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Category Archives: Postaday 2015

Print Tray, Treasures and Cheesecake

I have spent the morning finding little treasures collected over so many years and have put them in the print tray. They may well be moved again!

My print tray filled or nearly

Here I have some of Mum’s thimbles, the ones most associated with Cornwall – two showing engine houses, an ivory one from early 1900’s bought in Redruth in 1981, two made especially for Mum, one in Granite and one in Serpentine and one with a Welsh dragon on it to show my Welsh heritage. There is one of a collection of small brass owls (The owl was the logo of our family – the Wisemen) and three of my keys. I started collecting keys when I was in Primary school but can’t remember where each one came from. There is a tiny green glass bottle that used to hold iodine and which still has the chemist’s label on it. It is from Lytham where my Granny lived her last few years. There is also a pressed Parrot flower brought home from a holiday in Morocco. Five more segments to show you at a later date………

Detail

At the weekend there was a delicious recipe in the paper – Baked Pumpkin Cheese cake by Thomasina Miers. Mine is still in the oven as I write so here is the picture of hers. I hope mine turns out as well!

Baked Pumpkin Cheesecake

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 3, 2015 in baking, Beauty, family history, photography, Postaday 2015

Tags: Baked Pumpkin Cheesecake, Thomasina Miers.

Baby Snail, Print Tray and Singing

02 Nov

After I had finished washing the spinach, kindly given to us by Sue-next-door from her allotment, and was preparing to cook it, I noticed a tiny snail in the kitchen sink. He was moving at a fair old rate but I caught him on camera before he was taken outside! His shell was no bigger than my little fingernail.

My beautiful Mum used to collect thimbles and many of her collection of 500 were housed in old print trays. For some reason I cannot quite fathom, I have never wanted to have these on display and they have languished, wrapped up and away, since my Dad died in 2004, fifteen years after my Mum. However, I have been collecting little treasures for many years with a mind to displaying them in said print trays. Yesterday I lifted them all down and what a wave of nostalgia! The lovely Mr S has put the print tray on the wall for me and I will show you the contents and give you the histories of the little things bit by bit.

Old print tray

I cannot tell you often enough how good it is to sing in harmony with others! Tonight, with Claire and The Ingleheart Singers we were learning a new carol, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, and it is fabulous – six harmonies on some verses! This link will give you a taste but I hope to be able to give you us singing it in due course.

9 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 2, 2015 in Beauty, family history, nature, photography, Postaday 2015, singing

Tags: Jesus Christ the apple tree, print tray, thimbles

Poppy, Ferns and A Courgette

31 Oct

There is lots of colour still in the garden but today I thought to concentrate on the green. There is a Poppy bud which I hope will have time to open before the winter sets in.

Poppy bud with raindrops

My fern patch in the shady area is looking good.

Shady area

Varieties of ferns

There are a couple of courgettes (zucchini) on the plant. We will probably use them as baby ones as the growing season is coming to an end. Having said that, it has been quite warm and the lawn just keeps growing!

Courgette with flower

5 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 31, 2015 in Beauty, garden, nature, photography, Postaday 2015

Tags: raindrops

Book Cover, Chilli Peaches and A Candle

30 Oct

I thought you might like to see this much treasured book, bought in an auction sale some sixty years ago and given to me. It is now very fragile and still much loved.

Leather tooled cover of The Call of the Sea

Beautifully painted inside cover

Yesterday I showed you the Kulfi made for tonight. It is to be served with Chilli Peaches. You may notice that the chilli flakes are only on half of the peaches….. I shall serve the rest of the flakes on the side!

Chilli peaches

I love how this candle glows from inside like a stained glass window.

Glowing candle

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 30, 2015 in Beauty, books, Food, painting, photography, Postaday 2015

Tags: peaches with chilli flakes, The Call of the Sea

Autumn Colour, New Wool and Kulfi

29 Oct

It is lovely to see sunshine through Autumn leaves.

Pinky leaves

When I arrived home from a lovely singing session today, there was a parcel waiting for me. It contained two balls of wool in Arsenal colours and a delightful letter from our oldest Grand child:

Dear Granny,
Here is a picture of a balaclava. Please make me the one on the bottom right.
It will keep me warm.
xxxxxxx

Red and white wool ready for me to knit a balaclava for J

I have made some delicious Kulfi for dessert tomorrow night, using another Spicery kit. Here the spices and vanilla are steeping in the sweet warm milky mixture.

Preparing Kulfi

Catalan Supper, New Cake and Einstein

28 Oct

We cooked another of our Spicery meals tonight as Daughter No 1 was with us having helped to put the boat to bed for the winter in the ship-yard and it was very good indeed – Catalan Seafood Fideua with Lemon Allioli and a green salad.

