Cornflower

Point of view

    Put a convenient foreground feature between the camera and the focal point, and the message is a much more promising one! (Taken in the grounds of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art No. 2 - formerly the Dean Gallery, and you can see the artist, Nathan Coley, talking about this work from the 2.40 mark here).

    Meanwhile, across the road at the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art No. 1, a reassuring message:

  

Remembrance

    Craiglockhart, Edinburgh. Requisitioned by the military during the First World War for use as a hospital for the treatment of shell-shocked officers, it was here that Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon met and wrote some of their greatest war poetry.

Gripping yarns

   

 

    Being generally a 'behind the times' sort of person, I'm not really up with the television programmes of the moment*. I was aware of all the talk about the Danish crime thriller The Killing, though I never watched it, but what seemed to excite the most comment was a character's jumper! So never mind the gritty drama, let's look at the woollens**, for in case you haven't seen it here is an article on the sweater's Faroese designers.

 

 

 

*I have never seen Downton Abbey, even!

** The reference to handknits permits a small progress shot of mitten no. 1, and of the dinky bag the work is being carried in which I have thanks to Mindroom at Muirfield.

Book of the day - out of the blue

    "For almost five millennia, indigo - a blue pigment obtained from the small green leaf of a parasitic shrub - has been at the centre of turbulent human encounters, prized by slave traders, religious figures and the fashion world.

    "Indigo: In Search of the Colour That Seduced the World by Catherine McKinley is the story of this precious dye and its ancient heritage: its relationship to slavery as the 'hidden half' of the transatlantic slave trade, its profound influence on fashion, and its spiritual significance, which is little recognised but no less alive today. It is a richly told story, brimming with electrifying tales of those who shaped the course of colonial history and world economy."

    Victoria Finlay, whose Colour: Travels Through the Paintbox I strongly recommend, says of Indigo, "A charming book: ethereal, wise, personal, as well as an imaginative exploration of what this colour really might be, when you go under the surface of its just being about blue".

(Book of the day - once upon a time ... is here).

A special guest, a special subject

    Over on Cornflower Books today we have a special guest. The author Sally Gardner, whose work I admire enormously, has written an inspiring post on dyslexia and creativity. I do hope you'll read it.

Instant sunshine

    I made the Tunisian Cake which we so enjoyed at the bookshop (scroll down for the picture) last week, and it is just as delicious as I'd hoped, but I hit a wee snag: the recipe says to put the mixture in a cold oven which you then set to go up to the required temperature, but as I cook on an Aga and thus have no such thing as a cold oven, I couldn't do it that way. Although I gave it only about half the full cooking time in the baking oven, when I checked on it I found it was still far from ready in the middle but rather too brown on top. I covered it with foil and put it back in to finish baking, and no harm was done - the well-firedness doesn't affect the taste at all, but when I make it again I think I'll get it going in the slowest oven then move it up, or perhaps use the cold shelf to reduce the temperature initially; if you're an Aga cook who has made this or a similar cake, perhaps you could let me know how you baked it.

    As to the ingredients, I used rapeseed oil instead of the olive specified and I'm very pleased with the result. I bought locally produced, sunshine yellow Supernature cold pressed rapeseed oil at Stockbridge Market, and I'll be going back for more next week. I'd suggest one further modification to the recipe and that is to use the juice of a whole (rather than a half) lemon and an orange for the syrup as the cake will easily absorb the extra liquid.

Architectural salvage

    This is Duncan's Land in Edinburgh's Gloucester Street. It dates from the late 1700s and was the birthplace of the painter David Roberts, but it was built with materials - including the carved lintel: FEAR GOD ONLYE  1605  - taken from a demolished building in the Old Town.

    For a look at part of the interior, click here.

At the sign of the sausage dog

    The village of Lauder seems to be a doggy place for next to The Spotty Dog delicatessen was another shop sporting this dachshund weathervane (are they fans of the Von Igelfeld Novels, I wonder).

    It was a misty, murky day down in the Borders today - hence the dimness of the picture - but that didn't stop us as all our pleasures were indoor ones!

Back to our roots

    Parsnip, carrot, red onion and Really Garlicky Garlic prior to roasting. I added peppers and butternut squash, and seared some halloumi on the side.

Those colours seen against the black of the roasting tin cried out to be snapped.

On a roll

    I've been making Hugh F-W's "magic bread dough", so called because "it can grant you so many wishes," he says. The recipe is in his new book River Cottage Veg Every Day where he has a whole section on 'bready things' as bread can be an important constituent of meat-free meals, and he uses this basic dough to make pizzas, flatbreads, pitta bread, breadsticks, a white loaf and, as here, absolutely first class rolls.

    Drizzled with olive oil, baked for 15 minutes and eaten warm from the oven (to accompany a vegetarian dish), the verdict from my testers was "Paul Hollywood would approve", so thankyou, Hugh.

If it's too quiet for you here ...

... pop over to Cornflower Books where we have David Tennant for your delectation, and you could have a go at identifying the Literary Ladies.