Create your own Super Bug!

Inspired by a visit to http://www.mylearning.org/ where you can create your very own Super Bug in a Museum's Top secret laboratory, I set off down the park with a collection of buggish recycled materials, enough selotape to temporarily restrain Godzilla and my very own hovertastic, xray visioned rainbow dragonfly and world champion high jumping, multi tasking feeder of a species called Roy. Who could possibly out wit my mini beasts in the survival stakes? Teegan, Finley, Mia, Hannah, Ryan, Clay and Zoe perhaps?! Thank you too to all the children and parents who took part who aren't in the photos and whose minibeasts were equally as inspiring and a tribute to the combined spontaneous power of recycled materials and the imagination and especially to the children who helped me set up and to the young man who suggested I bring along leaflets next time so he could hand them out around the park. You Rock!

Flutterbys in Abbey Park

With a box of freshly picked recycled materials from the Mighty Worcester Resource Exchange and the council's blessing I set up a 'Come and Make a Flutterby' art session in Evesham's Abbey Park bandstand. With its smart new coat of paint, the bandstand no longer offered us the distraction of a telephone directory to rival that of any telephone box in Brighton but did provide us with shelter and shade to make stuff. I had a great afternoon and hope you did too. Showing off their fabulous flutterbys from top to bottom are Odette, Joshua, Ethan and Emily.

Woody's Portrait

Commissioned by Bev and Reg, we agreed that Woody's ultrasound scan would make a great starting point for a painting. After close scrutiny of the colour swatches in B+Q's paint section, a bold palette of browns and oranges was decided upon. 84cm in diameter, the painting is made up of layers of acrylic. Woody is now 7 months old and spends time looking at his portrait en route from the front room to the kitchen.

Foraging in Axmouth

'Did you know goose grass is a member of the coffee family? It's delicious stir fried with curly dock and sea aster.' My mother is marvelling at the unusual words coming out of my mouth.

With the total

inspiration of a new disciple fresh from my days foraging experience with Robin Harford (http://www.eatweeds.co.uk/) at Combe Farm,

I set off into the

shaded undergrowth to harvest my main ingredient... Nettles! Nettles have 6 times more Vitamin C than oranges and 3 times more iron than spinach.. Nettles Rock!! I treated my unsuspecting parents to a bowl of nettle, pea and mint soup with coconut yoghurt and they bloody loved it! Thank you everyone at Combe Farm on Sunday for such a sensory extravaganza!

Carnaval!!!

Sunday night at The Sambodromo in Rio de Janeiro. 6 schools were parading that night. Each parade is made up of between 3 and 5000 people. The atmosphere is extroadinary - the competition fierce.

Mapuche cookery classes

I'm in Pucon, Chile - an adrenilin junkies dream of a town. 'Will the weather be good enough to climb the volcano at 5am tomorrow morning?' are the words on everyones lips. 'I've the afternoon off, I'm gonna cycle til my legs drop off,' I heard the other day.... Doubting my existence as one of the same species, I ask around for a traditional Mapuche cookery experience and word on the street is that Ana Epoulef (raykiyen@yahoo.com) is my gal. A kilometre short of the town of Curarrehue, Katy and I jump off the bus and make our way to 'Cocina Mapuche.' Between us, Ana, May, Katy and I rustle up some fine Mapuche fair - (2 inches in length) pinenut soup - freshly ground wheat bread with salsa - savoury doughnuts - potato, onion, forest floor wild mushrooms and dark, deeply flavoursome cabbage bake, along with tall, spikey stem salad and small and crimson flowered lemon and mint squash. I grate potato, ring the water out of it before dropping small balls of the leftover dough into boiling milk for 10 minutes. We add some mint and voila - dessert! Thank you Ana and May for welcoming us into your kitchen, for the wealth of knowledge you shared with us and the delicious and unforgettable meal we enjoyed with you and your family.

The bins of Valparaiso

A city of artistic
inspiration and
mural mayhem,
even the bins are
something of
beauty in
Valparaiso, Chile.

The taste sensation that is Ceviche!

Bringing back the citric taste sensations of Ceviche on the beach in Canoa, Ecuador, Patty´s melt in the mouth salmon and monkfish extravaganza rocks.

The Big Draw

Included in The Vale Arts Trail were Big Draw workshops, the national initiative to get people drawing (http://www.campaignfordrawing.org/). Commissioned by Jenny Davis (http://www.wychavon.gov.uk/), Sam Maybank and I floorpapered the Town Hall and invited people in to draw and build their experiences of Evesham in unusual and experimental ways such as drawing with 5 ft long pencils, drawing with their opposite hands, feet and mouths.

Pop in Portraits

As part of The Vale Art's Trail, the young people at Ourside Youth Centre in Evesham invited the public in for tea and cake and the chance to create a portrait of themselves using a mixture of media. We framed the portraits and displayed them in the 'Art Gallery' corner of the centre.

Working Big en el Baño

Letting me loose on her bathroom, the lovely Kim Tanner has commissioned me to ¨do whatever I like!!¨ Over several weeks and with Kim´s input, the murals have evolved into Neptune playing with an octopus, Cherubs in the waves and The Creature from the Black Lagoon awaiting the unsuspecting as they draw back the shower curtain. Putting the designs together with Kim, the opportunity for large sweeping brush strokes, Jamie Rae´s help and various edible gifts left for me around the house have made it a fabulous and enjoyably challenging experience. Thanks Kim.

The World´s Collide Image Mixer

A 95% recycled
creation, inspired
by a life changing
moment in a shop
in Exeter when I
first glimpsed the
mesmorising and
magical
enviroment inside
my favourite
kaleidoscope, this
interactive
sculpture allows
the viewer, by
turning the
transparent disks
at the opposite
end, to encounter
what happens
when the ´World´s
(photos of my two
local towns,
Evesham and
Pershore) collide.