Cornflower

Cupboard loaf

    In the cupboard I found the tail-end of a bag of seed and grain bread flour, so I used it in this:

250g very strong plain flour

200g seed and grain bread flour

50g oatmeal (as used in the porridge) toasted in a dry pan over a high heat

1 1/2 level teaspoons of fine sea salt

1 teaspoon easy-blend dried yeast

1 tablespoon olive oil

325ml warm water

    Combine the dry ingredients, then add the liquids and mix well. Knead until the dough is smooth, then put it in a clean, oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel, and leave it in a warm place to double in size (an hour or so). Knock back and shape into an oval. Put it onto a floured baking sheet, slash the top in three or four places, again cover with the damp tea towel, and leave it to prove for about half an hour, then bake in a very hot oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Guard cats

        Aren't these rather venerable lions?

    They are (sleepily) keeping watch over a house in St. Andrews.

Stephen's story

    I came across Stephen Sutton earlier this week thanks to all the press coverage about him. The words "amazing" and "inspiring" are over-used these days, but from what I've seen if there's anyone they could be applied to without exaggeration it's Stephen. His energy, positivity and generosity of spirit are amazing and inspiring, and if you haven't already heard his story and watched his video, then I'd urge you to do so because he is a truly remarkable young man.

    You can follow Stephen on Twitter, find his Facebook updates here, and his JustGiving page here.

Friday flowers - by William de Morgan

 

                            

    Did you know that in addition to being a designer William de Morgan was a bestselling novelist? His genre is described as "Victorian and suburban"!

Re. comments

    Further to Tuesday's post, Typepad are still fine-tuning things after losing service over the last few days, and as I write, comments are not accessible, but hopefully everything will be back to normal soon.

    Edited to add: we seem to be back in business.

The road goes ever on and on

    The Leo scarf (and yes, it is outside in), now 45" and counting. The goal is to finish it this year, and at the rate of a round a day that's achievable, but then I see I said something similar once before. Ah well ...

Cabin socks - the first pair

    I'm knitting two pairs of Cabin Socks (from Clara Parkes' The Knitter's Book of Wool), and the first pair is now finished, washed, blocked and - at least for photographic purposes - on my feet.

    I am so pleased with them! The pattern is very clear and straightforward, and written for DK wool, so in this weight they are a quick knit. The yarn is huacaya alpaca from Spring Farm Alpacas and was bought for me by a kind friend who was visiting the farm - it doesn't appear to be for sale online, but if you follow that link you can contact them and ask about availability.

   These are the softest and most snuggly socks I have (they beat the commercial cashmere ones), and wearing them will be a treat for my feet.

Update

    In Sunday's post I alluded to Typepad's having been down. Their technical problems over the long weekend, caused by some miscreant, continue, and while this blog is back up, Cornflower Books is still unavailable (it's configured differently, and service to that class of sites has yet to be restored). I hope it will be accessible again soon, but just in case you're wondering - and thanks, Di, for your comment! - that's what's going on.

    Back on this site, there will be another post up later in the day, and if C. Books is still not functioning, we can always talk about things bookish here.

Easter blossom

    A little late,

(as Typepad has been down for most of the day),

but happy Easter!

 

The pictures are of crab apple blossom in the Botanics.

Sylva

    On until mid-June at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden is the exhibition Sylva, marking the 350th. anniversary of John Evelyn's book Sylva: A Discourse on Forest Trees, with artwork taken from the recently published The New Sylva: A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-First Century by Gabriel Hemery and Sarah Simblet.

    Sarah Simblet was commissioned to produce 200 drawings for the book, and the selection on display shows something of their range, accuracy and great beauty. "Nearly 50 species have been meticulously depicted, from mature trees [see the Cedar of Lebanon above] to small seedlings, with detailed studies of botanical parts. Associated animals, insects and woodland flowers of the surrounding ecosystem have also been included, as well as insights into the forestry process and the future of our forests."

    Watch the short film to see Sarah Simblet at the RBGE discussing her work, while below is an extract from her notes on the drawings which explain her working methods:

Sylva (exhibition film, 8 min., Scotland, 2014).

    "Live plants were always held in my left hand while I drew them with my right, so that I could directly translate my experience of their texture, weight, and balance, closely analyse their structure, watch their movement and perceive their scent. Drawn lines were made in response to all sensory experience, and touch is as important as sight.

    Tree and landscape drawings were begun on site in pencil, usually in freezing temperatures, which slow muscle control in the hand, so lines are only gestural and pushed from the shoulder to establish a composition. Ink was applied later in the warmth of the studio, where the pencil drawing was gradually erased. ...

