Tuesday 22 February 2011

Got it covered

There is something about the rhythm of walking that helps thoughts roll around and settle into place. Whenever I need  an idea, an answer or a solution, I like to take it outside and at least around the block. Frequently I find several quite disparate thoughts will somehow click together and an idea takes shape. Whether or not these perambulatory notions are really good ideas might be debatable but they feel like it when they occur. Here's an instance.

I had discovered a great display of those Popular Penguins in a book shop. It makes you wonder why so much goes into other cover designs when that simple, bold orange and white banded format has almost every reader I know reaching for their credit card while they try to decide which one to add to their collection. Some people collect them for the uniformity and the bookshelf appeal. I like the format for its compact size - a bit big for any pocket I have, they none-the-less slip easily into a handbag; ideal for portable reads. And therein lies a problem. While I like to have a book always available, I don't like to see covers getting scuffed or corners getting turned back as my current read tries to hold its own against other contents of my bag. It needs some kind of protection from keys, loose change and tubes of lip balm.
 Around the same time requests for more of those crocheted Little Boxes meant I was usually carrying around one of those as an ongoing project as well. Different sizes, different colours, different yarns but always I enjoyed making the firm, textured fabric that using all double crochet yielded.
While I was out walking, I began to think about how to make a book cover using crochet. I have made fabric covers for journals and notebooks so it wasn’t too great a leap to think how a rectangle of double crochet would make a good outer cover.

My first effort has produced a cover that works. It is functional in the most basic sense.  I consider it to be something of a prototype. In my rush to see how it would turn out, I was a bit slapdash in the making up.  It needs to be more carefully blocked out, the lining more carefully measured up and assembled. For the inner covers I simply cut out two pieces from the hem of a discarded shirt as that is what was at hand. Re-cycling and  re-purposing are set to become recurring themes this year!

I will be trying this idea again; already I have had some thoughts on refining the design. I will be road-testing the prototype in the meantime. Some credit for the initial design should go to two Yorkshire terriers and their unbounded enthusiasm for going for walks. Who knows what ideas they were having while I was thinking up book cover designs?

Friday 18 February 2011

A Rethink

It is amazing - not to say disconcerting - how much can change in a matter of weeks. You go away somewhere else for what seems like a short while and come back to find all manner of things have been going on in your absence. Even with the mixed blessing of the internet and news channels you can still find yourself left out of a number of loops. How could I have missed all the plans to sell off Forestry Commiission land and the ensuing public protests? Because I live in a community and a nation and have decisions about so many aspects of my life made on my behalf, I can't pretend not to be a 'political animal', but in the main I choose not to express political views in this particular forum. I have said that I write here about the things I find wonderful and so it shall stay that way. I do find the local Forestry Commission land is simply wonderful and I am relieved that others have been successful in keeping  public access to that inspiring and uplifting place.
I had lived in this area a few months when I stumbled upon the Hundred Acre car park for the Forest of Bere. I had rashly promised two well-behaved pre-schoolers a special treat on the way home after a shopping trip. I had no idea what that treat might be and turned off the usual way home looking for inspiration; a river bank to feed ducks, a playground, some interesting animals to watch, and just happened to notice the sign for the Forestry Commission  car park. What a time we had exploring the woods, running down the paths to see what might be around the corner, holding our breath to listen to the birds!
It proved to be the first of many visits. Spring excursions with playgroup and school enabled my children to learn the names of wildflowers - something that a sea-faring father and a mother born and raised in the antipodes couldn't tell them. Many miles of sponsored walks also became an annual event for several years.  We went there for all kinds of reasons and almost for no reason at all other than a wish for a breath of fresh air. Spur of the moment after school teas, birthdays, taking visitors to see 'our forest', geocaching, trying out a new camera, seeing what flowers are out or if we can find that pond again,  were all reasons we gave each other, at heart I suspect we were really seeking the lift to the spirits given by walking among the trees at any time of the year.
 How grateful I am then, to those who took up the cause and challenged the government's plans. Their political activity and vigilance have protected something I regard as very precious. So call it a u-turn, a rethink or change of heart I look forward to being able to continue to take friends and family to see the bluebells in April and myself any time I need to boost my mood or sort my thoughts.

