SOON.

I'm footering for a couple of days...

...tidying and organising. I have this weekend off, which means I'm not quite yet at the manic prep stage. The next wedding at Lunga is Christine and Scott's - I am besides myself with excitement at how beautiful this is going to be - and there's a lot of finishing details although the food itself is going to be substantial and generous as feasting without the fuss should be. But Christine is going for a certain look and I want to reflect this in everything that I do.

So, in advance of a busy few days, I've played with the camera on my iphone (if anyone could recommend which Hipstomatic app I should opt for I would be grateful, but already I am in love with the slow shutter app!) and begun to tidy and organise my food styling props. I use these when I actually have the time to style a shot - when I'm in full catering mode it's whatever is to hand, although I do often find the same key platters and crockery tends to appear over and over again. I don't hoard stuff that doesn't get used, as that seems to defeat the purpose really.

I have found some delicious bits and pieces recently at the lovely little Barbreck Farm shop down a little track by Ardfern. Owned by the lovely Katie, she has a very good eye and is hoping to grow the 'vintage' side of things to support the fabulous local produce that she already sells. Bit of a lethal shop - I came away at the weekend with a secret present for someone else that I soooo want to keep for myself, a lovely bone handled knife, some crockery and a large oak, glass fronted cabinet to keep my cookery books in. Actually - I need about 3 of them to hold my entire collection, but this is at least a start!

And finally I have got round to tidying up my herb garden. We live by the Firth of Forth. It's windy and growing things has proved to be a bit of a challenge. Herbs, however, do very well - mainly, I think, because they are low level and I haven't attempted to grow anything tall except for parsley which is now pinned against a wall.

A little bit of food styling and some rhubarb love.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb. Love it. Au naturel with sugar. Lightly poached in fresh orange juice and cardamon, or poached a bit more then folded through lightly whipped double cream and creme fraiche for a rhubarb fool.

So I styled up a food shoot recently for plain and simple rhubarb puff tart. Love the colours.

A personal project

I seem to be surrounded by wonderful, creative, inspiring people who support what I do and help me to do what I do better. Lazy Sunday has been in my head for a while; an idea simmering on the back burner whilst life and stuff took over.

I met Neils and Alie from Blue Sky Photography last year when they photographed a fabulous wedding that I catered. It was a wedding full of beautiful, colourful detail and it was great fun to be part of the visual impact that made this particular wedding very unique.

Photography by Blue Sky Photography

Neils, Alie and I spent many an hour afterwards talking about how much we love the detail in what we do and I shared with them my ideas for building a catering business that was as much about the visuals of food as it was about the flavours.

Photography by Blue Sky photography

A couple of months later we hosted the first of what we hoped would be many culinary adventures - a live cookery workshop, food styling and food photography all in one place. The really cool part? The guests were part of the whole experience - sharing our food and our table.

Photography by Blue Sky Photography

Neils and Alie  introduced me to the very lovely Stuart MacPherson of Platinum Graphics in Edinburgh. He designed my logo and helped with the brand and I loved bouncing ideas back and forward with him, and the Blue Sky duo. Stuart is very collaborative in his approach to marketing and suggested that we jointly created a food related little calendar that we could send out to clients shortly before Christmas.

Photography by Blue Sky Photography

I cooked and cooked and created recipes that I thought would work and which could be summarised in 80 words or less (Thanks Stuart, for setting me that challenge!! It certainly honed my editing skills.) Neils stopped by my house by the sea on a frosty white day and took lovely lovely pictures and the result was a little calendar - designed by Stuart - that made our respective customers happy. It made me very happy also, because that tiny little calendar has a very big voice. It speaks my style.

Photography by Blue Sky Photography

The photographs here made up the calendar and over the next few days, the recipes will follow and I hope you enjoy.

Photography by Blue Sky Photography

Blue Sky Photography - www.blueskyphotography.co.uk

Platinum Graphics - www.platinumgraphics.co.uk