Cornflower

The scent of rain

   

    I've spoken of my love of rain often before, but it seems I'm not the only one to have this unlikely passion: today's post on Bois de Jasmin links to the fascinating article Making Perfume from the Rain by Cynthia Barnett, adapted from her book Rain: A Natural and Cultural History which is out here tomorrow and is surely a must-read for me!

    Now to find a source of mitti attar ...

A woolly bargain

  

      If anyone is thinking of making a Vedbaek shawl with Snaeldan 2-ply, the yarn for which the pattern is written, The Island Wool Company have a spring promotion on until the 1st. of May: use the code BAABAA20 for 20% off anything on their website.

    One point to note - the dyed Snaeldan comes in 50g skeins, while the natural colours are in 100g ones; you'll need about 200g for a shawl the size of mine (67" x 27").

Books and cakes - 66

    "Having invited Helen and me to approach the table, and placed before each of us a cup of tea with one delicious but thin morsel of toast, she got up, unlocked a drawer, and taking from it a parcel wrapped in paper, disclosed presently to our eyes a good-sized seed-cake."

    Thank heavens for Miss Temple and a small moment of cheer at Lowood - one of very few in Jane's existence there.

    With food conspicuous by its absence most of the time in Jane Eyre, seed-cake it is for our virtual afternoon tea, and it's making its third appearance in 'Books and Cakes': we had it with Tom's Midnight Garden, and a long way back with The Mysteries of Glass, but though somewhat 'old-fashioned', it's a good cake and I'd recommend it. This time I used Delia's recipe sans almond topping as such frippery seemed out of keeping with the privations of Lowood, but I've run to a large pot of Lapsang to go with it, so please pull up a chair! We're talking about the book over here.

Friday flowers - two tulips, twice

    'Spring Green'

    'Angélique'.

Socks for a stormy night

    We've had socks for a fine day, now here's a pair for a stormy night.

    These are Skedaddle by Lena Gjerald - of the A Wee Bit Knitty* podcast and blog - made in Osiris Sock 'It was a dark and stormy night' from Great Woolly Owl, with a little Madelinetosh Tosh Sock 'Ink' as the contrast. They were a very straightforward knit with a twisted rib cuff and an easy braid/cable pattern running down the back, and I've already cast on another pair.

*Look out for Gustav, Lena's lovely flat-coated retriever.

Friday flowers - fritillaries

    My snake's head fritillaries are out!

Talks on life and art

    In Oxford recently I went to a talk by Sir Anthony Seldon on the substance of his new book Beyond Happiness: The Trap of Happiness and How to Find Deeper Meaning and Joy. I found him a compelling speaker and could have listened to him share his hard-won wisdom for hours. He is candid in the book, and in person, about his own perceived failings, and evangelical in his desire to help others recognise and overcome theirs, and to point them towards a better way of living. His current personal circumstances only add to the weight of his words.

                                                        ~~~

    Here in Edinburgh the other day I heard Joanna Trollope at the National Gallery of Scotland talk on a novelist's view of portraiture. "Our faces are our shop window to the world," she says, and a portrait is "the ultimate tribute, the final monument ... having a majesty a photograph can seldom achieve." As a judge of the BP Portrait Award last year she has studied and appraised more 'likenesses' than most of us, and as a contributor to the Imagined Lives exhibition at the NPG in 2011/12 she created fictional biographical material for the unknown sitters of 16th- and 17th-century portraits.

    As a novelist, she has always looked at faces very intently - people are her stock-in-trade - and she works with a strong (mental) visual image of her characters, although she has never created a character based on a portrait, as Tracy Chevalier has so successfully done. In her lecture she looked at four famous portraits*, discussed the faces their sitters are presenting to the world, the eloquence of their expression as captured by the artist, and the messages - implicit or overt - they convey.

 

*Barbara Palmer, Duchess of Cleveland

  Mary Moser

  William Wilberforce

  Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten

Friday flowers

    Narcissus 'White Lion'

and muscari latifolium.

    For more colour, click here.

Shades of grey

    I was in Oxford for a few days last week* and I popped into Oxford Yarn Store for a look, coming away with a wonderfully soft skein of handspun Jacob from a local flock. Mr. C. has already nabbed this and asked for a neckwarmer or short scarf, and his wish is my command.

    From the artisanal to the mass-produced, and a ball of West Yorkshire Spinners Bluefaced Leicester DK 'Owl' which I found at Maple Tree Yarns. I've seen so many people making socks out of the WYS Country Birds range lately, and very nice they are, and as I've never used self-patterning yarn before I thought I'd start with this one. Incidentally, Maple Tree Yarns gave me extremely speedy service and their postage charge was very reasonable.

*See also.