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Hello there
Jings! When you don’t hear much from us for a while - when podcasts are delayed and replies are slow - you can be sure we’re fully-occupied on a project. And so it has been since 4th December, the day work started properly on Travels with my Cake Tins. We’ve put in over 400 hours on the project since then and although we’re not quite there yet… we’re on schedule to finish by the third week of March. All the writing is completed - around 62 000 words - editing is well under way and we are down to 17 recipes to photograph, out of the total of 66.
The original plan was to release Travels as an ebook while we sought a publisher. On reflection, we’ve decided to hold it back and seek an agent to represent the book, in the first instance. Niall’s last book deal, while it produced a lovely product (Kamerakunst) yielded a very poor return (this is not unusual with its publisher, we believe). Once bitten…
The rush to get the book finished is because it’s not long until we resume our Retreat work in little more than a month. Already, spring is fussing to get started here in Burgundy. The woodlarks are singing, the great spotted woodpeckers are testing their sounding boards and over-saturated brimstones are careering around the garden. After smooth-shaven winter, there is a green stubble emerging now, unchecked.
Just today, we’ve published our brochure for Chez-nous Retreats (at our place) next winter and invite you to look, imagine - and book .
With our best wishes
Charlotte and Niall
Some recipe pictures from Travels with my Cake Tins
Roasted tomato and red pepper soup
Minted pea soup
Leek and potato soup
Asparagus wraps
Mimolette and French walnut sablés
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Venison casserole
Poulet chasseur
Panettone bread and butter pudding
Lemon and blueberry loaf cake
Should you be interested, all these pictures were made with nothing more than a diffuser and a single strip box and flash. I’ve never enjoyed the trickiness of working with daylight to photograph food and this set up makes it much easier for my to get the sort of mood I’m after - Niall
Chez-nous - Retreats at our place - winter ‘26 - ‘27
We’ve just posted our winter ‘26 - ‘27 Chez-nous brochure, for special Retreats we run from our home in rural Burgundy. You choose from the long list of themes, skills and topics outlined in the brochure then we devise a programme for you to advance your photography and creative practice in these fields. And it’s just you and your friend or partner. Occasionally, we have last-minute vacancies for individual Retreats. It’s a great way to fast-track your creative life - and to eat very well too. Drop us an email to check availability.
Other 2026 Chez-nous brochures
click on the image to see the brochure
Our 2026 brochures for Reteats with us in Burgundy are out. If you want to progress your photography - and be treated like kings and queens - there really is nothing else like it. Let’s have a Zoom call to see what we can do for you.
Bonus footage: the bonspiel, Brechin, 2010
Do you remember that brutal winter at the start of the last decade - long before the visit by the “Beast from the East” in 2018? It was cold enough in 2010, for the first time in years, to hold curling tournaments (bonspiels in Scots) outdoors on ponds and some shallow lakes. This one was staged on my brother-in-law’s nascent slurry lagoon outside Brechin in the east of Scotland. The stone is rumbling its way down the rink to try to find the centre of the house, faintly inscribed in the ice. At the time, it felt a little like an activity destined for the history books. Yet there are more reports emerging that cast doubt on the received wisdom that the AMOC is stable for the foreseeable future. If it does break down, and the warm waters of the Carribean no longer ameliorate the climate of north western Europe, I suspect that curling - indoors or out - will be the least of our concerns.
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Our best wishes, Charlotte and Niall
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Our mailing address is: Food and Photography Retreats Ltd Les Saumais Lieu dit Mulnot 58250 SAINT SEINE58250France
