Arm guards, archery and apples

We met Paul on Friday and had a lovely morning with him, guiding him through his introduction to leatherwork workshop. Paul is a keen archer and wanted to make some arm guards for himself and his daughter. The photograph features the three gorgeous guards he made, a sterling effort for his first foray into work with leather! These sessions make a great present and we are always happy to talk to you about what would like to make and will always make it possible wherever we can.

Archery has been around for a very long time; in fact the first evidence of its use was 70,000 years ago. The first archery competition was held in Finsbury in England in 1583 with 3,000 participants and it’s first outing as an Olympic sport was held at the Paris Exposition in the early 1900’s.

On the 17th of October, the full moon we will be able to see is the ‘Hunter’s moon.’ This year, it is also the biggest and brightest supermoon, appearing low and large on the horizon. The Hunter’s moon orbits closer to earth that any of the other full moons this year.

The moon gets it name from the fact that it used to be a signal to hunters to prepare for the upcoming cold winter by going hunting. This is because the animals were beginning to fatten up in preparation for the winter season. The fields had also been recently cleared out after the harvest and meant that the hunters could easily spot deer and other animals, who were searching for scraps on the group.

As the nights are drawing in, we always find ourselves drawn to comforting soups and puddings. Have a good at the following recipes as we are inundated with apples (apple toffee crumble recipe) and pumpkins (spiced pumpkin soup) and are the perfect way to use them up.