On the Black Sea just a few miles north of Burgas in Bulgaria there is an open air spa where people come to relax and recharge. Here you can enjoy the therapeutic qualities of bathing and floating in pink salt water followed by a sulphurous mud bath. The swimming pools with lye and healing mud are a completely natural spa experience. The Burgas Pink Salt Lakes and Mud Pools The Burgas salt lakes are worth seeing for their bright pink colour alone, but it is the health benefits that people come here for. Bathing in the pools with lye and covering yourself with thermal properties of mud is said ..read more

Jemaa El Fna has functioned as the main market and cultural hub of Marrakesh for a thousand years. Every day people congregate in the square to be entertained by snake charmers, preachers, apothecaries, henna tattooists, poets, traditional water-carriers, acrobats, fortune-tellers, monkey trainers, Berber musicians, dancers and santoor players. People entertaining the crowds in Jemaa El Fna Jemaa El Fna the triangular square The square, which is actually more of a triangle shape, is in the Medina quarter of the city and is surrounded by hotels, restaurants and public buildings. It is in the ce ..read more

What better way to travel in Scandinavia than on board a boat with Moomintroll, Snufkin, Little My and Stinky? This was how my husband, my children and I travelled when we visited Finland from Sweden. The Finnish cruise company Silja have a Moomin themed ferry which operates between Helsinki and Stockholm. Throughout the cruise ship there are various Moomin references: a picture of Moomintroll dancing on the outside of the ship, a large cuddly stuffed Moomintroll on a swing hanging above the promenade deck and loads of Moomin merch in the ferry shop. Sometimes Moomintroll and Little My will ev ..read more

The Great Mosque of Damascus, also called Umayyad Mosque, is the earliest surviving stone mosque in the world, built between 705 and 715 CE. In addition to being one of the oldest mosques, it is also one of the biggest and is the heart of Damascus old town and a hub of activity. When women enter the mosque they must remove their footwear and cover up completely. I was given a robe which covered my head and body. Behind my robe I was able to people watch and sketch; people praying, people thinking, people sitting in the sun, people avoiding the sun, friends sitting together, family days ou ..read more

I live next to Västra Järvafältet, a nature reserve located to north of Stockholm. Like many of the forests of Sweden, the forest is a boreal (or taiga) forest and is dominated by species of evergreen conifers spruce, fir and pine, the deciduous conifer larch, and species of birch and aspen. There are lit paths through the forest so you can walk, jog or cycle when it is dark, whatever the time, whatever the weather. When I take my dog for a walk on the very dark winter mornings and evenings, sometimes I go through the forest. As I look through the thick forest, the dark evergreens blend into t ..read more

Before I write anything in this blog post I need to confess that I am not a football fan. But I am a fan of events that have an exciting atmosphere. So this was how I was enticed into the away end at one of the biggest matches in Scandinavia. My husband had a spare ticket for the match and promised me that it would be an experience I would never forget. When Stockholm’s cross-town rivals Djurgården and AIK play it is called the Tvillingderbyt, “The Twin Derby”. Both clubs were founded in Stockholm in 1891, just three weeks apart. This football fixture was being played at AIK’s ground, The Frie ..read more

A city break with a temperature of -8°C degrees centigrade with three children can prove challenging. Yes, Helsinki was freezing, but with it there had been a heavy snowfall the night before we came. So, the views were spectacular and there were lots of excellent cake shops open for us to warm up in. I had visited Helsinki before, about 15 years ago, on a very warm day in July. But seeing this city in the snow and ice was a new experience for me too. I remember Helsinki Cathedral (Helsingin Tuomiokirko) which, along with Uspenski Cathedral, dominates the city skyline. The white domed building ..read more

Today is Earth Day and marks the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970, 52 years ago. The day, celebrated annually on April 22, is a global celebration and a reminder to protect the environment, restore damaged ecosystems and live a more sustainable life. Every year people are encouraged to take part in activities like picking up litter and planting trees, to make the world a happier and healthier place to live in. In 1970 Wisconsin Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day, by organizing a national demonstration to raise awareness about environmental issues. Rallies too ..read more

Sparkle is one of my favourite words. I’m not really sure why, I just do… I like things that sparkle, I like people that sparkle and I love sparklers. When I am painting water, sometimes I will add a little glitter to give the image a magical quality. When I am taking photographs of sunny sparkles, I will use a starburst filter,  which creates dramatic effects centred on light sources and bright points. My sparkly paintings of water using glitter Painting of the Stockholm waterfrontView across Lake MälarenPainting of the Stockholm waterfront My sparkly photographs of water using a starbu ..read more

Over the past year I have been taking part in the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project. Brooklyn Art Library started the sketchbook project in 2006 and now houses a collection of over 50,000. sketchbooks. Their mission is simply to encourage artists to create, connect and inspire worldwide. First you get sent a blank sketchbook, then you choose a theme, fill it up, and send it back for it to be a part of the world’s largest collection of artist sketchbooks. Every participant is sent the same 5” x 7” sketchbook. Each is given a unique seven-digit barcode so it can be easily catalogued it int ..read more