Summer Cookery Classes

 

We've had some smiley faces at Treetops during June for our Summer Cookery Classes, both day and evening classes, both 3 hours long, full of delicious, new and seasonal recipes.

We ended up with a bit of a pink theme which I fully embraced!

We made a delicious raspberry and thyme cordial which we mixed with sparkling water and a scented geranium.

The night before the classes I picked the rose petals from the garden and massaged a sugar solution in with them and left them in a cool place overnight.

During the class I turned them into a gorgeous rose petal jam, I'd eaten this each morning on holiday recently and it's so good (costs £11 a jar in Fortnums)!

After each recipe has been cooked, either Susan or Bianca, my two brilliant assistants, bring along tasting dishes, so you can eat and drink as we go along!

Our Summer Cookery Class cake was a gluten free lime and coconut cake.

Vegetarian wise we had a halloumi and orzo salad, minus the halloumi it is a delicious feta and orzo side salad, perfect to take along to parties or to accompany bbq's.

Talking of BBQ's, below are some chicken meatballs we enjoyed, which can be made bigger to enjoy as burgers.

We made a few other things too, all of which were lovely bright, colourful and tasty.

You always need a 'show-off' piece and for Summer Cookery this was our beetroot cured salmon, look at the vibrancy!  The process for this starts 48 hours before you serve it.  

I always include lots of recipes that can be prepared ahead of time, as they are always useful and always asked for.

Our Raspberry and Thyme Cordial then blended with other ingredients to become a Rose and Raspberry Gin Cocktail which really was 'summer in a glass'.

Cheers!

We will be running this class once more this Summer with these recipes, Thursday 10 August, so if they take your fancy, please get booked in and come along to join us.  It costs £50 for the class and you get to enjoy a tasting menu of everything cooked, along with a cocktail and a recipe booklet to take home with you.

Book Here

Porthleven Watercolour Class

On a rather muggy day yesterday we held our Stormy Seas Watercolour Class with Claire.

I have to start with the photo above as this is a lovely new Beginner and her first attempt at Watercolour!  Never be afraid to join us and give painting a go, we have small groups and the most amazing tutor to teach you.

We were shown some beautiful images from Porthleven in Cornwall, which has fantastic waves and stormy seas in the winter.

A Stormy painting at Treetops always includes toothbrushes and masking fluid flicked across the painting!

I'm sure you'll agree the paintings are all incredibly atmospheric.

I logged onto a webcam that sent a live stream from Porthleven, lovely and calm yesterday of course, but if you want to take a look it's here

A photographer called Carla Regler has some amazing photographs taken in Porthleven, Cornwall and all round the country, I can definitely recommend making a cuppa and visiting the gallery section on her website

Below is our own Gallery of some of the finished paintings mounted.

All that concentrating requires lots of food!

We had a variety of salads today served with a spinach, nutmeg and roasted red pepper roulade.

Claire will be teaching at Marlborough Summer School next and will be back at Treetops for a lovely bright and breezy Summer Florals at the end of August

Find out more HERE

Summer Fun at Treetops

The beautiful bluebells in the woods at Treetops

Join us in the woods this summer for our Woodland Retreat Days with Laura.

We can't wait, a truly relaxing day absorbed in nature where we will enjoy a blend of meditation, breath work, gentle stretching, sound, creativity and a delicious plant based lunch.

It will be a peaceful and grounding day to rebalance your mind and body.

(And if you want to hug a tree I have loads! 😁)

The Woodland Retreat days run from 10am - 2pm.

£65

The dates are:

9th June

(back up day 23 June)

2nd July

(back up day 8 July)

17th September

(back up day 24th September)

We have put back up days into the diary incase of really bad weather, so please check you can make those before booking)

For more information please click here

On Friday 30 June we have Summer Cookery with me, a really fun demo style class where I share 7-8 recipes with you for the Summer using delicious seasonal ingredients along with plenty of ideas to help you with inspiration for cooking for friends and family.

You will be able to taste the food as it's made, and we will explore presentation ideas, look at what can be prepared ahead of time, whilst enjoying a refreshing summer drink recipe.

We have two classes on the day, choose from

10am - 1pm

or

7pm - 10pm

£50

You will receive a recipe booklet of everything created to take home with you after the class.

