Cornflower

A summery pudding

    With a full house here over the weekend I made Caroline Barty's Greengage Cream with Crunchy Sugar Topping to suit the warm weather. Lacking greengages, I turned to peaches and nectarines combined with blackberries and blueberries, all gently spiced with nutmeg, and I doubled the quantities to make it go the distance. Everyone loved it.

Charming

    You'll know the book and perhaps the postcards, you may also have seen the exhibition, now here's the musical version - one of the 'spell songs' from The Lost Words by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane.

Stitching rules, OK

    "'Now, some rules,' Miss Pesel continued. 'Never use a sharp needle as it will fray the canvas; only a blunt one. Don't leave knots, they will come undone or make a bump; tie one, stitch over it, then cut the knot. Make your stitches close - you are covering every bit of the canvas, so that it is entirely filled in and none of the canvas weave shows. Any gaps between stitches will make the cushion or kneeler weak and it will not last. These cushions and kneelers will be used every day - sometimes two or three times a day - for at least a hundred years, we hope. That is many thousands of times they will be sat on or knelt on. They must be robust to withstand such use for that long.

    'Finally, don't forget the back of the canvas. You want the reverse to look almost as neat as the front. You will make mistakes that you can correct back there, and no one will be the wiser. But if it's a dismal tangle at the back, it can affect the front; for instance, you may catch loose threads with your needle and pull them through. A neat back means you've worked a neat front.'

    Violet recalled the back of her childhood sampler, tangled with wool, the front a field of irregular crosses, her mother's despair.

    'Think of your work rather like the services at the Cathedral,' Louisa Pesel added. 'You always see an orderly show of pageantry out in the presbytery or the choir, with the processions and the prayers and hymns and the sermon all beautifully choreographed, mostly thanks to the vergers who run it all, and keep things tidy and organised in the offices away from the public eye as well, so that the public show is smooth and seamless."

    Tracy Chevalier, A Single Thread - over on Cornflower Books today.

Meanwhile, in the greenhouse ...

    Since we were talking about garden pests the other day I thought I'd tell you the sorry story of the greenhouse.

    I opened the door a few weeks ago to find a chaotic scene inside: terracotta pots knocked over and broken, flower baskets on the floor, utter disarray. Closer inspection revealed that the staging had been gnawed and there were scratches on other areas of the woodwork, so we drew the conclusion that a squirrel had somehow got inside. Mr. C. found a small hole where the greenhouse roof meets the garden wall against which it stands, he blocked it up, and we kept an eye on it to make sure that that had foiled the creatures, but what we hadn't reckoned on was that they would then turn their attention to the outside of the building, chewing the window and door frames, even sitting on the finial with mischief clearly in mind. I contacted Gabriel Ash and asked for advice and they told me they'd never come across such a thing before.

    There have been squirrels in the garden as long as we have lived here; they didn't touch the old greenhouse which we had in the early days, nor had they bothered with the new one in the five years since it was built, but they seem to have become bolder and more greedy since I've had a (supposedly squirrel-proof) bird feeder, regularly knocking it down and eating the spilled seed, even gnawing through the exposed perspex inner part to satisfy their appetite. From there, it seems, it was a small step to chewing on the nearby cedar timbers.

    I've moved the bird feeder to the front garden - where it's attacked only by snails - but sadly I have had to give up feeding the birds in the back garden as although things have been quiet on the rodent front for a while, I can't risk any more greenhouse damage.

    If you've experienced anything similar and have any tips on what to do for the best, I'd welcome them.

How does your garden grow?

    My sweet peas and cornflowers have all been eaten by snails, everything in the garden is sodden, but in the absence of flowers there is lots of green.

    Thanks to Typepad for helping me with my photo-posting problem;if anyone has any anti-mollusc measures to recommend, I'd be glad to hear them!

And a little more

 

    Last night we heard Angela Hewitt play Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier. This was a revelation in terms of texture, shading, overall musicality: familiar pieces, shown often in a new light, and despite the large concert hall setting, a very intimate performance. Book 2 will be played tomorrow night, but for all those far from Edinburgh here's a taste.

    For her Berlioz last week, Joyce DiDonato used an iPad, turning the pages of her score with a touch of her hand. Angela Hewitt also used that device, but interestingly, her turning was done - so I understand - by means of Bluetooth and a small pedal positioned beside the piano's pedals. What happens in the event of a loss of signal, I wonder, though I'm sure a performer of Miss Hewitt's calibre would take a blank screen in her stride.

    

    

   (Once again, apologies for the picture quality - the image on my phone is perfectly sharp, but somehow it loses clarity in translation to Typepad.)

A little night music

    Edinburgh's International Festival kicked off last Friday with an open-air concert at a football stadium. Such a venue was a new one for me - and it wasn't without its logistical drawbacks - but the music more than made up for the practical difficulties (and the significant and slightly menacing seagull population present). The Los Angeles Philharmonic, joined by members of their Youth Orchestra, were conducted by Gustavo Dudamel in a programme of film music planned to appeal to all ages; that some little boys chose to fight in the aisles and other small children took the opportunity to run about the Tynecastle pitch didn't detract from the orchestra's exhilarating playing, Maestro Dudamel's address to the crowd, and the other sights and sounds of a memorable evening: it was definitely an experience.

    Our next outing was to the more conventional surroundings of the Usher Hall for a concert performance of West Side Story, the unusual factor here being that the conductor was none other than John Eliot Gardiner. If you know him as a world-renowned exponent of Bach and Monteverdi, say, you may be surprised to learn that he was as much in his element with Bernstein, donning a policeman's hat and a convincing accent for a cameo performance as Officer Krupke, and earning a standing ovation - alongside the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a bunch of talented young singers - for a simply scintillating performance.

    Last night was the turn of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA to delight us. Under the direction of the energetic Antonio Pappano, and with Joyce DiDonato as soloist, we heard a programme of Berlioz and Prokofiev preceded by Delicate Tension, a new piece written by one of the orchestra's apprentice composers, Tyson J. Davis. All the young people taking part are between 16 and 19 years of age, and their level of expertise is truly astonishing. They will be at The Proms on Sunday - with a slightly different programme - so look out for them when that concert is broadcast next Friday.