Gin to make you grin

From cheap Mother’s Ruin to £2,000 a bottle for Watenshi, the World’s most expensive; gin has been part of our culture for over 400 years. Lucinda Merriman visits Warner Edwards, craft distillers in Northamptonshire to find out why ‘boutique brewing’ is such big business.

I had my first G & T in a hotel lounge in Haywards Heath at the age of 40 and being a firm favourite ever since, when an invitation arrived for a tour of our local craft distillery Warner Edwards at Falls Farm in Harrington, Northamptonshire; I was keen to take up the kind offer.

With instructions to meet at the Tollemache Arms pub in Harrington at 2:45pm, ready for the tour at 3:00pm, the majority of the party decided to ignore this simple request arriving in dribs and drabs until 3.15pm. At last however, we were off following partner Tom Warner out through the pub’s front door and off along the road and into a field.

Being a ‘country girl’ and hearing that the distillery was on a farm, I decided to wear suitable footwear but was amused to see a number of our group were clad in high heels unsuitable for a hike through an undulating grass field complete with cows and their pats.

After a hesitant start – people hanging on to one another for support, a few dissenting murmurs about whether the cows were man-eaters, we walked along the top of Falls field with grassy terraces to our left and a stunning view down the valley to our right.  Tom stopped us halfway and began his tour with the history of the farm and the location of three natural springs, used to ‘finish’ their gins.

I was fascinated to learn that we were standing on the remains of huge terraces of a monumental post-medieval garden, which at one time led down to a house and a network of fishponds at the bottom of the valley. There’s not much to see now but taking into account the stunning view and scale of the garden, this must have been a truly amazing sight in it’s heyday.

Making our way into Falls farmyard, we paused to admire the exterior of the 200-year old converted distilling barn (formerly used as a ‘hospital’ for ailing livestock), before entering and placing our G & T orders – Dry, Elderflower or Rhubarb.  

I opted for the elderflower which had a pleasing blueish hue and tasted light and refreshing – I can’t claim to say that I tasted all the subtle botanicals, which included both dried and fresh elderflower but it was lovely on this hot July afternoon.

Standing in the newly planted ‘botanical garden’ sipping our drinks, Tom enthusiastically explained how he had built it as an homage to his mother and as a source of inspiration for his next gin flavour. Currently they are experimenting with Lemon Balm and hope to launch with this in September.

G & T’s polished off and ‘glowing’ we were soon back in the barn being introduced to ‘Curiosity’ the copperpot still custom built in Germany by Arnold Holstein. Tom explained the gin making process, which is clearly a labour of love and very lucrative given gin sales in the UK are estimated to reach £1 billion this year.

The tour finished with a tasting of four gins: Dry, Elderflower, Rhubarb and Sloe.  Tasting neat gin is in my opinion not the best way to appreciate them but I bravely pushed on and ended up buying both the Dry and the Rhubarb before leaving with a big gin-grin on my face. Cheers!

I took part in a corporate tour with VertoUK, Creative Web & Graphic Design.

Normal tours are held every Wednesday at 7.00pm (minimum of 10 people). 

Tour tickets: £15 per person with £5 redeemable in the distillery shop and a G & T upon arrival.

To make a booking call 01536 710623 or email tours@warneredwards.com

 www.warneredwards.com

Beauty or beast?

Appearances can sometimes be deceiving: Lucinda Merriman meets conceptual Illustrator Eleanor Marriott, one of the new wave video game designers, to find out how the horror genre can be an empowering, feminist force.

Meeting Eleanor May Marriott for the first time is certainly a very interesting experience as she fills the room with her off beat vivacious personality. At 21, she’s a cross between Scarlet Johannsson and Sarah Millican – stunningly attractive, with a curious dress sense and a witty self-effacing sense of humour.

Recently graduated in Graphic Communication and Illustration from Loughborough University, you could quickly dismiss her as being like many middle class design graduates – privileged, predictable, blond and dipsey; but appearances can be deceiving, as Ellie is far from what you would expect, having a fascination with the darker side of life.

Adopted as a baby by a farming family in Leicestershire, Ellie was brought up knowing about her biological parents and their reasons for giving her up. "Being adopted doesn’t have much to do with who I am but growing up on a farm has helped me put nature vs nurture in some sort of prospective, as I do believe that rearing an animal or child is the most important and difficult part of the process."