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Molly Cake

Is it too soon to be thinking about spring cleaning? I thought I might start with the larder as in preparing for Christmas I often buy  ingredients that I might not use up for sometime afterwards. It might because everyone has had their fill of the kinds of recipes that need them or else everyone is trying to uphold the virtue of restraint and are simply not interested in cakes, biscuits or snacks of any kind. There are handfuls of dried fruits, nuts and that extra pack of dates we thought we might need; little bits of this and that. This presents the ideal circumstances for making Molly Cake.

I first came upon this cake at a John Lewis food court. Waiting to order a cup of tea, I decided it wouldn't hurt to cast a casual eye over the display on the cake shelves. And there it sat, a slice of Molly Cake with its label declaring it to be free of added refined sugar and fat, it was as good as saying "Look if you are gazing at the display in this case you are probably planning to eat cake and this is likely to be the healthiest option." I had never heard of Molly Cake before and having tried it and liked it well enough to want to try baking one I searched the internet for a recipe. Several sites had recipes and all were quite similar so I thought the most appropriate choice would be the recipe on the Waitrose site.

Like Glad Tidings it uses softened dates to bind the other ingredients together so along with the ground almonds and dried fruit it is just the thing to use up those remnants of Christmas baking. It is good at other times of the year too and I have substituted a pack of chopped dried fruit salad for the fruit element. The flavours of the dried peaches, apricots and pears worked really well.  Either way it is well worth making.
Please don't remind me that although it has no added refined sugar, the dried fruit and dates have sugars of their own and that it is not a low calorie snack. The lack of added fat and the wholemeal flour have to count for something, right?

Saturday 5 February 2011

Flower Worship

Now that the snow here has melted and the first flowers of the year emerge, it is time for galanthophiles to wrap up warmly and set out on snowdrop walks. I love to see these delicate reminders of the suggestion that even while the bleakness, the dark and the cold are still with us, there is hope that there will also be flowers and blossom soon to follow. I have treasured the few snowdrops we inherited with the garden and have been delighted to see them spread to become a carpet beside the footpath. I don't rank myself among the truly or obsessively devoted to these pristine little flowers as I have never intentionally planted them or sought to collect new varieties or even set out  especially to walk amongst them in the several well-known locations around here. But every year I find myself wondering what it is that inspires a passion far greater than my affection. What is it about any flower that invokes this great love? There are societies whose members devote themselves to the propagation of orchids, fuchsias and so many others. There are those inspired by their passion to raise and maintain national collections. What is it about human nature and human senses that such specific colour and form can inspire such devotion of time, effort and resources to the extent that it necessarily excludes most other plants?

I may have come close to finding out when I encountered the Sacred Lotus. In the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide you can round a bend in the path and glance across to see a sight which can stop you in your tracks. It can send any thoughts you had of seeing the whole garden in a morning, or  friends waiting to meet you for coffee at the kiosk, or the guided tour you thought you might join, far from your mind.
 So you catch your breath and stand stock still for a moment and then give in to the urge to draw closer. The soft green leaves are waist high obscuring the pond; only the sounds of moorhens and wood duck  happily splashing about under their cover hint at the presence of the water. The flowers are at eye level opening from a neatly furled pink bud to the open flower fading to cream. Then the petals drop to reveal the conical seed head shaped just like the spray head of a watering can. Leaves, buds, flowers, seed heads are all instantly recognisable as motifs used in Eastern and Egyptian art.
In my case it took sometime for this visual impact to wane enough for me to remember that I had a camera and like other visitors could try to capture the beauty of these plants. 

I also began to listen to the conversation between a guide and the gardener tasked with the job of wading waist deep into the pond to pick some of the flowers. Parts of the plant are sources of food and medicine in other cultures. Scientists working with this particular planting have found that the plant has the ability almost unknown in the plant kingdom to regulate its temperature. It also features in the symbolism of several religions. Stunning, remarkable and an instance of that overworked word, iconic.
I still have no rational explanation of what drives some people to become enthusiasts, devotees, obsessives or just fans of a particular flower but I think I have an inkling of the feelings  that fire such inspiration.