Willa's Boyfriend

Another Window

I see blogs as windows into other places, other lives. And a new window -- one that I've been hoping for -- has just opened. My very good friend Louise Langsner has begun a blog called The Garden Kitchen -- " a blog about food: growing, foraging, cooking, sharing, enjoying. It’s about adventures in the kitchen…alchemy, discovery, amazement."

Louise is one of the very best, most creative cooks I know.  We've been friends for over thirty years and I've enjoyed many an incredible meal at her house. She has a way of combining unexpected ingredients that is nothing short of genius.

Louise cooks for the students at Country Workshops and seems to be capable of conjuring up a meal for twenty without breaking a sweat.  She's also a dedicated gardener and her cooking is informed by the wonderful fruits and vegetables grown on the Langsner farm. Her first post, inspired by a recent trip to Italy, describes the cucina povera of Puglia and Southern Italy.  

If you like to cook or to read about good food, if you enjoy gardening, if you want to look through yet another window, hop over HERE and meet my extraordinary friend Louise!

Words to Live By

Today is the first day of the rest of my life!

But I still have to clean up yesterday's mess. . .

and pay yesterday's bills. . . 

Elizabeth Von Arnim

After hearing it recommended time and again and after seeing one of the characters on Downton Abbey receive a copy, I decided it was time for me to explore Elizabeth and Her German Garden. Published in 1898 and written by Elizabeth von Arnim, an Australian woman married to a German nobleman, this book had huge popularity in its day and the author went on to write many more, including Enchanted April.

I wasn't sure at first -- in the beginnning this semi-autographical book struck me as little more than the grumblings of a wealthy woman who doesn't seem to like anyone very much.  But I went on, captured by the descriptions of her garden -- her plans for it and her very real eye for beauty.

And as I continued, I began to appreciate the protagonist's rebel spirit, feminist outlook, and, most of all, her dry wit. Left alone with uncongenial house guests, Elizabeth laments:

"My husband goes off after breakfast to look at his crops, he says, and I am left at their mercy. I wish I had crops to go and look at -- I should be grateful even for one, and would look at it from morning to night, and quite stare it out of countenance, sooner than stay home and have the truth told me by enigmatic aunts. . ."

I'm hooked. I downloaded six of von Arnim's novels on my Kindle (for a pittance as they're out of copyright) and am half way through The Solitary Summer.  Terrific January reading!

Mid-January Miscellany

Fantasy Time . . .

 

I'd love to have a vardo --  a bright-painted  gypsy van--
The traditional interior is spectacular if a tad busy for my taste.

 I've wanted one ever since reading Wind in the Willows . In the

passage below, Toad is showing Rat and Mole his new acquisition.

"He led the way to the stable-yard accordingly, the Rat following 

with a most mistrustful  expression; and there, drawn out of the 

coach house into the open, they saw a gipsy caravan, shining with

newness,  painted a canary-yellow picked out with green, 

and red wheels.

'There you are!' cried the Toad, straddling and expanding himself.
'There's real life for you, embodied in that little cart. The open road,
the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling
downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here to-day, up and off to
somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The
whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing! And mind!
this is the very finest cart of its sort that was ever built, without
any exception. Come inside and look at the arrangements. Planned 'em all
myself, I did!'

. . . 

It was indeed very compact and comfortable. Little sleeping bunks--a
little table that folded up against the wall--a cooking-stove, lockers,
bookshelves, a bird-cage with a bird in it; and pots, pans, jugs and
kettles of every size and variety.

'All complete!' said the Toad triumphantly, pulling open a locker. 'You
see--biscuits, potted lobster, sardines--everything you can possibly
want. Soda-water here--baccy there--letter-paper, bacon, jam, cards and
dominoes--you'll find,' he continued, as they descended the steps again,
'you'll find that nothing what ever has been forgotten, when we make our
start this afternoon.'" 

It sounds nice . . . 

Of course, to pull that gypsy van, I'd need a Gypsy Cob. 

They're available  HERE

Curves

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By Request . . .

Ms. A suggested that my little garden fella needed ear muffs.

But it's not easy to find winter wear in his size. . . .

 So I improvised. 

Oh, No!

Snow! 

Not too much. . .

But too cold for wading . . .

Already melted at the lower elevations . . .