Early Days...The Potters House Penketh

 Sometimes I start looking through my photo files for something ...

..and then have to stop at an image I'd completely forgotten about...

...such are these early pics from the beginnings of the business we now call 

The Potters House Penketh.

This is a pic of the very first sales day at St Joseph's Summer Fair on Meeting Lane in Penketh...late 70s.

Well the clothes say it all......!

..and hiding behind me advising on prices and top saleswoman...is my lovely late mum over from the troubles in Belfast for a week of peace.

You can see that it wasn't all Alan's ceramics then he was still teaching... 

...as head of art at Penketh High School.

We backed quite a few of the Traidcraft organisations.

And I also did a bit of dealing in vintage and collectables..anything to get the business going.

Every Tuesday I hired "The Institute" on the main Warrington Road.

This is a pic of sisters who came with their mum and shared the building..it was a place of fun and friendship.

Later it became a coffee house for the local church..St. Paul's Penketh and was renamed "The Manna House" ..and when sold on to a young local entrepreneur...Andrew Mulholland...it kept it's name and is used for grand parties and celebrations.

It meant a lot of packing and unpacking and lugging heavy boxes of ceramics and craft goods.

...and our old car at that time often needed a push to get the engine going!

There were many lovely people who became involved by baking and making for stalls.

So much laughter and naughty innocence...it was great to remember it all as I looked through the file of pics.  

gingerbread houses and neviepie

Every year for quite a few now my daughter makes gingerbread houses as part of her business.

Natasha Collins..Neviepiecakes...designer.

I can't bear to eat these amazing pieces of art and so they sit atop my glass cupboard for me to see and love.

Yes they are gingerbread...but the amount of work and art involved makes them so much more than something to eat.

You might be able to see this year's model in Fortnum and Mason in London.....if you are quick!

This Dutch inspired one is my favourite at the moment.

A Poem for Thursday..."Just Desserts"

The prompt on Thursday morning was...."Desserts"...but with out fail everyone of us thought of "Just desserts". So the stories were rich with comeuppances!!
I decided to go for lists. We had been encouraged at the last workshop at Aldeburgh to think along this line...so this is what arrived.

...it applies to whatever you do....

The Third Workshop.

Friday was the last of our summer workshops at the Potters House Penketh.

The sun...a very dear absent friend...made a welcome appearance ...joy of joys!!!

First the priorities....coffee and biscuits.

I made lavender ones again this time.

(I'll put the recipe at the bottom if you are interested.)

 

Old friends greeted and lots of chat in the back yard.

Then into the studios to see what ideas the potter had prepared.

Many in this group come with their own ideas...but it's always good for Alan to have a few alternative ones up his sleeve!

The starting point for this, came from an Italian tile and the stencils were prepared previously....good one this!

Greek style pot, always popular,

waiting for some decoration.

Lunch served around one o'clock...and with that sun still shining on us we eat al fresco.

Oh...That's the potter trying to get in on the act!

Lunch-time doziness nearly takes some of us over....but then it's back to the studios

 and a race to try and finish each ceramic sculpture.

Some folk have been coming to the Potters House for years 

but others have maybe only ever tried their hand at modelling in school....

...so it's quite an accomplishment  to get this looking so good.

...I love his big feet!

There's more work to do on the plaque but I love the interpretation from the original Italian tile.

 

Four o'clock in the afternoon came all too quickly!...and off they went...excited and chatting as they go.

Lavender Melts

50 grms golden caster sugar

130 grms unsalted butter

200 grms self-raising flour

1 tblsp chopped lavender leaves

2 tsp lavender flowers

1. Preheat oven to 180C

    Cream sugar and butter.Add flour and lavender leaves

    Beat until mixture comes together.

2. Turn out on to lightly floured surface.

    Knead briefly to form a dough.

    flatten to a disc and wrap and chill for half hour.

3. Roll out on a floured surface - half a centimetre thick.

    Sprinkle with flowers and press them in gently.

    Stamp out rounds with an 8 cm disc.

    Transfer to a greased baking tray.

4. Bake for 7-8 mins...lightly brown.

    Remove from oven and leave to cool for a few minutes.

5. Store in  an airtight tin....or eat them with family and friends soon!
 

Palette Knives at Dawn.

A palette knife workshop at The Potters House today, with the potter as chef du jour in the kitchen.

To start the group off on a positive note...

I explained that if you can butter bread or ice a cake, you are on a winner, using a palette knife for painting.

So with that "great" explanation under their belts...they  set forth with their boards and canvases.

Brave women!

Margaret...

Dot...

Denise...

Angela...

Gwen...

and Norma.

I love the way each person's work is so different...just as each of us differ...it makes life more colourful.

The food was excellent ...of course...and the rain dried up long enough for us to sit out at the garden table.

Then the day was brought to a grand finale with the entrance of the potter's chocolate cake to be taken up with a refreshing cup of tea.

We had a critique on the art...and all said they enjoyed the day.

In my defense...I had prepared a document for each of them re. equipment and techniques so they knew a little bit more than...

....buttering bread...but the metaphor helped!

So I bid a good bye to most of them until September.

"Goodbyee

goodbyee

wipe the tear baby dear from your eyee!"

The Tennis Cake

How exciting was that match yesterday!

 Now I'm not in any way sporty.

I deeply disappointed my dad who assumed that as I had long legs I was sure to win the annual school races...sorry ...no.

And when it came to hockey...I was always on the wing...shivering.

No it was never because of any deep sporty longings that I started this annual bake up, rather  the purchase of a cook book from M and S and a way of making some thing from not much!

It was the year of the Queen's first big jubilee and Virginia Wade was in the final and lo and behold she won!!

