Collective of Artists, dahlias & Beer

Karl West's appreciation for the support.

ART
This weeks Artist comes courtesy of Twitter or Facebook. Social media is great.

The Colour Collective is a Twitter get together for budding / jobbing artists and illustrators or anyone that is a creative colour pencil type. #colour_collective is the brain child of Penny Neville Lee. Every Saturday Penny announces a colour that has to be in the painting for the following Friday. Some people go all out with the colour others use accents and they all submit on a Friday at 7.30pm GMT for one hour. There are some great artist that contribute and I believe I have already introduced you to three already. Natalie Smilie, Karl West and Karl Newson

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Penny (website) is definitely an 'all round good egg' for doing this. For one thing she has to sit all Friday evening on twitter making sure everyone's work has appeared on the page and then she pops over to Facebook for the fans there. If you want to know more about Penny this is her website, but here is where James (another illustrator) interviewed her about The Colour Collective.

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I love it when I'm on line at the right time on Friday and I only submitted once and was overwhelmed by the responses I got. I really don't know how everyone gets their work done in six days. I must learn to do quick sketches and stay sat at the table, as I do my art when I feel like it and as a result could take months. This was my contribution – Tea Rose was the colour selected.

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And here's my two favourites from that nights Colour Collective.

Alan Jones

Tim Budgen

BEER
There are so many craft beers on the market these days it's hard choosing one beer. I often come home with random bottles to try but they don't always get drank that night – I'm not a frequent drinker, wasn't brought up with drink around me so it's always on occasion I will have a beer or a tipple of something else. Every beer I review on here is new to me and these are my top 4 summerish beers.  Hopefully if you click on the picture it will send you to the relevant blog.

I do have one new one I tried last week and it is my favourite but as it's brewed by us at Eden Brewery it's not going on the top of the list it wouldn't be fair. Psycho - Hop Rocket is found here.
 Have you tried any of these beers? What did you think? Any you recommend to me pop it into the comments section below.

GARDEN
Way back in may sometime I asked the question 'are my Dahlias I bought last year were dead?'. Everybody’s Dahlia's seemed to be sprouting and starting to look great. I on the other hand knowing nothing about them had discovered that in the winter you were meant to take the root inside to keep it dry and frost free. I left them outside! One had definitely died but the others showed no signs of popping through. I was told they probably were. But a few weeks later just as I had given up on them shoots appeared!

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And they grew.

We bought some more because we loved them (to replace the ones from a few years ago that did die).

They are still growing strong too, we keep dead heading them and up will spring another. My Man did learn on Gardeners World that before they start to flower towards the end of it sprouting you are meant to chop them back to encourage a lot of flowers and a strong plant. Really?!
Have you done this?
Does it work?
Do you have any tips you would like to share. Leave a link below or a comment in the box.

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MUSINGS
Summer is almost over, although some of us never had it in the first place but on the days we had no rain I pottered about in the garden trying to keep things alive -which I'm actually doing quite well with. On the days when we have both been off together we've gone exploring round our home. On one particular day we weren't exploring just popped into Carlisle to spend our HMV vouchers and stumbled upon a nice little café down a side street we'd not been down. Alas, we, or, even I don't venture into Carlisle that often but when I do I'm forgoing Starbucks and Costa coffee and going back to this little café I'm all for shouting about the good customer service you receive and spreading the positivity so let me introduce to this little place.

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I Love Café
When we went to the Café there was only one young lady working, although it wasn't full, there was a steady stream of people coming into the café. The young lass was helpful, friendly and dealt with every customer efficiently with a smile as she went.
A little vintage style café where the tables are the type that were around in kitchens back in the 60's / 70's with flaps either side and little drawers underneath. There are hardback books dotted around that are from that type of era, and the crockery will have you saying 'ooo my mum had a set like this' or 'gosh my grandparents had one just like this!'

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There's a good menu, not too much and not too little to choose from. We opted for the paninis which when they came were hot and delicious. The coffee was good too. Now to the cake!
There is a good selection of cakes. And they look fantastic.

I'm not a vegetarian but one lady commented (on their Facebook site) that there was options for a 'Vegetarian who is lactose and gluten intolerant' which sounds really good.
And with the blues type tunes playing in the background the café had a great atmosphere.
Remember peeps freshly cooked stuff doesn't appear on your table in an instant.
Is there a cafe near you you have just discovered or been going to for awhile/ Let me know in the comments section below.

Tunes of the Week
It's been a mixed week for tunes I've heard or popped into my head. But one advert/song sums up my week, or rather my Friday.
Click to see what it is. If you know me you will laugh at it