Brown is the new Black in Old Town Hastings

All is revealed. I photographed this little brown shop at Number 36 High Street a year ago - see post 17 August 2010 - the image above was taken last week of the same shop/house undergoing the last stages of renovation. A rather helpful notice placed in the window now states that Alistair Hendy will be opening his new store in Old Town Hastings.

Marc

Some Marc Bolan today as it's 16th September.

Gypsy Tart: Thou Art Right Sweet

I kept thinking about this caramel pudding which was served up on rare occasions at school in the mid-70s and decided to give it a go while I was listening to Nurse with Wound and Jeremy Deller's Acid Brass Mix of What Time is Love. I used a tin of light condensed milk for this version to try to keep the sweetness down a little - a helping of creme fraiche will help balance the sugar. It was pretty straight forward to make as follows:

Ingredients:

500g shortcrust pastry

x1 410g tin of light evaporated milk

350g dark muscovado sugar

creme fraiche to serve

Method: Grease and line a baking tin with shortcrust pastry. Blind bake the shortcrust pastry at 200 degrees /gas mark 6. Use electric hand whisk to mix evaporated milk and muscovado sugar together for a good 15 mins to ensure a light texture. Pour mix into case and bake for 10 - 15 mins at 200 degrees/gas mark 6. Cool at room temperature and serve with creme fraiche.

Gruissan

Ventured out to Gruissan plage to take a look at the wooden chalets where 'Betty Blue' ( 37°2 le matin) was filmed. Not many examples left of the original design chalets remain as quite a few have been converted to make use of the space underneath the stilted huts.

Citroen Van Heaven

I'm recently back from a trip to Olonzac in the South East of France. Highlight of the trip (apart from an unexpected lift back in the local firefighter's truck to the airport due to last minute lack of transport) was finding this Citroen HY van heaven in a nearby village. Tucked around the corner was a collection of battered early vehicles including BMW and Citroen cars - my kind of va va vroom! On the flight home I noticed the well-dressed figure of 70s Poldark actor, Robin Ellis, a few seats ahead of me. Mr Ellis was trying to give off an air of dignity, but it is a little hard to remain resplendent on a Ryanair flight whilst you have an air hostess passing a ready made chicken salad sandwich from the clunking aisle trolley and a copy of Hello magazine over your head to the passenger in the adjacent seat. But I award 10/10 for his coolness and composure under this form of darstardly cabin pressure.

Power of Making

Jazz Domino Holly demonstrates some knitting 'making' (take a thumb through her 'Queen of Crafts' published by Penguin) - there's more making on show by artist Shauna Richardson of her hand made animal friendly crochet-dermy over at the V&A (running from September 5th until 2nd January). Meanwhile, keep an eye on the inventive Mary Jane Baxter and her workshops. Peter Pan collar making at tea emporium High Tea of Highgate (Sunday 11th September) is this weekend's hands on project which gives a face lift to a plain dress or jumper. Or check out Mary's book, Chic on a Shoestring, for more ideas on what to do with a needle and thread and a sewing machine.

Photo Credit: Andrew Crowley