Cornflower

Fabulous food

    Whether you're an Edinburgh local or are a planning a visit to the city sometime soon, put Norn on your list of places to eat.

    'Pared down' is how I'd describe this restaurant which has been open a little over a year and offers excellent value for money, as you'll see from the above.

    We took the four course option for dinner this evening, and delight succeeded delight. The keywords offered on the minimal menu are supplemented by a comprehensive description of each dish as it arrives, but there's nothing fussy or precious here, just highly inventive, interesting cooking from the wonderful beremeal* bread (and even the butter is made in-house) to the bittersweet sea buckthorn and ganache amuse-bouche which closed the meal.

    Joanna Blythman reviewed Norn here.

 

*From Birsay in Orkney.

Artist at work

    Angela Harding; read more here.

I've started so I'll finish ...

    ... as Magnus Magnusson famously used to say. It sounds straightforward, finishing what you've started, but as Anne notes in her comment here, it doesn't always follow. If anyone has any suggestions on how to find a more direct route from the start of a project - of whatever nature - to the finish, please do let us know. I'm sure that having few distractions/competing tasks is key, but then if you have a lot of interests, as many of us do, you will be drawn in different directions, and sustained focus is harder to achieve ...

                                                ~~~~~

    On the subject of doing only one thing at a time, this week's All of Bach recording is BWV 598 - Pedal Exercitium: look, no hands!

On making a start

    "[...] I have made a start. The white cat looks down at me from a tree. Nesting birds watch anxiously from ivy grandstands. Bluebells, their buds still near to their roots, perilously close to the badger setts, promise a show in May; and, altogether, I have made a start. Making a start is the thing. One cannot do it often enough."

    Ronald Blythe, In the Artist's Garden.

    The sweet pea is Almost Black.

Tip of the day

    Snapped at the Ashmolean Museum where, to mark the Raphael Drawings exhibit, they have sketch books and pencils on hand for visitors to use as they tour the galleries.

Golden oats

    Another snippet from In the Artist's Garden, which I'm talking about on the book blog today.

    Ronald Blythe recalls a sermon in which he "described God's asking each one of us: 'My beautiful world - why didn't you enjoy it more?' "

 

    The photograph is of stipa gigantea (golden oats) in Oxford Botanic Garden.

Rosy Posy

    Plain socks, but pretty wool: 'Marshmallow' by Cosmic Strings.

    The roses are Blush Noisette.

True to Life

    Very much worth seeing - True to Life: British Realist Painting in the 1920s & 1930s, on at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art until 29th. October. Follow the link and scroll down for some of the highlights including James Walker Tucker's Hiking, c.1936 (see postcard above), and James McIntosh Patrick's A City Garden 1940.

    On a side note, if you should visit the exhibition and go to the gallery café for refreshments, try the unlikely-sounding but quite delicious spinach and hazelnut cake - this one looks similar.