I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m blogging about a Christmas jumper in January, when Christmas has already passed?! Well I bought this lovely Christmas jumper from the The Airborne Shop , the official shop for the charity SUPPORT OUR PARAS (which supports thé Parachute Regiment & The Airborne Forces) before Christmas to wear and blog […]
August 2025
Stewed Honeyed British Victoria Plums – Alison Allmand-Smith
It was my father-in-law who introduced me to the world of home grown produce and stewed fruit. When I was seventeen, I went onto a Christian sports camp in North Wales, that he and my mother-in-law ran, and ended up in the kitchen a lot, watching and helping him cook. Try to imagine a mad […]
Vintage Cuban Cars – Introducing my Tea Towel Designs
Please allow me to introduce you to the first of my tea towel designs. I will share much more on this later, but this design along with lots of other designs, I created about ten years ago when I was attending an absolutely superb online surface pattern design course with exceedingly talented and renowned British […]
Glowing Green Smoothie – Kimberly Snyder – Alison Allmand-Smith
So I’ve started making this exceedingly palatable and refreshing smoothie again recently from Kimberley Snyder’s excellent book ‘The Beauty Detox Solution’. The recipe I follow is her ‘Glowing Green Smoothie’ recipe removing only the spinach which I find a little hard on my digestion. The inclusion of an apple, banana and pear really balances out […]
Time Hop To Mid Spring Evening Light – Alison Allmand-Smith
I’m kind of obsessed with light and the selective lack of it. I guess most artists and photographers are to a greater or lesser degree. I took this picture of our garden about five and a half weeks ago in the early evening and I love the way the low beginning to become more golden […]
China & Hong Kong Part 2 – Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, Southeastern China. – Alison Allmand-Smith
For those of you who read my first China & Hong Kong blog post you will know that it was around this time last year that I visited there with my husband and brother-in-law. I apologise for taking so long to write part two, especially as I absolutely loved both countries and can’t wait to go […]
Pasta with basil pesto, mushrooms, onions and bacon. – Alison Allmand-Smith
My landlady from university kindly gave me a joyously received bowl of this one day, after I had walked the three and a half miles back from campus to where we lived. I had never eaten basil pesto before (didn’t even know what it was) and I was absolutely blown away. She generously proffered the […]
Blackcurrant Ice-cream and Jam. – Alison Allmand-Smith
Phew, I’ve managed to do it. I’ve managed to get through a minimum of ten kilos of our fresh and frozen blackcurrants from this and last year. Bearing in mind that we still have about 16 kilos left, my turning the above amount into yummy scoffs feels like a major achievement and a relief. Ok, […]