sifting the flour, rubbing in the olive oil, adding egg & water and kneading vigorously, it actually started to look like it should do. I even managed to roll it to the thickness of a piece of watercolour paper...


...and it covered the base of the pan perfectly and held the spinach mix with no leaks.


It made a lovely smooth top....


....cooked to a crispy golden brown......


...and tasted delicious!

In your face Waitrose, you can't defeat me, I can make my own damn filo! Now, about that dog food........



My daughter also wanted to have a go at cooking and made the apple pie on the left with the bare minimum of help. She has Down's Syndrome, so this was quite an undertaking with so much fiddly preparation involving her fine motor skills - I'm very proud of how she got on and can't wait to sample a slice later on today. On the right is a jam tart made with the remainder of the pastry and home-made berry jam - not pretty, but oh so tasty!