And Ellie suggests that it was this early exposure to the realities of raising livestock that gave her an upbeat and realistic outlook that embraces the horror film and game genres that she so loves.

"I think I'm desensitised to scary things because of watching it for real from an early age, seeing a calf born, sending animals to market - there's no sugar coating on a farm."

Ellie started gaming early having her first XBOX 360 and Halo (science fiction shooter game) at only 7 years old. "I’ve always loved to escape through games and I definitely have a wanderlust and rebellious streak. "I’m fascinated by the idea of inter-dimensional travel, other worlds and paranormal experiences."

It might seem that Ellie wants to escape reality but she refutes this: "I am perfectly happy with who I am now. Everyone from an early age is always asking - who do you want to be, what are you going to do? There’s a lot of pressure to conform and be a success - I have always been a little alternative and want to do it my way; I’m at that age where the future is a big mystery."

Ellie is looking for work as a conceptual 2-D Designer and Illustrator and showed her potential for illustration at her university’s end of year Arts Degree Show where she exhibited a mixture of monsters and a video game concept called 'Presence' about demonic possession.

One disgustingly, disturbing monster featured in her portfolio, Ellie explains: "This grotesque, multi-limbed monster is a combination of  'popular' phobias - spiders, deformity, death and decay - this apparition creates a tension with the viewer which the monster mirrors back through the tension in its skin,  It looks uncomfortable, incomplete - in some ways I think it's a metaphor for being a woman."

This seems a pretty bleak interpretation of womanhood but Ellie seems unconcerned - as it she doesn't really take herself or her creations too seriously, cultivating a dark sense of humour, yet thoughtfulness in her work which aims to shock: "I want to subtly wrong-foot people, to create a brooding atmosphere that knocks you off balance - you know when you are walking and suddenly take an invisible step down - it's unnerving."

Ellie explains her creative process: "I draw constantly, sometimes for 5 hours at a time, where spur of the moment ideas pop out of my head straight onto the page.  I often listen to video game sound tracks to help focus my mind, (interestingly they have been shown to help concentration) and become fully immersed to the extent that I must be on autopilot."

Talking about who influences her work, she says: "My mother bought me a book of architectural sketches by John Ruskin which I found very inspirational.  I love his use of line and the detail to his drawings.  There's a great atmosphere of Victorian Gothic melodrama, which I find especially appealing." 

Ellie also takes inspiration from video game artists such as Joe Madureira who created 'Darksiders', an action role playing, hack 'n' slash video game developed by Vigil Games and published by THQ.

Ellie enthuses: "I love the amazing monsters and demons Joe creates and the pacy story line, he has a great eye for composition and form and his environments are just gorgeous." 

So where will this take Ellie in the future and what does she think she can bring to this very masculine genre?  "I hope being female in an industry where the key influencers are men but where increasingly more women are playing and enjoying these type of games will help me create a more accurate representation of what today's women aspires to be.  We need more strong, non-sexualised female leads that will help enforce the idea that women are not victims but can kick butt too!"  

Ellie is certainly of this mould - she's a contradiction - appealing, thought provoking and often quite disturbing but nobody's fool - beauty and beast combined!

Fårö, Fårö away

As a shy 18 year old living in a small Northamptonshire village, who's only experience of 'Abroad' was a weekly glimpse of foreign climes in the company of Cliff Michelmore and a swoon of Hollywood films full of glamorous people, leading fascinating lives in faraway places; I was keen to check-in to this exotic thing called travel and in the summer of '82 my chance to step out into the big beyond fell at my feet in the form of an invitation to stay with a family in Sweden.

Frenzied packing ensued, fond farewells and an excited but extremely nervous teenage arrived in Stockholm.

Meet Henrik (dad - businessman, inclined to road rage), Christina (mum - English teacher who opened my eyes to Apartheid), Martin (big brother - soon to leave for his National Service), Anna (enthusiastic 16 year old who was my 'exchange') and Rufino (scruffy black terrier with a penchant for hedgehogs).