Catalan Seafood Fideua

This afternoon I made a new cake where I blended two recipes and it worked out well. It’s oranges and lemons and sour cream and I need to think of a name!

Sour Cream St Clement’s cake, amalgamation of two recipes

Here are some more useful words, this time from Einstein.

Do not grow old – Einstein

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 28, 2015 in baking, Beauty, family, Food, photography, Postaday 2015, quotations

Tags: Catalan Seafood Fideua with Lemon Allioli, Einstein, Sour Cream St Clements Cake, The Spicery

Art Gallery, Dolly’s Tea Room and A Poet’s Birthday

27 Oct

I love Falmouth Art Gallery and today called in to see an exhibition called, Soil Culture: Deep Roots. Click on any photo in the gallery below for captions and detail. This art gallery is very child friendly always providing stimulating experiences for young people and valuing their work with proper framing and hanging.

Petrification by Numbers

Petrification by Numbers – Information about the artist and the work

Detail of Petrification by Numbers, love the quirky comments

Youngsters on holiday enjoying the facilities. Parental permission given.

Claire Pentecost information

‘Mole’ by Claire Pentecost

by Claire Pentecost

Dolly’s Tea Room was our destination for lunch – such a charming place with smiley service and excellent food. Here is another gallery for you.

Dylan Thomas was born on this day in 1914. Regular readers wil know that he is my all-time favourite poet. Here is ‘Poem in October’ for your delectation.

Poem In October – Poem by Dylan Thomas

It was my thirtieth year to heaven
Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood
And the mussel pooled and the heron
Priested shore
The morning beckon
With water praying and call of seagull and rook
And the knock of sailing boats on the net webbed wall
Myself to set foot
That second
In the still sleeping town and set forth.

My birthday began with the water-
Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name
Above the farms and the white horses
And I rose
In rainy autumn
And walked abroad in a shower of all my days.
High tide and the heron dived when I took the road
Over the border
And the gates
Of the town closed as the town awoke.

A springful of larks in a rolling
Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling
Blackbirds and the sun of October
Summery
On the hill’s shoulder,
Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly
Come in the morning where I wandered and listened
To the rain wringing
Wind blow cold
In the wood faraway under me.

Pale rain over the dwindling harbour
And over the sea wet church the size of a snail
With its horns through mist and the castle
Brown as owls
But all the gardens
Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales
Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.
There could I marvel
My birthday
Away but the weather turned around.

It turned away from the blithe country
And down the other air and the blue altered sky
Streamed again a wonder of summer
With apples
Pears and red currants
And I saw in the turning so clearly a child’s
Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
Through the parables
Of sun light
And the legends of the green chapels

And the twice told fields of infancy
That his tears burned my cheeks and his heart moved in mine.
These were the woods the river and sea
Where a boy
In the listening
Summertime of the dead whispered the truth of his joy
To the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide.
And the mystery
Sang alive
Still in the water and singingbirds.

And there could I marvel my birthday
Away but the weather turned around. And the true
Joy of the long dead child sang burning
In the sun.
It was my thirtieth
Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon
Though the town below lay leaved with October blood.
O may my heart’s truth
Still be sung
On this high hill in a year’s turning.

Dylan Thomas

10 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 27, 2015 in art, Beauty, Cornwall, Falmouth, knitting, photography, poetry, Postaday 2015

Tags: Claire Pentecost, Dylan Thomas, Falmouth Art Gallery, Poem in October

Ripe Figs, Old Chair and Sufi Wisdom

26 Oct

The figs we bought yesterday needed no cooking just to be eaten as they are. Delicious!

Juicy fig

I have my Granny’s nursing chair which must be nearly 100 years old. Some time ago I decided that it needed reupholstering and this afternoon a lovely young man arrived to give us an estimate. I loved how he spoke of my chair, describing it as being like a much hugged and well worn teddybear, obviously well loved. He is going to check its age by looking up the design of the webbing underneath. Apparently the design of the webbing changed with each monarch and this has clearly never been re-upholstered in its life. Now we have to choose a fabric…..

Granny’s Nursing chair

Wise words to think about…..

Before you speak

5 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 26, 2015 in Beauty, photography, Postaday 2015, Words

Tags: old furniture, Sufi saying

New Cake, Christmas Cactus and Shadows

24 Oct

I adapted a cake recipe today adding ginger rather than Lemon and it is scrumptious! I took some next door to share. The original was Lemon and Blueberry Streusel Cake – mine is Ginger and Blueberry Streusel Cake. It is particularly good served warm with ice-cream or cream.