Ramsgate Slipway

My Grandad and Dad used to operate the slipways at Ramsgate Harbour. We were looking through some old pictures recently and came across this one which we thought was quite topical at present.

This picture of the Steam Tug Kenia marked a turning point in the history of Ramsgate Harbour. The reason being that she was the last Steam Tug to be repaired on the slipway at Ramsgate. The companies that owned the Fleet of London River Tugs (Watkins and Ship Towage) decided to have larger diesel tugs built. This meant that they were to big for the slipway at Ramsgate. Later on all the repair work was moved up to Sheerness with the loss of many jobs at C.Halladays and Claxtons, this was around 1960-61.

Lavender shortbread

When we were in the Cotswolds a few weeks ago we visited Cotswold Lavender and tried some Lavender shortbread which was delicious. So I thought I would have a go at making some today.

The recipe I used was one I happened upon in a magazine and it had cornflour in it which is quite unusual but the resulting shortcake just melts in the mouth and the lavender flavour is a fantastic reminder of summer.

Next maybe lavender scones, lavender ice cream, lavender .........

Headless Football

Having just beat my son in the Headless Lego Tournament 7 - 3. He had now decided the game is boring and had wandered off to watch telly and yes I know I am supposed to let him win but it is nice for me to win occasionally.

Cupcake Pictures

I felt the urge for cupcakes today, but not having access to any I had to make do with making some pictures instead.

I was hoping that the lovely colours would take my mind off the weather, is it just me or has it got chillier in the evenings, I have taken to wearing a jumper which is not good for the start of September.

Adult Education Taster day

I decided to try a pottery taster course at Hilderstone today. I am not too sure what happened as we were supposed to make a cone shaped pot to go on the wall, mine ended up as a rather oval type vase. Anyway it was great fun, out tutor was so fantastic I have signed up to do a course. Watch this space for more weird and wonderful thingys.

Outer space cake.

The cake from outer space complete with space dust.

Buttons

I love buttons. It comes from a childhood button box that my nan had. She would bring it out when we were bored and we would spend hours counting and sorting them.

I have started making button jewellery which looks really funky but trying to find the right buttons has been really difficult and expensive. But on holiday I discovered a lovely wool shop in the Cotswolds selling large packs of buttons at reasonable prices hence I have a lot of buttons in lots of beautiful colours.

Trouble is with having lots of buttons is how to store them my others where away in a box but I liked the idea of having them on display so I had some kilner jars which I thought might work - it did.

So now the kids are back at school I can catch up with all the crafty jobs I have put on hold including sorting out my every growing button collection.

Ramsgate Squall workshop

I attended the felting workshop as part of the summer squall event. Nobody quite knew what to expect and all those who attended took home a wonderful felted flower. It was really good fun and very therapeutic as there was a lot of pummelling involved - a great stress buster.

Thank you to Joan Ward for a brilliant workshop and those at Ramsgate Arts for a job well done.