I was ready to be romanced and quite prepared to fall in love with everything and everyone - this was far, far away from my provincial life - I had escaped onto a film set with me as the leading lady!

My opening scene was spent discovering Stockholm - the stunning 13th century Gamla Stan (Old Town), the gargantuan Royal Palace, the 18th century Drottingholm Court Theatre and the Grona Lund amusement park.

While I would like to say that I fully appreciated the diverse culture, sublime architecture and watery beauty of the setting: it was my first experience of a fun park which gave me the biggest buzz!

Without a copy of the script, nothing prepared me for the second week however, spent at the family's summerhouse on Faro.

Taking a car ferry to Visby on Gotland, a drive North to Farosund and another ferry to Faro, one could see why this small 18km long Baltic island is called the Traveller's Island.

Driving off the car ferry we were stopped by the military police as Faro at that time had a strategic military installation and was strictly off-limits to foreigners.  I was rather nervous when my 'special papers' were presented to the officer, who on quickly scanning them, waved us through.

  

We drove through the flat, scrubby landscape with huge Norfolkesque skies to arrive at their white wooden summerhouse surrounded by a beautiful wildflower meadow with a sprinkling of fir trees.

The weather was hot and we walked through flower-flexed pastures, picking huge mushrooms, rode bikes through cool forests and explored the rocky beaches to the West with their ancient Ice Age Monoliths known as Rauks patrolled by the military police and the sandy beaches favoured by nudists to the East of the island.

I was enchanted by this idyll and it seemed fitting that Ingmar Bergman also had a house on the island where I loved every minute of the beauty, mystery and allure - a heady mix for an impressionable teenager!

I was a real traveller and my adventure had just begun!

What’s with this weather?

Humid, wet and warm – I like the warm bit but I’m a little fed up with the rain, aren’t you?

It’s been raining, on and off for nearly the last two weeks. I know this because that’s when my hubby first started trying to lay some new decking.

In order to reach the correct level, a section of our lawn was dug out and the spoils of this – mud and turf - have been there ever since.

What with that and the slugs who seem to be multiplying by the minute and eating their way through our entire garden and the allotment; I’m really ‘pead’ off.  

I might as well leave £10 notes on the flower beds and let the slugs eat them (I’m told they’re not terribly fussy and will happily eat paper), rather than go to the trouble of going to a garden centre and buying expensive plants.

And then there’s the soggy dog walks starting with ‘Shall I go now or wait till later?’, followed by ‘Shall I take a coat?’, then sensing a break in the rain or drizzle you’re off wading through mud, slipping about like a demented duck. Meanwhile, your boots are getting heavier and the long grass is causing a rising tide mark on your trousers.

And of course your meteorological sensors have let you down yet again, cause as soon as you are far enough away not to turn back, the heavens open and the decision not to take a coat further reminds you what an optimistic idiot you are!

Arriving home you now have to clean three sets of muddy paws on dog towels that haven't dried properly from the last time and the smell of 'wet dog' lingers in the house for the rest of the day. 

Bloody weather!

Changing your career after 50

‘Old age ain’t no place for sissies’, said the indomitable Bette Davis, but nor is middle age, if you are planning to change your career.

Unless you have unlimited stamina, firm resolve and patience, I would forget it - buy cakes for your team and hunker down in front of your PC, but if like me you feel it’s high time you took control and gave a symbolic ‘two fingers’ to all those dodgy bosses; now is your moment.

In March I was ‘released’ from my 47 hour per week job, where under great pressure to meet my boss’ unrealistic demands, I often worked overtime on average of 1-2 hours a day.

A right royal kick in the pants and something that although at the time was quite painful and certainly very annoying; has actually done me a huge favour.

I’m free – free from trying to juggle numerous tasks, placate dissatisfied staff, massage designers’ massive egos while maintaining an equilibrium with a demanding boss.  Why had I done this for so long – who was I pleasing – certainly not me and looking at how unceremoniously I was dumped – not my boss either.

So at 51, it’s time to take control, to stop moaning, blaming and deferring – from now on it’s down to me and I can’t wait!

Please follow me and share with your friends - thanks x

Locals on-board legendary locomotive

To the uninitiated, the long procession snaking its way along the fields in Wymington, must have looked a little baffling - why were 150 people, give or take a grandma, out so early on this misty morning making their way towards the passenger railway line around half a mile away?

