Snow and a home cooked dish

Photographer: me

So the spate of bad weather that had been forecast is here. It snowed for hours today and as usual everything came to a standstill, London cannot cope with snow. I have been itching to take my camera out and have my very first pictures of London covered in snow. I know, I know, it has been done countless times before but I am relatively new to photography, remember? The whole point is to be able to 'see' something in a novel way. I find that street photography suits me better than model photography. Maybe I just need to get more practice with models but for now I am happy with taking pictures of buildings and people in the street. Which brings me to something that I really need to spell out. From time to time I get offers from models, especially male models who are involved in life modelling and want to pose for me. I would be most grateful if you did not contact me with such requests. I know who I want to photograph, how and why. I don't do models portfolios.

I have not done much modelling myself, lately, apart from another Guardian All Ages shoot last week, on a day when I was still affected by the horrendous noro flu. It was only me and another mature model, from a different agency, the young ones were going to be photographed on a different day. I have not seen the pictures yet, but they will be good, I have no doubt they will, the ones taken before Christmas were absolutely fabulous.

Photographer David Newby for The Guardian, models: myself and Magdalena

I love the place where we do these shoots, it's a converted warehouse known as The Old Shoe Factory, in Hackney. Luke, the owner, also a photographer, has turned it into a place with lots of character and it is very cozy there, with an old stove and a collection of period objects.

Photographer: Luke Smith

The lunches are amazing, wholesome vegetarian, mediterranean, mouthwatering food. Last Friday, I had four outfits to wear and shot non-stop. For fashion shoots one cannot eat while wearing outfits and there is always the problem of make up coming off - the MUA spends ages doing your mouth and then you go and eat! it will not make you very popular, that's for sure. By early afternoon I was starving and nothing was more welcome than the delicious lunch cooked for us. It made me decide that this year I am going to make a real effort and become a very good cook. I have already started: I have an old recipe book given to me by my mother some twenty-five years ago and I have fished it out, reminding myself of fabulous home cooking from Southern Italy. As I am writing this post, I am cooking a simple dish of rice, potatoes and mussels. I got the mussels from my local fishmonger, they looked just right and taste absolutely delicious.

It's an oven cooked dish: you layer the bowl with a dash of olive oil, potatoes,  rice and mussels, salt and pepper to taste, a few herbs and the water in which you cook the mussels to open them, with a touch of garlic. You let it cook slowly in the oven, at least an hour and hey presto, your dish is ready. Serve with red wine, it goes very well with it.

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