抹茶*

New taste favourite.

It does taste a bit like twigs and lichen.

But like moss,

it's growing on me.

* Matcha green tea

Hats

Once in a while I get seized by an urge to find and wear

 the perfect spring or summer hat.

Not for a wedding.

Not for a garden party.

Just for everyday.

And then sometimes the urge is sufficiently strong

that I go to a shop to see what is on offer.

What is on offer is an array of

completely impossible millinery.

Stiff.

Ornate.

Heavy.

Huge.

Tiny.

Veiled.

Asymmetric.

Extravagant.

Serious.

Silly

and downright ugly

hats.

I try one or two on in an apologetic fashion

and tear them off before anyone has noticed

that they are wearing me.

I go away discouraged.

But I do believe my search has ended.

I found a charming hat on Friday.

This one.

Isn't it lovely?

I thought it would go beautifully with this.

But it seems they are not for sale.

They belong to a Mrs Emmeline Lucas.

She is unwilling to part with them.

She had them made especially for her in Paris.

Too too dweffly cross-making.

A summer's day

Inspired by this inviting scene at Gravetye Manor,

we decided that this was the summer we would acquire a croquet set.

It arrived today.

The mallets looked a little bit short.

The hoops no more substantial than bent wire coat hangers.

Our lawn?

Well let's just say that it presents

some interesting tactical challenges.

But the satisfactory crack of wooden mallet

on wooden ball played a perfect summer counterpoint

to the muffled shouts from Wimbledon

drifting through an open window.

We played until we couldn't see the hoops anymore.

And then we came in for tarragon chicken,

 strawberries and meringues.

At last

But will it last?

Where is that Azores High when you need it?

Will I have to go back to Kondo-ing my Dry Goods?

It's that woman again

A new month

knocking at the door.

Maison Lucille*

Freda wonders what I might wear with my new leather jacket.

This has been exercising me somewhat

as there appears to be nothing suitable in my wardrobe.

I decided to design my own collection.

In this endeavour I have been marvellously assisted by Megan

of the Scent of Water,

You Tube,

and a pile of discarded magazines.

Voilà Spring /Summer 2015.

*Maison Lucile

Free gifts

The tide rolls in and it flows out.

November days fly by.

We are discussing a present-free Christmas,
or at least a new approach,

 before we are gripped by the annual compulsion

to rush about replacing the stuff that we have so assiduously tried

to reduce in the last few months.

Has anyone else gone cold turkey?

Reflecting

on this book :

A new attitude to stuff and
what to do about it.

Cooking for friends

Garden flowers and apple tart.

We had many visitors yesterday,

three of them Japanese girls from Kyoto University, one a college friend,

two of them our highly expectant son and daughter-in-law.

Watercress soup,tarragon chicken with tomato chilli fondue 

from the Ballymaloe cookbook

(one not jettisoned because of the holiday memories it holds), 

butternut squash risotto and rocket and watercress salad,

the first baked apples of the season and a fancy apple tart

and cream with salted caramel ice cream.

The little yellow dish is from the Sandwich Glass Museum in Massachusetts.

The cook is (briefly) back in town

Andalusian soup salad,

artichokes and aioli,

tomato bruschetta

apricots.

Something you may not know about me

Some people like shopping for clothes,

some people like shopping for shoes.

Let me loose in a specialist horticultural, arboricultural and forestry outlet

on an out of the way light industrial estate

and I'm in my element.

Admittedly I have to dust off my Blokeish,

but look what I got.

It's an extendable pole lopper with a twelve foot reach.

Just the job.

Here's where it all started.

Or perhaps it lurks even further back in the blood.

My maternal grandfather (after a stint as a teenager, opal mining in Australia)

studied forestry in Germany and then joined the Indian Forestry Service

and served at Chatrapur, Berhampore and Parlikimedia

in the north of Madras Presidency.
Me, I'm controlling brambles, ash and sycamores
in the south of England Residency.

On food

Wet garlic on granite.

Lettuce on granite.

French Breakfast radishes on granite.

Elizabeth David on dressing a salad

House and Garden May 1953.

Six parts (not three) good olive oil to red wine vinegar.

Can you believe that that picture is not contemporary?

Flowers in and out of the house and country

Peonies à la Jane.

Roses in the garden.

Naturalistic wildflower planting

in the Jardin des Tuileries this weekend.

A florist on the Quai aux Fleurs, Isle de la Cité, Paris.