Book Summer Cookery Here

We have Claire here in August for a bright and beautiful Summer Florals Watercolour Class, master skills in painting loose and free, keeping vibrancy in your paints and feel happy and cheerful!

The class runs from 9:30am - 3pm and costs £85, this includes all of your materials, a 2 course lunch with a glass of wine and refreshments throughout the day.

All other Claire Art classes are now on the website for you to see

Art Class Dates Here

We'd love to see you!

If you are unable to join us in person at Treetops, please have a look at our great library of Online Art Workshops with Claire

We currently have a really good rhododendron watercolour online class, which covers skills in placement, colour and negative painting, hard and soft edges.

All of our Online Art Workshops cost £15.

Don't forget we also have a great library of Yoga Online Workshops, which once downloaded are yours to keep, filmed with Rachel we have a mix of seasonal yoga, hatha, yin and also specialist workshops in Chair/Seated Yoga and Yoga for Stress, Fatigue and Burnout.

All Online Yoga is HERE

Our beautiful Treetops Wellbeing Candle is lovely to light during the summer, the gorgeous geranium smell is so pretty, it also has warm woods and lavender in the mix.

It makes a great gift too, have a look in our Art Materials and Wellbeing Shop for other ideas.

Easter Weekend News

Wishing you all a Happy Easter, it's so lovely to have the sun out and enjoy being outside and in the garden.

Next week we have a Watercolour Class with Claire

"Boats in the Mediterranean"

It's going to be full of sunshine, blues and beautiful boats.

Come and learn some new skills and techniques enjoy a delicious lunch and relax with a lovely small group of people.  It's always a great day.

Tuesday 11 April

9:30am - 3pm

All of your materials, a 2 course lunch and a glass of wine are included.

£85

Just 3 places left.

Our next Watercolour Class isn't until June, when we will be "Watching the Storm" on Wednesday 28 June; learn how to add action, speed and atmosphere to your watercolours with softness of foam and fluidity of waves, it's a fun one!

Book Watercolour Classes

Towards the end of April we have our Spring Cookery Class.

This is on Thursday 27 April and you can choose from either a morning or evening class, it's demo style with tasting of all the food cooked and a recipe booklet to take home.

10am - 1pm

or

7pm - 10pm

£50

We will be covering seasonal easy dishes to recreate at home, both for family and larger groups of friends and family, we have mains, salads and vegetarian recipes, a delicious cake, a quick pudding and a fresh spring cocktail.

There will be plenty of tips shared, we really hope you can join us.

In our Online Shop we have a Spring Sketch Offer, for just £49.99 you can receive Claire's Watercolour Pad, made from high quality Saunders Waterford paper, the thickest sketch pad on the market, this ring bound pad is ideal for painting outside or on your holidays as it folds flat, and because the paper is so thick it can hold watercolour on both sides.

You also get 3 of Claire's Watercolour paints and a set of 5 Watercolour brushes.

You can buy it here

Whilst you are on the website, have a look at our Online Workshops, we have a great variety of Yoga and Art Workshops for you, perfect for this time of year is our Spring Yoga with Rachel and our Spring Blossom Watercolour with Claire.

Click for Online Workshops

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Emily

Beginners & Refreshers Watercolour Class

We had a fantastic class this week with 8 new Beginners and 2 Refresher artists.

Their work was unbelievable!

Our theme was Sunset at Lake Ullswater

This worked very well for mastering the first wash of colours over the paper and some beautiful effects happened.

At the start of a Beginners Class, Claire talks about paper, paints and brushes, before everyone enjoys some warming up mixing exercises.

Claire teaches in a step by step style so there is a good steady pace and no overwhelm of information.

For this class we were using a mix of SAA (Supporting All Artists) watercolour paints and Claire's own range of watercolour paints plus lovely thick paper from St Cuthberts Mill in Somserset, it absorbs the water really well for this wet in wet technique.

We let the first wash dry and enjoyed a delicious lunch of Pomegranate Salmon, honey and pecan potato salad, sesame broccoli and a raspberry fool.

(we cater for vegetarians, food allergies and intolerances)

Artists learnt plenty of skills in this class to take away with them.

We even got onto glazing across the water, which has really added to the paintings.

We hope to see you all back again to paint at Treetops!

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Our next class is on Tuesday 11 April

Boats in the Mediterranean

beautiful blue colours, reflections and sunshine!

9:30am - 3pm

£85

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