Cornflower

Child's play

   

     Thanks to Ruth for the link to the trailer for the forthcoming film, Julie & Julia, because it has set me off on one of those roads to discovery...
     I have Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (though it's actually my parents' copy which I borrowed some years ago and have unaccountably failed to return ....) but I had never seen that famous lady on television until I watched Ruth's clip and then went to Youtube to see what was there. Well, I found this super excerpt which we have been savouring ever since, and now of course, I want to get her book (is the film tie-in version just the same, does anyone know?). She's great - "and I really agree with myself"!

Behind the scenes at the museum

     Lovers of the V&A (and people who have read The Children's Book!) will no doubt want to tune in to this radio series.

Graceful

Thalictrum delavayi. Just realised I forgot to snap the foliage which is also graceful - shall add it later if I can!

Stone and glass

To Dalmeny, and St. Cuthbert's Parish Kirk, "the best preserved Norman parish church in Scotland", and fine it is, both in scale and stonework.

While the building is 12th. century, its stained glass is of a much later date, the gift of a Polish officer stationed near here during the war. He fell in love with the church and gave the windows in memory of his mother.

They depict the Madonna and Child, St. Theresa of Poland and St. Margaret (above) with her chapel at Edinburgh Castle.

I love visiting churches but am quite ignorant as to their architectural history - however, I've had my eye on this book for a while now, my only reason for not having bought it yet being geographical relevance!

By the book(s)

    I was writing about Alexander McCall Smith's Corduroy Mansions the other day, and I mentioned the scene in which James and Caroline decide to bake Nigella's Lemon Gems. Despite the fact that our copy of How to be a Domestic Goddess has been very well used, that's one recipe from the book that we'd never tried, but as James describes the biscuits as "Heaven", I thought we'd better see if he is right.
Being otherwise engaged, I set my trusty assistant baker Harriet to work and she produced two batches - deliciously short, melting, sharply lemony, and utterly heavenly!

PYO

    They say time flies when you're enjoying yourself, and it certainly did for us in the berry fields at Craigie's. Here's the view from in among the raspberry canes - that's the Firth of Forth, looking across to Fife, with the island of Inchcolm in between.

 

 
The photo opportunities did distract me from the job in hand - the hens were enjoying a dust bath, and below we're looking south across Edinburgh to the Pentland Hills -

but we managed a respectable haul of rasps and blackcurrants, all gathered in warm sunshine and with the lovely location just adding to the pleasure of being out in the open (the weather here has been inordinately wet of late, and while I don't mind that, it's hopeless for fruit-picking).
Visit the farm if you can as they have a cafe with an outside eating area to take advantage of the great views, and a delicatessen, and you can buy their produce ready-picked if you've no time to pick it yourself.

These boots were made for walking

    Not the most beautiful image ever to grace these pages, but these are the boots in which my son William has just walked 100 miles!
   Will's school team came joint first in the cadets section of the Nijmegen Marches, and they even beat the regular army contingent to be first group back on the third of the four days.
   If the boots are somewhat the worse for wear, you should see Will's feet  - not a pretty sight!
However, a great experience for him and his team-mates and a sad day, too, as when they returned to school this afternoon after their long trip back from the Netherlands and their captain instructed them to fall out, for the leavers - Will among them - it was for the very last time.

 

O: 2

     The yarn for the 'O' has arrived!
     My thanks to Lana Pura for speedy mail order service (when a local shop which could have had the business was rather off-hand and unhelpful - and that's a pity, but there we are).
     I've chosen Rowan Pure Wool DK in Ultra Marine (009) for the letter and Snow (012) for the background - Cornflower colours, of course!
    The bijou swatchette is done, so I'm about ready for the off, and shall post progress as my tiny part of the mystery poem takes shape.

And more blue

 
Home-grown!

Blue

"There is no blue without yellow and without orange." Vincent Van Gogh.

Individuality

 Remember this cake?
How about - instead of one big one - a dozen little ones?
Individual portions of deliciousness!

Thanks to Harriet for both the idea and the execution.

 (The original recipe is here).

O

    I'm taking part in The Poetry Society's fun Knit a Poem project, and my allotted letter is 'O'. Participants have no idea as yet which poem their efforts will ultimately be part of, but each letter template will be translated into a 12" square knitted in DK wool, to be submitted by mid-September, and then all the letters will be joined and assembled to form a well-known work, the whole thing to be revealed in October to mark the society's centenary.
   As you'll see from the second link above, knitters of 'blank' squares (to form spaces) are still required, so if you feel like taking part, just register through the website.
   Would you believe it, I had no suitable yarn in my modest collection to use for this, so I've ordered some (I tried a local yarn shop, but despite the fact that Rowan Pure Wool DK is hardly a 'rare' yarn, they didn't have it, at all).

Ah well, on to more important matters, and in case you've not already seen this, you could take part in some knitting for a much more serious purpose but a very good cause by joining the Macmillan Comfort Blanket Campaign - all details there.

In print

    Thanks to Rosie for the link to the video of printmaker Angie Lewin working on her Winter Spey design - look here.
I've had the All things considered blog in the sidebar for a while, but here's Angie's website proper, and here's her forthcoming book, Garden Wisdom. (One to add to the wishlist, I think!).

Found object

    Along with plant labels, Mr. C's digging produced this the other day. It's glass, and looks to be the stopper for a perfume bottle perhaps. It could be Woolworths c. 1975, or it could be something much older and unusual - I've no idea. It's fun to speculate, though, about who owned it and how it came to be broken and in the garden, and it makes me want to excavate a bit more in the hope of making other finds. Don't they say one man's rubbish is another man's treasure?

Zewing - 3

   Harriet's second project from Zakka Sewing is this sweet little linen bag. Made with the same fabrics as the potholder, this time she used her great-grandmother's antique sewing machine  - considerably faster than doing it by hand, and a lot of fun.

     So far, that book has proved to be a good investment in that we now have a very keen young seamstress who is happy to plan, cut, pin and stitch for hours on end, and that at a point where the novelty of the summer holidays might just be beginning to wear off a bit!