May Bank Holiday

On Saturday we woke the Teen up early, well at 8.00 so early for her, and after much grunting and groaning we finally went to Chichester to look at some work on the Chichester Arts Trail.  This is an open studio event that runs on 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th and 10th of May.  Its a brilliant way of seeing art of all kinds for free in relaxed environments.  People open their studios and or homes to display their work. 

There are people who are professional artists and earn their living from their work and those who do it as a hobby.  Work is shown in studios, homes (including kitchens) and garages.  All the people we met were friendly, helpful and enthusiastic.  If you can get there next weekend I would recommend it.  Just follow the link to find out all about it.

We were hoping that this trip would inspire the Teen as she works on her GCSE Art course work.  She did enjoy it but was much more interested in that cat at Gaynor Dickeson's, while we were more interested in the wonderful botanical art and the lovely garden.

Happy cat, happy Teen,

After looking at some more wonderful work we went into Chichester for lunch.  I will not name the Italian chain restaurant we went to, the food was good and the service was good as you might expect but the price! It brought tears to the Engineer's eyes.

We then made our way home much to the Teen's relief; she went back to Minecraft and we went out into the garden.  We had been thinking for a while about planting strawberries but I didn't want to plant them straight into the soil in case they rotted or were eaten.  I thought a strawberry barrel would be the way to go until I saw the price of them.  Then the Engineer came up with solution using two different sized pots and a brick. 

 So I can now (once they have grown) have fresh strawberries for my breakfast rather than frozen. 

My other plants are doing ok: I have neat(ish) rows of red onion, beetroot and leeks.  The onions are a little messy as some nocturnal animal has been busy digging.  I don't think it was a cat as there as no poo left behind.   I also planted up a small herb pot; I didn't have enough herbs so I filled in the top and some of the gaps with trailing lobelia.  Don't worry I won't eat it by mistake. 

The green haze in the middle really is leek seedlings, honest.

On Sunday after Church I spent time on my runner bean leaf (more next time) and the Engineer did something engineeringy in the garage.  We then spent some time making the house spic and span ready for a visit from the Engineer's Mum and Dad (C & D).  We haven't seen them since before Christmas so there will be some catching up to do.  C is a gardener, she is my guru and advisor, D is another engineer so we probably won't see much of him and the Engineer as they will spend as much time as they can in the garage. 

On Monday the Engineer and I left the Teen in bed (although she was awake and internetting by the time we left) and caught the last day of the Emsworth Arts Trail.  Its the same kind of thing as the Chichester one but runs on different weekends, hence we were on the last day. 
Again the people were friendly and helpful; one even offered to let us come back next weekend so that C could see the beautiful garden. 
There was a wide range of work from beautiful acrylics to delicate water colours and glass work to jewellery.  The Emsworth Community Centre housed a number of art class works which were very interesting.  They also served a nice cup of tea. 

For lunch the Engineer and I had a picnic sat on a bench by the sea.  It was very peaceful as we were in a little area sitting on a bench overlooking what used to be the Emsworth oyster pools. 

As we left I noticed that the bench has been put there to celebrate someone's 90th birthday; a celebration bench rather than a memorial bench, I liked that. 

We then made our way home and managed to get the washing in just before it rained.

How did you spend your Bank Holiday?