Even though it was blowing a gale on Saturday we ventured out to the German Market in Edinburgh. We had promised Little Owl she could go ice skating and this was our last chance to take her to the rink at the market. She had a whale of a time, shrieking and yelling with delight as she tried to stay upright, never letting go of Big Dreamer’s hand.
The market was all twinkling lights, bratwurst, gluhwein, and wooden toys. In spite of the weather it was really festive. The only bone I had to pick was that I couldn’t find a stall selling pfeffernusse (sorry, not sure how to put an umlaut on that). The pfeffernusse stall is the highlight of the market for me and I always buy a little paper cone full of these delicious spicey pastries. You know what this means, I’ll have to have a go at making them myself! Anyone got any tips?
Another reason to trek into Edinburgh was the Picture Hooks exhibition. The summer before last I attended a conference called Picture Hooks about writing and illustrating children’s picture books. You can read about it here. On the back of the conference a competition was run to find five budding illustrators to be mentored by well-known children’s books illustrators. Sadly, I was excluded from entering as I was still at college – boo! Anyway, the results of a year’s worth of mentoring to five very fine illustrators is on display at the National Gallery in Edinburgh. It’s really super and a fascinating insight into the development of a picture book idea. The exhibition is on until the 16th Feb and is well worth a visit if you can get along.
