night sky

starface

Have you ever looked at a sunflower up close? Don't you think that it looks like it's full of tiny little stars? This is one of the sunflowers from our garden, each one is at a different stage. This one looks like it's about to open up and launch some magic.

a day in richmond

Festival notes

Richard Hawley on the first night. Foul-mouthed, irreverent and yet, charming. Great music too.

Below, Kissmet, Bhangra fused lively pop. Got us all dancing on Saturday afternoon.














Below, Nouvelle Vague on Saturay evening. Mad, entertaining, wonderful.

And below them, Psapp, cat loving London band, the last act Paul & I saw on Saturday night.













Below, the indoor stage packed out waiting for the Buzzcocks. Who were very very loud.
















Paul (above), and I (below), waiting for the Guillemots to come on, Sunday evening.

And below that, Nan & I crash out on the sofas inside De Montfort Hall, after having seen Isobel Campbell.




It was also a child friendly festival.

And Leicester's pretty too!

So, just got back from 3 days and 3 nights camping in Leicester for the Summer Sundae festival. We ate well, we stayed warm and dry even though it rained all through Saturday night and most of Sunday, and we saw a lot of great bands. What more could anyone ask for?

My favourites were: Richard Hawley, Seth Lakeman (what a fiddler!), Psapp (funky weird music and woollen cats being tossed into the audience) on Friday night.

Kissmet (got us hopping), the Howling Bells (gave me goosebumps), the Brakes ("snippy punk" as Paul called it), Nouvelle Vague (who were moved outdoors to replace Martha Wainwright who'd cancelled), Calexico on Saturday. We wanted to see Joan as Policewoman but couldn't get in. Also, we didn't catch Gomez because that's when the deluge started and we didn't have our rain gear with us. We also saw Isobel Campbell, but she was without Mark Lanegan, making most of the songs from the Ballad of the Broken Seas sound incomplete. Also, she seemed a bit reluctant to face the audience, almost like she wasn't sure she wanted to be there. We didn't see M. Craft, but heard that they were good.

And on Sunday, the best acts were: Sophie Solomon (frenzied, intense folk poet violinist), Mike West & Truckstop Honeymoon (fantastic banter, catchy country songs with brilliant lyrics, had us all clapping and laughing, their song Johnny & June had me tearing up) and Belle and Sebastian. Jose Gonzalez was a bit disappointing. Pretty songs, but nothing special live.

Food: there are an amazing number of veggie restaurants in the centre of Leicester, surprising for such a small place. Unfortunately a lot of them were closed when we were looking to eat (mainly late morning). But we were only a few minutes walk away from the town, so eating was no problem. Highlights were breakfasts at The Barley Mow pub and fantastic chips from The Sea Cow stall at the festival.

Most of the photos I took of the bands didn't come out that well, but all in all, it was a great festival. Nice and small, low key and laid back, but incredibly well organised with a good, varied line up. Camping and facilites were great, comfortable enough to not feel at all like I was roughing it. And really, we weren't. Despite the rain! Will be going again next year...any one wanna come along?

Saturday 5th August, demo in London

Finally, rain

Back home in our garden in London.

Padma, Pink & Paul

Fiorenzuola di Focara, Pesaro

Pieve del Colle

the food!!!!

I can't believe I don't have any photos of the actual food we ate on our trip, but it was heavenly gorgeous. Mostly because it was home cooked from fresh, organic local produce.

Millo and Nadia make their own bread, jam, and the most gorgeous elderflower cordial. They also have an allotment where they grow their own veg, and we were treated to quite a few courgettes while we were there!! Oh, and did I mention the chives, rosemary and rocket that they grow in their garden? Nadia has sent me some of the rocket seeds which we hope to grow here, the leaves were so sharp and tasty, not like the ones that come out of the overpriced salad bags you find in supermarkets here!

The meals we had were simple, but so tasty! It reminded us what good food, proper eating is all about.

On our last night there, they took us to a restaurant a friend of theirs owns which is part of an agrotourist farm. It's called Pieve del Colle, I will upload photos later when blogger is behaving! Again, all the produce is fresh and organic, and the food was out of this world. Thankfully, in contrast to other places we visited (eg. Spain - boo!), being vegan wasn't a problem at all here.

This is what we had for dinner that night:

To start - farfalle pasta with potato, green beans, garlic, basil, salt & pepper, olive oil.

Then, green lentils, courgette with wild fennel, spelt with tomatoes and black olives, and green beans with mint. Accompanied with home made bread, home made wine and I had green tea with mint to finish. While we ate, puppies nestled at our feet and licked our toes! We also watched the sun go down over one of the most beautiful spots I've ever been to, and gazed up at the stars and milky way before heading home. It couldn't have been more perfect.

If you ever fancy a stay there yourself, have a look at their website,
www.pievedelcolle.com You will need a car to get around.

countryside idyll, san marino di urbino

These are photos from a place we visited, friends of Nadia & Millo's are biodynamic farmers and live in a converted church in the countryside of san marino di urbino. There is a chapel connected to the house which is still a chapel, and when we visited was decked out with sunflowers and lavender.

What you don't see here are pictures of the evening we spent with them and their friends, sharing good food, and later on, playing music. First Nadia got out her recorder and started playing, then Rickard got out his violin, then Roberto got out his guitar and Millo played along on various drums and home made percussion instruments. They played gorgeous traditional European folk music for hours while the sun set and the stars came out. Beautiful!!

The bottom three photos are from a walk we took in the surrounding countryside.

wandering around in gubbio town

Paul at our picnic in Gubbio (above), taken by Nadia.

The colour, oh the colour!

Found in Gubbio