Afternoon Tea Watercolour

Wednesday's Watercolour Class with Claire was all about Afternoon Tea in the Garden

With beautiful colours

The morning started with some drawing of the teapot, cup and saucer, milk jug and the cake stand

Placed on a table with a pretty tablecloth, it was time to start creating our background washes

Showing a hint of roses, hollyhocks, lupins in the background

We had a variety of flowers in the jugs and indeed a selection of pretty jugs, especially the one above!

The cake stands were full of strawberries, scones, sandwiches and cupcakes.

I knew a normal lunch wouldn't really work today, so we had an Afternoon Tea instead, full of delicious savoury and sweet treats served with a selection of teas, it really did hit the spot!

Mushroom and Pine Nut Tarts

Egg & Cress, Salmon Chive & Cream Cheese and Cucumber sandwiches

Strawberry or Gin & Tonic Meringues made by Emma at Wooden Spoon Macarons in Cold Ash.

Mini caramel, cream and strawberry tarts

Scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam

An amazing Limoncello Drizzle Cake

Gorgeous Banoffee Tarts, I loved the touch of brushing melted dark chocolate into the pastry cases before filling.

And finally some mini pink meringues.

Floral Workshop with Lindsey

A beautiful sunshiney day for our Floral Workshop with Lindsey from

 The White Horse Flower Company

Lindsey spoke about all things floral, from the seasons, what we can grow and use from our gardens, conditioning and caring for flowers and styling.

Lindsey had brought some lovely flowers with her, some stunning coral peonies, ranunculus, roses and alliums alongside some colourful smaller flowers and foliage.

Lindsey showed how to make a hand tied arrangement followed by using chicken wire in a vase/jug/teapot to create a smaller table arrangement.

Then it was everyone elses's turn to get creative!

Everyone had the same flowers in their buckets, so it was incredible to see the very different creations at the end of the workshop.

Thank you Lindsey, we will see you back at Treetops in December for our Christmas Wreath Workshop!

Free From Cookery

We had a fun and interesting Free From Cookery Class last week which covered cooking with a whole range of ingredients that are free from gluten, wheat, dairy, soya, nuts and egg.

It was one of those classes where we were too busy talking and eating to remember to take photos!

But I did remember to take a photo of the egg free meringues being whisked

and take a photo of them as cute little meringue kisses fresh out of the oven,

they are a revelation and really delicious, you would never know they are egg free.

We enjoyed a delicious tasting lunch of fish pie, followed by flapjack pear crumble, a carrot cake and tasted the perfect gluten free pastry as little jam tarts.

We will be running this class again in September, watch out for it, it's definitely worth coming if you yourself have intolerances or allergies, or if you cook for family or friends who have.

Classes Galore!

We've been so busy with classes recently, mix that in with a new phone (learning how to transfer photos over to the computer!) and a family wedding, I'm afraid I've got slightly behind on blogging our classes.  

So to follow will be a summary of our recent classes which consisted of Watercolour, Papercutting and Free From Cookery

*

Claire and I had ran a Sunday Watercolour class for the first time and our theme was St Ives Harbour, the pictures were amazing, it was a long day, Claire included so many techniques!

Lucy returned to run a Personalised Papercutting Class, this was great as everyone had sent Lucy the names and celebrations they wanted on their cards and Lucy prepared the templates before the class.

We had a delicious lunch of Spring Risotto with wild garlic, and slow roasted tomatoes with toasted seeds.

Bid on 2 Watercolour places for Hospice UK Charity Auction

Treetops is supporting Hospice UK this year by donating an auction lot for their UK Gala Dinner.

We have donated two places for a Watercolour Class

(to be taken by end of 2019)

Bids are being taken online from today.

As the national charity for hospice care, they champion and support the work of more than 200 member organisations, which provide hospice care to around 360,000 people across the UK each year.  This support helps hospices to deliver the highest quality care, and your support with this event can help them to ensure they continue to provide their vital services in the future and so that everyone who needs hospice care, gets hospice care.

If you were thinking of booking a summer or autumn term class, this would be a great idea to not only book a place but also support a very worthy cause.

Bids are opening at £75.....

View the auction site here

(Please note that bidding will close at 12:00pm on Tuesday 7 May and will resume at the Gala Dinner on Wednesday 8 May for event attendees only, so you are encouraged to use the 'maximum bid' feature in order to increase your chances of winning the auction).

***

Another way you can support Hospice UK this summer is to visit one of the gardens from the yellow book of the National Garden Scheme, there are around 3,700 gardens opening their gates to visitors in 2019

The National Garden Scheme is the largest funder of Hospice UK's work, donating £500,000 in 2018, since 1996 a phenomenal £5 million has been given!

Find a garden near you