This was a sight in itself worth seeing and fun to be part of because we were in on ‘the secret’ and would shortly become part of the legend that is the Flying Scotsman.

As a regular dog walker across these fields you get to know the ‘die-hard’ walkers of which June Tobin is one - rain or shine June can be seen out with her Border Collie Max. 

Pensioners June and her husband Terry also happen to be keen steam train enthusiasts and seeing an article in the Evening Telegraph in November of last year about the Flying Scotsman, decided to book it.

‘We always watch any steam trains that go through Wymington and after seeing the story in the Evening Telegraph about the Flying Scotsman, we decided that we wanted to be on it. It didn’t prove that easy though as I had to try three times to get tickets and eventually because Premium Class was sold out we had to settle for normal tickets’, said June.

So on Saturday 4 June, at 8.50am, while we were keenly waiting with wet knees in a wheat field, an excited Terry and June were boarding in Bedford to set off for York.

Slightly delayed from Victoria because of ‘photographers on the line’, (makes a change from wet leaves) who were later arrested; the Flying Scotsman didn’t reach us until 9.30am.

At last however, we heard a distant whistle, the line hummed quietly and then a quiet chuffing, growing louder as it approached until the Flying Scotsman appeared in all its glory, steaming confidently along pulling 11 vintage carriages behind. The delighted crowd waved, took pictures and videos and then in a few seconds, it was gone.

But not for Terry and June who said: ‘We were amazed to see so many people had turned up to see the train, especially our friends in Wymington and we felt like royalty sitting on the train waving back’.

With their journey just begun they thought things couldn’t get much more exciting, but a £5.00 raffle ticket bought on-board proved to be the icing on the cake.

 June told me: ‘We couldn’t believe it, we won first prize in the raffle and guess what, it was two tickets to travel Premium Class in a steam train of our choice! So we have not only had one trip of a lifetime but can look forward to another one soon!’

Which just goes to show that the Flying Scotsman is still working its magic whether you are on-board or track side.

To watch my video, please click here.

Crowds drawn to Loughborough Arts Degree Show 2016

Every year the undergraduate and foundation students of Loughborough University exhibit their work, which includes Fine Art, Textiles, 3D Design and Graphic Communication and Illustration.

If you wish to visit the Arts Degree Show tucked away in the Loughborough campus, don’t be put off by the tired and scruffy aspect of the buildings and their sterile interiors - there’s not much of a ‘muse’ here, unless you’re an urban artist who wishes to add some colour or personality to this dull environment.

No dragging of feet or loitering on the stairs, push on to the top floor where the Graphic Communication and Illustration graduates showcase their work on this ‘blank canvas’ utilised as the perfect foil for an explosion of enthusiastic creativity.

Each student starts with a 2 x 2m space in which to exhibit and market their work, as this is also an opportunity for potential employees to snap up talented designers before they make it on to the market.

Eye-catching visuals and graphics pop and fizz – ideas fly – it’s an information overload which engages and excites.

Some designers have played safe with commercial product designs with household names that make the design instantly recognisable, while others have pushed the boundaries with innovative Apps, computer games, animation and original illustrations.

Look out for an alternative and competent product design for Fairtrade by Jade Thomas, thoughtful animation from Jessica Perrin, useful App OAPP from Tanya Beri, conceptional design from Sophie Redford and inspired illustrations and horror genre computer game PRESENCE by Eleanor Marriott (pictured above).  

What strikes you is the talent, enthusiasm and excitement presented in a refreshingly earnest way that does make you look forward to all their futures. 

Simon Downs, Programme Director, Graphic Communication & Illustration agrees: ‘This year’s graduates are a collectively minded bunch of people and they contribute with a will to the tasks they undertake.  It is always rewarding to work with people who are so collectively willing to get the job done.  This quality of care will stand them in good stead as both designers and citizens living in a world in need of care but which is frequently careless. If this world is to be saved, we need good people in the communications field who can direct the public’s eyes towards a better place, a fairer future; these finalists have the skills and will to do just that.’

The event runs from the 4 to the 12 June and is open to the public on those dates. For more info, please click here