leaving things behind

Hello again,

I’ve been marvelling at these dandelion seed heads picked in the woods amongst the cow parsley and buttercups. The one on the right isn’t fully open, it will fill into a perfect sphere in a few minutes. I used thin wire threaded through the stem to the tight seed head and the clocks seem to keep for a few days before thinning out to let the seeds escape. That’s a lot of words to describe nature’s ease and simplicity.

I don’t know how you feel about mirrors, I haven’t had many in previous houses; silly superstitions and Walt Disney films made me worry they might break in the middle of the night or reflect a horrible image of doom. I’ve thrown caution to the wind now and have a few mirrors dotted around housette to reflect light and to add something vintage to the space. This one started life as a photo frame, the original 1930s photo - of my mum’s first communion, is safe between the new glass and the back board. The fixings needed attention and the mirror glass is pretty heavy so we’ve used two cleats to secure it to the wall, There’s an oval one in the hall downstairs we restored a while ago that was more straightforward. She could appear on Insta perhaps.

A long term project (not a renovation) is underway, it’s a cookery book as yet without a working title. Living in a smaller home is giving me time to write a little creative memoir; stories from my Swiss family and my own adult life might introduce each recipe though I’m not sure how much detail to put in and I’m trying out a few variations for ingredients and methods. Today the test kitchen was full of bowls and whisks for an almond ice cream made with a pâte d’amande I remember from holidays in the Ardèche. Looking through my notebook there are too many cakes and desserts but the stories will help choose which ones will make the final cut. The ice cream turned out too grainy actually, I’ll have another go with milk infused with toasted almonds instead of marzipan. This weekend we’re making a chicken dish from Spain we used to have a lot when the kids were growing up. Mr D is the only supper guest now and he makes good suggestions for the tasting notes.

We had a lovely day in Oxford last week, a bit of shopping in North Parade and a mooch round the Ashmolean to look at Japanese kabuki prints and kimonos. We always finish up with two or three artefacts we appreciated from previous visits like the beautiful octopus pot from Crete that’s very very old, it’s surely heavily restored. The six legged octopus is so swirly, moving sideways around the pot.

On the way there I was combing my damp hair using my phone as a mirror this time and I took a selfie to check for sticking out bits. I like it even with the green tinge from the windscreen. If you’re wondering I’m 70 at the end of next year.

There have been some lovely warm days this month, blankets have gone into hiding and I’ve pulled out shorts, linen shirts and a couple of dresses, all have had a wearing. Daylight stretches past nine o’clock now and in the quiet of an evening I sit on the kitchen sofa with a large cup of malty Assam and one of Henry Longfellow’s epic poems from a pretty edition I found on-line. His words suit dusk turning to darkness and I find the stories so warm and affirming. A little jazz follows, gently playing whilst I reset the kitchen for the morning watching the solar lights in the garden come on one by one like fireflies.

As always thank you for reading; do leave a comment or ask a question if you’d like. And let’s all enjoy the first flush of summer flowers.

With love from a sunny Gloucestershire,

Francey