RSS

Monthly Archives: January 2024

New Book, New Recipe and Cake

Many of you will know Jenny Joseph’s wonderful poem about growing old, “Warning” which you can read here. When browsing, I came across another of her books, not poetry this time but all about her garden and it came in the post today. As the title suggests it is about the smells and scents of the garden and I am really looking forward to reading it.

A couple of weeks ago I spotted a recipe in the paper that I fancied and cooked it tonight – Rukmini Iyer’s Mushroom, Spinach and Leek Tagliatelle with Pangrattato. I used vermicelli and it was delicious!

I’ve made a cake for us! Most of what I make is for others – today, the Heligan Pineapple Cake is for us as a birthday cake for my lovely Mr S tomorrow.

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 31, 2024 in allotment, books, Food, poetry, Postaday 2024

Tags: Jenny Joseph, pangrattato, Rukmini Iyer

Onions, Raindrops and A Frog

30 Jan

Just two weeks ago I sowed about 8,000 onion, shallot and garlic seeds. Just look at the onions now! We spent this morning at Community Roots transplanting baby onions into their own little cells.

I love how the raindrops have collected on one of our Iris Reticulata flowers.

I came across a delightful froggy ornament in one of the allotment plots today.

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 30, 2024 in allotment, community, Cornwall, environment, growing, nature, Postaday 2024

Tags: community roots

Bunting, Donation and Pie

29 Jan

I met a friend for coffee at the lovely cafe at Krowji Creative Hub today and spotted this unusual bunting in the corridor as we left.

Last week I told you about my choir’s donation to ShelterBox. This week we gave a cheque for £1,000 to our local food bank, CPR Foodbank. Each gig we do, we have out our collection buckets and over the last 12 months, our wonderful audiences have been very generous.

I made a Turkey and Leek pie for tonight, Christmas leftovers that went in the freezer and leeks pulled today from the allotment.

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 29, 2024 in allotment, art, baking, community, Cornwall, CPR Foodbank, Postaday 2024, ShelterBox

Crocus, Robin and Camellia

28 Jan

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 28, 2024 in environment, garden, nature, Postaday 2024

The Garden is Waking Up

27 Jan

As well as yesterday’s daffodils, today I found the first Iris Reticulata!

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 27, 2024 in garden, Postaday 2024

A Posy and A Poem

26 Jan

We took our first three daffodils as a posy for our dear friend today and she loved them.

We always enjoys poetry together, ‘Warning’ by Jenny Joseph, ‘The Path Less Travelled’ by Robert Frost , ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ by Edward Lear and others that raise smiles of recognition and discussion of rhyme, rhythm and the scene conjured up. This one, ”Silver’ by Walter de la Mare, was new to us and we all enjoyed it. At the time of an almost full moon, the slivery effect on the garden is gorgeous and captured perfectly here..

Silver

Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
Of doves in silver feathered sleep
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 26, 2024 in friendship, garden, nature, poetry, Postaday 2024, Uncategorized

Tags: Early Cornish daffodils, Robert Frost, Silver, Walter de la Mare

Librarians and Another New Word

25 Jan

Every librarian I have ever met has been a lovely person, one with a big heart. There may be one exception – the librarian who refused to let me borrow from the Adult library when, at eleven years old, I had read everything in the children’s section but I was too young to really know if she was simply obeying rules. My Dad had a word and I moved on to borrowing The Scarlet Pimpernel!

I imagine a librarian would be able to help the residents of York learn the meaning of obtundity. Looking it up, “obtundity in British English(ɒbˈtʌndɪtɪ ) noun: the state of having the senses numbed or less sharp. Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers. In fact, it wasn’t so much an instruction as a warning. See this article..

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 25, 2024 in Postaday 2024, Uncategorized

Tags: Barbara Kingsolver

Flowers, Ferns and More Flowers

24 Jan

I’m doing some serious clearing out and it’s really hard. In a box today, I found Mother’s Day cards that I made for my lovely Mum in1967 and ’68 which she had kept so safely. I pressed flowers to make these and many other cards and couldn’t really believe how the freesias have kept their colour.

The ferns are pretty too.

In Tresillian there are several planters with colourful flowers that I stopped to take photos of, thinking they were made of tin but I think they are ceramic. They made me smile.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 24, 2024 in art, Cornwall, craft, environment, nature, Postaday 2024, Uncategorized

Tags: pressed flower art

John Donne, Sign and A New Word

23 Jan

Yesterday was John Donne’s birthday. I love this poem.

22/01/1572: Birthday of John Donne

A friend has a second-hand bookshop in Falmouth and today has this delightful sign in her window.

Today seems the right time to share this wonderful new word. I just love the smell of old books and the feeling of wistfulness that wraps one up in a second-hand bookshop like Bookmark, shown above, in Falmouth.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 23, 2024 in books, Cornwall, Falmouth, poetry, Postaday 2024

Tags: Bookmark

Rainbow, £1000 and Cake

22 Jan

Sunshine, showers and rainbows this morning. I caught one of them.

At the end of our Inglehearts rehearsal this afternoon, a representative from ShelterBox came to collect the £1,000 we have raised over the last twelve months from all our gigs.