So the tradition was started.

The next year, the names of the two finalists went on to the cake at either end and the loser was eaten first!

As simple as that.

Well the two junior Snapes have left and now have their own homes, families and traditions

But I decided to bake  a tennis cake this year .

We took it up to the northern family yesterday to eat it in front of their bigger t.v.!

Hmmm! ...we ate Murray first!...but boy did he put up a good fight!

Then on my posts...up came a wonderful pic from the southern daughter...the painter of cakes... and a grand tennis cake!

have a little look at http://amelieshouseblogspot.co.ukhttp://amelieshouseblogspot.co.uk

Of such things memories are made.

Love it!!

A bit of my history.

I was reading through the post of a fellow blogger giving 11 points of interest about himself and then I saw in the list below it, was my daughter's blog with a "you might also like" bit.
My daughter is the amazing cake designer from Amelie's House and her reputation is growing steadily in the north London area.
I had been her guest blogger in 2010, and had written about my family and our history of cake! So I thought I would post this on my own site to give a bit more of an insight into who I am and where I have come from.

(Have a quick look at her blog if you like, to read the article.)

I'm exceedingly proud of both my children, but I know that my mother and aunt would be thrilled to see the wonderful designs that this granddaughter/niece is creating.

"Early Design!"

(I still love these types of cakes!)

I've just had a look through the family photos to find a pic for the post and I'm amazed at how many are of us all gathered around either a table or a picnic rug.

None of us is particularly overweight and certainly we are not big eaters, but the table is such a comforting place to gather and then stay at to chat and sort out the "world" in our fashion.

Of course that's not to say that when the potter and myself are eating alone...we don't sit in front of the fire with a tray on our lap! I'm all for what the german family call.."gemutlichkeit"..there is no proper translation of this ...the nearest being the jewish..."shalom"... in my opinion!

I often think back to the days in Belfast with the two sisters...my mother Mary and Aunt Helen... in the kitchen together creating  yummy goodies and giggling about their own childhood memories.

Coffee table by Mary.......the goddess of plenty!

Skelwith

An unexpected treat last weekend after a very busy week. We were booked into a hotel that we used to frequent in the past.
It's one of those areas that holds happy family memories.
We first took our two children there when one was five and the other barely four.
Much to the surprise of the friend who kindly drove us up to the Lake District, (we had no car then ), we stayed in a simple wooden mountain hut .........

..based in a farmyard on a hill between Ambleside and Coniston. He was appalled,
"you'll never survive"!
Yes it was basic, but it was all that we could afford at the time. And we were determined to give the kids a bit of a holiday over the Easter weekend.
I suppose it was really because it was so basic that they, and we, will never forget it.
Cows grazed around the hut and peered in through the gaps in the elevated floor at the back where the two bedrooms were.
The farmer came over late afternoon of our first day, to make sure we had all that we needed. He was rather merry as he had been to a wedding, and proceded to pour money into the gas meter.We didn't complain! It was very cold that Easter.

Every morning after breakfast we made our way down the hill to a cafe at Skelwith Bridge. There was a potbellied stove already lit and we sat around it as we drank coffee, while the children had hot chocolate and cakes.

I had a recipe from mum made with oats, cereal and cocoa which I grew up calling "chocolate fudge", ( possibly because the icing on the top was so thick). But at the cafe it was called Sid's Special. And for ever more that's what we called it, as Alan's dad was a Syd albeit with a "y".
Sadly, although the cakes were delicious this week, they no longer make Sid's Special. Nothing lasts forever.

Both the children were given some money to spend in the rest of the shop. Mostly they came back with a little sweet shaped like a honey bee and cover in striped paper with gauzy wings attached. That was the special treat!
But somehow it really was.

We always seemed to follow the well worn path up from the cafe toward the Skelwith Falls.

And so it was last week. We walked the circular route around the Elterwater Lake.

The scenery is stunning and it seems that in all the years of us walking here, nothing has changed . There is  that magic sense of continuance.

Of eternal hills and water and those ancient lakeland trees still standing majestically firm and comforting in their bulk.

Yet even when age causes a tree to crumble, it seems that new life springs out of that decay.

The river meanders at this point slowly towards the falls, with rushes on either side giving hideaways for the water fowl that inhabit them.

Nosy sheep stare blatently at us...waiting for lambs to be born. In those early years we were often privilaged to see them at the mountain hut in the hours after birth. And that was such a good experience for two children from a smokey town.

I need some information from a nature blogger to enlighten me as to what these fungi are. Also the names of the mosses which were so abundant this time. More than we had ever seen on the dry stone walls.

I'm sure that the expertise of someone like the Donegal Wildlife blogger will know, though perhaps the photos are not of a high enough standard to be able to distinguish them.

Then it's up and over the hill....

past that wooden shack...

back down again to the river at the bridge.....

and across the water is a wooden house.

When the children were small an old lady lived here with many, many cats. She made marmalades, jams and lemon curd. Each time we were there we went and bought some pots and hoped that not too many cat hairs would have made their way into the mixture!

Anyway it was delicious.

Now just in case you are interested, here is the recipe for either.....

chocolate fudge a la Mary Mac.

or

Syd's Special a la Skelwith Bridge Cafe c.1970's

(same thing)

1/2lb. butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup plain flour

1 cup cornflakes ( or similar cereal

1 cup porrige oats

cocoa powder

1. melt butter in a pan

2. add all other ingredients

3. press into a greased tin

bake at 150  for approx. twenty minutes

ice immediately with fairly thin chocolate water icing

made with icing sugar, cocoa and  a little hot water

mark out in the tin in squares

leave until cold

cut up and enjoy

"Sydney's Special"!