This Is Ludlow

We went to lovely Ludlow for the week end. The flat we stayed in was an ancient and very individual place but absolutely perfect for us.

Sleeping Quarters

The compact kitchen - which was in the main bed/living room - had been fashioned out of an antique three-door wardrobe. I would have taken a photo of the outside but the mirrored middle section reflected the incredible mess we managed to make within minutes of arriving. 

The little oven on the right of the picture below is a 'Baby Belling' and the sink on the left was equally petite at about 20cm square - very sweet. I was glad I hadn't planned on making anything more demanding than a cup of tea here though. 

We didn't really spend any time in the little walled garden but it was a beautiful space to gaze upon first thing in the morning when I photographed it.

Out and About

This first image is the window display of Material - a gallery/shop I've mentioned before. The one below it is the postage stamp machine my seven year old became intrigued by. He was desperate to pop a fifty pence piece in the slot for a book of stamps but sadly it was out of order. However, he was thrilled when he discovered I'd taken a photo of it.

The three jugs in the bottom photograph are by Andrew Crouch of The Marches Pottery in Mill Street. At the back of his shop there's a window where you can see him producing these pieces at his wheel. It's mesmerising to watch him at work.

The River Teme at Dinham Bridge

This is a great spot for skimming stones or resting for a bite to eat at the cafe. Whenever we come to Ludlow we spend ages here duck watching, people gazing or just sitting. We were in need of the restorative power of 'green' as we'd not been out of the city for a long while.  

...... Needless to say we weren't really ready to come home. 

F.Y.E.O

DRAFT MEMO (CLASSIFIED)

TO:        'C'
FROM:      OPERATIVE CONTROL
SUBJECT:   SURVEILLANCE REPORT 

TIME:      8.34PM         
DATE:      12/07/2010      
LOCATION:  S.E LONDON


THERE WERE EIGHT (8) INDIVIDUALS PRESENT AT THE RENDEZVOUS. ONE (1) 'HOST' AND SEVEN (7) 'GUESTS'.  

TWO (2) ARRIVED AT 8.30PM. THREE (3) MORE AT APPROX. 8.42PM. ONE (1) AT 8.53PM AND THE FINAL ONE (1) AT 9.17PM.  

ALL (APART FROM 'HOST') LEFT BETWEEN 10.30PM AND 01.00AM. 

THEY CALL THEMSELVES 'THE BOOK GROUP'. 

(THIS INFORMATION HAS BEEN FORWARDED TO B-DEPARTMENT FOR VERIFICATION AS IT IS UNCERTAIN WHETHER, IN FACT, LITERATURE IS ACTUALLY DISCUSSED.)

FULL TRANSCRIPT UNAVAILABLE.

KNOWN INFORMATION:

SET-UP IS 'FLUID': THEY CAN OPERATE AS A WHOLE, IN SPLINTERS OF TWOS AND THREES OR SOLO. ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO NAMED LEADER AND THE ROLE OF 'HOST' APPEARS TO CHANGE MONTHLY, GROUP MEMBER 'A' IS THOUGHT TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMMUNICATING DETAILS OF MEETINGS.


(BOOK CHOICE - SIGNIFICANT?)



OPERATIVE CONTROL BELIEVES THAT SOME - IF NOT ALL - OF THIS GROUP MAY BE SUITABLE CANDIDATES FOR EMBEDDING. SEVERAL HAVE LINKS WITH KNOWN ORGANISATIONS. 


SUREVEILLANCE/DECODING TO CONTINUE - 'C' TO CONFIRM BEFORE RELEASE OF MEMO.

Water Therapy

I'm after something that mimics the reviving sensation of paddling in cold sea - that wonderful shock you get when you dip your toes into the water and it laps back and hits your ankles. As I'm currently too far away from any coast I'm going to plunge my feet into a bucket of cold water.  And then I'm just going to sit. I will do this not now - but tomorrow afternoon at around 3.30pm.

Gallery Guide: Horrockses

After reading Bermondsey Mum's post about Mary Portas, I'm reminded to remind you that there's an exhibition opening this week at The Fashion & Textile Museum in Bermondsey Street London SE1.

Horrockses was a British fashion house that produced distinctive ready-to-wear outfits during the 1940's and 50's and were known for their full-skirted dresses, high quality fabrics and colourful prints. Here's an example of one of their lovely frocks.

Via here

A Book About Baking

At the Summer Fair for which the apple muffins (previous post) were baked, there was a ton of old books on sale. The ones that hadn't sold by the end of the fair were offered for free to anyone interested and - amongst a bunch chosen by my eldest daughter - was the book below which she very kindly gave to me. Seeing as I love old books and know others that do also, I wanted to share the find.

This book was first published in 1956 and tells the story of how the authors, George and Cecilia Scurfield, began baking their own bread and selling it from home after getting fed up with shop bought varieties. Their passion for bread and yeast cookery inspired them to write this book which is still in print today (although redesigned) and contains not only recipes for bread but for other kinds of baked goods too. 

At the beginning of each chapter are these lovely pen and ink drawings. Sadly I could find out nothing about the illustrator, Nora Kay. 

'Introduction'

'Wholemeal Bread and Rolls'

'Gilding the Loaf'

'English Tea Breads'

'Coffee Breads from Abroad'

'A Miscellany'

The Scurfield's follow-up book to this one was 'Home-Made Cakes and Biscuits' and was reviewed in the Spectator by the British cookery writer Elizabeth David who wrote,

'...as one would expect from the author of Home Baked .... the recipes read as if they would work and produce cakes tasting as they should.'

On A Roll With Baking

More muffins - apple this time. 

Three Chairs

I like chairs. I have alot* of them. I will probably have more.

Here's one of my favourites - upright, simple, sturdy and very useful for hanging a jacket on. This chair is typical of a kind of country chair made in Wales in the early to mid 19th Century.

Now the next one is fairly utilitarian looking and typically 1930's in style. Although not conventionally pretty, it's probably the most comfortable dining chair in the world - in my view. Once you're in - you're in - there's no squirming about here and it doesn't dig into your spine at just the wrong place. And the seat can accommodate the more generously proportioned without fear of any uncomfy thigh overflow.

My garden chair of choice would be the Luxembourg chair - the Low Stackable I like alot. It was originally produced in 1923 for Les Jardins du Luxembourg in Paris. This distinctive chair was redesigned in 2004 by Frederic Sofia and is now made from aluminium instead of steel. It comes in lots of nice colours and probably ages well too.

Luxembourg Chairs via here

* Most are hand-me-downs.