The River Magazine

So, after months of endlessly complaining that I still don’t have a job… I do! I’ve been working for The River Magazine for a couple of moths now, and I can honestly say that this slim book of glossy A4 pages  has grown rather close to my heart.

The magazine is a complimentary quarterly publication which promotes the most interesting people, events and businesses in SE1, but we’re soon to be expanding to include much more of London.

With sections on Culture, Food & Drink, Property, Business, Style and one just For The Soul, there’s always plenty to do!

The April – June issue is currently available in cafes, hotels, bars, salons and a range of businesses in SE1 and articles include afternoon tea London Bridge Hotel, an interview with the Shard’s choice florist Igloo Flowers, the BFI British film season, the fascinating life of Royal Academician Norman Ackroyd and a chat with Globe actor, James Garnon – oh and not forgetting our token celebrity David Cameron, joining Brigade bar on Tooley Street.

Working with The River has allowed me to meet all sorts of people I wouldn’t have otherwise, and I think that after a dismal spell of monotonous job hunting had slightly destroyed me, it’s given my confidence levels a bit of a kick. It’s just nice to feel useful, isn’t it?

Norman Ackroyd and James Garnon were two of the people I interviewed for this issue, and both showed such boundless passion for their work it really was contagious. Norman may live in central London but is preoccupied with the most extreme edges of Britain – always seeking the highest, furthest, oldest point…

James, or Jimmy, is a well seasoned Globe actor and for his ninth season at the Globe is taking on The Tempest’s Caliban. He is enthralled by the role, and I can’t wait for the play to open on the 2nd May. He’s a powerful actor famed for bold performances, interspersed with quirky subtleties to create truly captivating characters.

Our Cover image is from photographer Rebecca Parker, who uses locations in the West Midlands for touching wedding fashion photography. Her works bears more similarity to fine art photography than fashion – filled with emotion and utterly evocative.

If you’d like a copy, then take a stroll around London Bridge and you should be able to find yourself a copy to skim over with a coffee. We’ll be putting the most recent edition online very soon, but for now you can see our previous two editions here: http://www.therivermagazine.co.uk/

If you’d like to advertise with us then contact us via the website; or if you’re an artist looking for publicity then we do have a page titled The Gallery on which we feature artists, drop us an email if you’d like to know more.

The oddities of Fanny’s… Farm Shop that is.

Fully embracing our country bumpkin roots, a group of friends and I headed off down to Gatton Bottom, Surrey yesterday to see what the famed Fanny’s Farmhouse had to offer! We heard about the farm shop and tea rooms from one of the girls’ sister, who had been to the Tree House there – Fanny has a Tree House and a Pudding Room you can book for up to twelve people, or there’s the tables in the tea room and outside for us regular folk who just turn up.

Next time we’re thinking of trying to book the Tree House as it apparently comes with a few more varieties of cake!

We managed to get a little sunshine on our side yesterday so we sat in the garden with mini quiches and scones – the food wasn’t amazing, but it was definitely tasty and it’s worth going just to see the place. Fanny has turned hoarding into an art form with curiosities ranging from your standard farm paraphernalia to mannequins and disco balls dotted around the gardens, as well as an assortment of animals.

Fanny herself is a bit of a dragon – I overheard her telling off a waitress,  and she’s not the friendliest of hosts – but she’s an entertaining eccentric, quite mad, and although her scones did not live up to Devonshire standards, she makes the damn best marmalade and jam I’ve ever tasted.

I said I wouldn’t buy anything yesterday due to lack-of-funds, but now that it’s 10am aka marmalade and toast o’clock, I am kicking myself for sticking to budget. When I have a few more pennies on my side I am marching back to Fanny’s, munching cake in her Tree House and bringing back jars and jars of marmalade. Hurrah!

Stone was dry! We were shocked.

Sunday scrummy sculptures…

I’m home for the weekend so I’ve been baking…3 batches later I have finally perfected stem ginger cookies with a lemon glaze MMM! Yes, home will make me fat.

A couple of people who play with their food slightly more artistically than me are Japanese Akiko Ida and French Pierre Javelle who combine their sculpting and photography skills to produce these witty little tableaus.

Just a bit of fun for a rainy Sunday…

Sunbathing in toffee sauce?

Icky sticky heaven.

Voila! Right time to run off the ginger cookies, I’m doing Race For Life this year so if anyone is feeling charitable, or has ever been entertained by my ramblings, then please help me to help Cancer Research beat cancer once and for all!

http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/chloehodge76

I’m running in the RAIN. Come on.

…art AND pancakes…? Oh yes!

Yesterday was a rubbish day – there were bad tutorials, there were tears, it was generally just. not. good. However what better to save the day than a batch of pancakes with the girls!?

After our fourths we decided to get a bit ‘creative’, however this only resulted in a few failed attempts at erm some body parts (girls will be girls) and my ‘man holding balloon’ who dribbled until he was ‘cross-dressing man on fire’. We may have had every condiment under the sun and we may have made a total of about seventy pancakes, however were still not a patch on the genius Jim Belosic - who I WISH I had discovered yesterday rather than today – this five Michelin starred pancake chef come artiste builds 3D pancakes in all shapes and sizes!

It’s incredible. There are ‘how to’s and recipes and all sorts on his website, and he has a book. Ahmazing.

I think it might have to be Shrove Wednesday today, Belsoic-style.

Digbeth Day! Part II.

Next stop: The Bead Shop.

I refrained from shopping for myself any more but bought an obscene amount of beads to make prezzies for two friends of mine – retail therapy is fine if it’s for other people!

I made a little necklace, and a charm bracelet for my travelling buddy with every bead representing a little travelling story. This shop is amazing, some of their beads are almost exactly the same as the pendants that hang off some of those £28 Urban Outfitters necklaces but are a fraction of the price. Digbeth is not only arty and fun, but also perfect for a bargain hunter!

There’s also a great screenprinting place called Get a Grip, Sam and Kay who run it use beautiful old screenprinting machines to print up Tshirts, bags, cards, whichever piece you fancy with whatever design you bring them! They’re also really really friendly. Friendliness is like gold dust in a city as big as this.

 

Beautiful workshop!

We then restored our energy with a doorstop of a sandwich at Yumm before beginning our march around Digbeth to investigate the exhibitions from Trove, Eastside Projects and many more of Birmingham’s artist collectives which were open on this rainy October weekend as part of The Event.

Smoked salmon, cream cheese and rocket! MMM!