    Every drawing was created with dilute Japanese ink on especially thick drawing cartridge paper, so that the surface could take the pressure of reworking and remain flat. Each one was built up in numerous layers. All lines, including the appearance of brushwork, were achieved with a single, steel-dip pen using both sides of the nib..."

    Do go and see the finished pieces if you can.

A special guest

   

    I have a special guest over on Cornflower Books today, a gentleman whose stellar writing career really only began when he was approaching 70. Since making quite a splash with his first novel, Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce books have gone on to be published in 37 countries; they are bestsellers around the world, and are currently being adapted for the small screen by Sam Mendes. I love them, and I am delighted to have their creator with us today, so please pop over and meet him.

Our weekly bread

    Back in September I posted about making focaccia; I've made it every week since, and there's another batch of dough rising as we speak.

    I still leave the mixer to do all the work, so I don't touch the very gloopy mixture with my hands at all. I make one large loaf instead of the two the recipe specifies, and I bake it in a lined shallow tin. We eat it warm, and if there's any left it's wrapped in foil and popped in the oven for a few minutes next day.

    Re. the rosemary, the sprigs above will be pushed into the surface of the dough before baking, but I've also added some finely chopped 'needles' to the dough itself for extra flavour, and sometimes put in crushed garlic, too. Whatever the additions, everyone loves it.

Thick and thin

    I'm knitting two pairs of socks using the same pattern (Cabin Socks from The Knitter's Book of Wool) but different weights of yarn, and I'm alternating back and forth between them so that half of each pair is now complete and both second socks are under way.

    You can find the thick version here - it's in DK alpaca - while above is the finer one, Yarn Yard Clan, 100% merino, in a colour which the camera would not capture accurately but which is a warmer, greener green than the pictures seem to show.

    The pattern is written for DK yarn, so for the finer pair I cast on 60 stitches instead of the 48 specified. N.B. conversion is straightforward except for one point: in row one of the heel flap I knit 15 stitches of the 60 (rather than 12 of the 48), leaving the remainder for the instep. That's the correct number, but as 15 is an odd number, it means that when you return to the instep stitches for the gussets you must begin the broken rib pattern 'purl one, knit one ...', not 'knit one, purl one...' as you would had you worked the 12 stitch, even-numbered version. I didn't discover my mistake until I was far past it, and then with heart in mouth I had to drop each of the 30 instep stitches in turn down several rows and, using a crochet hook, pull them up and set them right. It was fiddly.

    Whether you're using thick yarn or thin, this is a very good pattern, and one I'll return to.

Round Britain by ear

    Our islands are rich in regional accents - many of them music to the ear! I came upon this clip via Gretchen Rubin, and it's a whirlwind tour round some of the country by accent and dialect coach Andrew Jack, but it gives a sense of the marvellous range and variety we have in Britain.

    It reminded me of a story the novelist J.I.M. Stewart (Michael Innes) told in his autobiography. Stewart was at a dinner at his Oxford college at which the special guest was a renowned phonetician. This man - Professor Higgins-like - could pin down a person's origins within a sentence or two of hearing them speak, a feat he demonstrated with uncanny precision as he went round all those seated at High Table. Finally, he reached Stewart, a man born and brought up here in Edinburgh, but who had since spent twenty five years away from his home city in places as distinctive of accent as Australia, Yorkshire and Northern Ireland. Surely these strong and diverse influences would tell on his speech. Stewart began to talk, but the phonetician stopped him with a pointed finger and the flat tone of authority: "Edinburgh," he said, and then with undisguised glee he homed in even further, "the Edinburgh Academy!" Sure enough, that had been Stewart's school.

    By the way, if you follow the link above to Andrew Jack's site and scroll down to the video on the homepage, you'll hear him talk about his involvement with the languages and accents of Tolkien's Middle Earth in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films.

Friday flowers - in an abbey garden

     "Dame Mildred, the gardener, managed a procession of flowers, from the pinks and yellows of spring to what she called 'the purple time', lilacs, iris and the deep purple of pansies. As summer advanced, she had roses and lilies, mixed borders with the blue of delphiniums, anchusas and flax, pink of lupins, and poppies, phlox and sweet peas ... Then the garden colours deepened: yellows and bronzes and reds came up: scarlet of berries and, in the dingle, crocuses again, but the pale autumn crocus that a once-upon-a-time chaplain had brought the nuns froms Switzerland. Sister Elizabeth made her bonfires in the front of the house and they burned too in the enclosure, along the avenue; there was the smell of woodsmoke in the air, the dew lay late, sometimes all day on the grass; soon the November mists and gales would come; the year had slipped away again."

    From In this House of Brede by Rumer Godden, the CBG's April book and my 'Friday read'.

    (The blossom is amelanchier.)