The Aardvark Blog

Valentine's Saturday
11/02/2017

It is the Saturday before Valentine's Day and  preparations for the Aardvark event are well underway. Delicious chocolates are being put onto trays by Sarah Rogers, and there is a fantastic display of jewellery from Silverfish for all those who want to make a bigger romantic gesture. And then there are the cakes, including a chocolate Dawn showstopper. She did this last year and it went down a storm. So don't be late if you want to taste the most indulgent chocolate cake ever made.

The musicians will be arriving in an hour or so, and all should be well underway in a couple of hours time. I should add that the hills around the village are covered in snow, and the whole scene looks like something out of a Christmas card ( fortunately the roads have all been well gritted and are clear. So if you want an escape from the bad news in the Newspapers and the winter cold what  better place to be this Saturday. And if you have children Annie is here to do some Valentine's crafts with the young people.

I should add that the music when it starts is being provided by the legendary Trevor Davies playing as usual with the wonderful bass player Dane Cranenberg. Trevor's swing jazz always makes me think of evenings spent outside in France drinking rosé and eating the local paté. The perfect  counter-intuitive partner to a snow globe scene.

But lest you think that we have been idle this week, I should add that we have also been planning for other forthcoming events here at Aardvark. A very good meeting with Shannon Donovan about our first exhibition of the year 'Fire and Earth' on Thursday. Pictures and artist statements are now almost all in, and I can tell already that the show is going to look absolutely magnificent. Whilst I am familiar with the work of many of those exhibiting, there are some incredible revelations and this is a show that I cannot wait to see fully displayed.

Also in the planning is the Aardvark visit to this year's London Bookfair, which is incredibly only a month away!  We have already arranged some fantastic purchases, so our shelves and tables will be spilling over with art and decorative art books come Easter.

Then  there is more planning for the re-enactment in August, Easter, bookings for the May Brocante .... truly it is almost endless. Plus there have been lots of new books in over the last week or two ( including but not exclusive to railways, mind, body and spirit, and fiction), with some natural history books coming in over the weekend, some fabulous silver age Marvel Comics and lots of books on textiles and decorative arts.

If you would like to be a part of the Aardvark madness don't forget that we are looking for some part-time help on Mondays and Fridays, so do send in a CV and covering letter.