Cornflower

The scents of centuries

   

     "The air was densely perfumed with a mixture of Victoria's scent (white heliotrope, from a shop off the Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris), potted jasmine and gardenias that stood about on every surface, apple logs in the grate and, on window ledges and tables, 'bowls of lavender and dried rose leaves, ... a sort of dusty fragrance sweeter in the under layers': the famous Knole potpourri, made since the reign of George I to a recipe devised by Lady Betty Germain, a Sackville cousin and former lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne."

    From Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West by Matthew Dennison.

    You can read a little about "the prim-looking" Lady Betty and her rooms at Knole - Vita's ancestral home - here, and this post apparently gives the recipe for the potpourri. Over here is another rather nice extract from the biography.

Chamber music, plants, and fancy shoes

    That post title reflects an unusual combination embodied by High Heels and Horse Hair, a violin/cello duo who play chamber music wearing shoes by Helen Bateman.

    I've written about Helen's shoes before as I've been a customer of hers for many years, though my taste runs to the more understated end of the range, but above you'll see some of her striking designs worn by violinist Alice Rickards and cellist Sonia Cromarty as they play a piece from Transplanted, "a celebration of the rich diversity of Scotland's plant life and its music". The sonata is Primrose by Scottish baroque composer James Oswald.

Lit. knit: sheep may safely graze

    I've been in Lancashire, in the beautiful Forest of Bowland, staying at The Inn at Whitewell (you may have seen this post and this one from my last visit).

    I had a view of sheep and hills and river, a cup of tea, a novel about the wool trade in England in the 15th. century - Cynthia Harnett's excellent The Wool-Pack, and some knitting.

    Nothing more needed.

Kentish Apple Cake

    Please help yourself to a generous slice!

    It's been a fraught day on the domestic front (a flooding washing machine - very long story ...),

but once everything was back to rights, a piece of this with some good cheese restored the spirits.

    The recipe is from Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook and is similar to this one but uses butter instead of sunflower oil and has you soak the sultanas in water (or whisky or sherry, say) for an hour before mixing. One to make again - preferably in 'drier conditions'.

Chestnut marmalade muffins

    If you happen to have a bag of chestnut flour* in your cupboard, and a copy of River Cottage Light & Easy on the shelf, then try these Chestnut Marmalade Muffins.

    Sweetened with honey (in addition to the marmalade), and topped with pumpkin seeds, they are surprisingly light and very delicious.   

*On the last post, Helen asked where to find chestnut flour. We buy ours at Real Foods (and you can shop online with them), but specialist food shops should have it, and even Amazon stocks it.

Hugh's cakes

    From Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's new book River Cottage Light & Easy: Healthy Recipes for Every Day comes this castagnaccio, a cake made from chestnut flour. Flavoured with orange zest and rosemary and topped with pine nuts, this is an unusual but very moreish cake, good with a drizzle of honey and some mascarpone if you're feeling indulgent, and great for those for whom most cakes are out of bounds for, as you'll see from the recipe, it is gluten-, egg-, and dairy-free, and fairly low on sugar.

    While I'm about it I can also recommend the St. Clements polenta cake from the same book. We had it with blackberries rather than blueberries, for a birthday lunch, and like the castagnaccio, it deserves to be added to the regular repertoire.

Perfect pairs

   

    Here's something that knitters in the US may like to have a look at: Twist Fiber Studio is a new yarn- and fibre-dyeing business which is seeking start-up capital via Kickstarter, and offering backers a 'Perfect Pair Project Bag' with co-ordinating yarn and/or fibre in a range of ten designs and colourways - all the details and pictures are here.

    Subscribing to this seems like a great way to help get a new business off the ground, and acquire some pretty knitting things in the process. It's a pity it's only open to US backers, but good luck to Ashley and her fledgling company, and no doubt she'll sell to a wider market when she's fully launched - I shall look out for her.

Autumn

    Autumn (or Profile of Lydia Cassatt), Mary Cassatt, 1880.

    There are still a couple of weeks left to see the American Impressionism exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (which I mentioned here) - above is one of the highlights, and look at the fabulous autumnal colours of Lydia Cassatt's shawl.

    Yesterday I went to one of the events connected to the exhibition: American Impressionists in the Garden, an illustrated talk by garden historian Caroline Holmes which covered plants, garden design, social history, symbolism in paintings, and more; fascinating in itself and a great exercise in looking.