Jane Brocket's Blog, page 43

works outing

[Rochester Cathedral and Castle] 

The thing about being self-employed is that I don't get any offical works dos, so I make sure I organise some myself. We have an office Christmas lunch every year, and now I think we'll have an annual Easter works outing.

All that was missing from our day out yesterday was a charabanc. Instead, we had to make do with a car, but it was still very much in the spirit of the old-fashioned works outings when everyone piled into a charabanc and went off sightseeing or to the seaside. We managed to combine the two, with a visit to Rochester and a visit to Seasalter, and came back full of culture, good food, and even a little salty and windswept.

Having read the book & watched the BBC adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, it was wonderful to walk round the cathedral, the cathedral precincts including Minor Canons Row (mentioned in the book), and the town itself (short film here). It's all very atmospheric, especially on a quiet day when you can picture Dickens and his characters in the crypt, the choir stalls, the pubs, and the little alleyways.

The cathedral is very mellow with beautiful stained glass windows and high Victorian/Pugin-style tiles and decorations in the choir. There's a nice little cafe in an C18 listed building, and a huge magnolia outside. The High Street has some wonderful early C20 shopfronts, and some older architectural treasures including the Corn Exchange built by Sir Cloudseley Shovell (no wonder Dickens was so inspired by Rochester, with names like that) which has this huge clock protruding from its front. Further out there are the marshes (think Magwitch and Great Expectations), and we also drove up to Gad's Hill so that I could see the house that once belonged to Dickens.

A works outing must include food - we should really have had whelks and oysters in Kent - and we'd booked lunch at The Sportsman which is in the middle of the salt marshes of Seasalter and somewhere we've been wanting to get to for years. It was brilliant and busy, and the food was delicious, and it's close to the beach huts on the sea wall painted in colours that cleverly match the sky, sea, sand, and marsh.

 

Then on to see a friend in Seasalter and a cup of tea in the sunshine while we admired her blossom and cowslips, then home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

rainy tuesday tulips

I left them out overnight in the vase and found them this morning covered in rain, which just enhanced their looks.

winestorm

I always used to say that all I ever needed to keep me happy in material terms were: wine, books, chocolate, and knitting. Not much has changed with time, although I might now change 'knitting' to 'textiles' to cover quilting. And while I've been covering the last three categories for years on this blog, I've never really written about wine despite the fact that wine was my métier for many years (and I am a Master of Wine). Behind the scenes, though, there has always been wine - but things have stepped up a little recently, and I have returned to wine in a more professional capacity, going to tastings again and thinking about how we communicate about wine.

A little while ago, I decided that wine was a subject I'd overlooked for too long, but I also felt that this blog wasn't the right place for talk about grapes and noses, bottles and blends. So I have started a wine blog. It's called winestorm* and it's here.

Hope to see you there.

*I admit this wasn't the first name I came up with - I was blind to the obvious until our friend and best man, Peter, suggested it. Thank you, Peter, and I promise there'll be a nice bottle waiting for you next time you're here. 

sunday tulips

Although I'd never normally say no to any sun, I'm pleased from a tulip-growing point of view that we're having rain and cloud. As a result, the tulips in the tulip patch now look infinitely greener, fatter, taller, and now that they are all plumper and on the point of bursting, I can see the differences in the blocks and strips of tulips. Every year I think I've got it wrong (aided and abetted by the weather), and every year I'm relieved that nature gets it right.

I have vases of tulips around the house in varying stages of openness and decay. Maybe I've been reading too much about Damien Hirst, but there is definitely something very beautiful about overstretched, over-the-top tulips that are just about ready for the compost heap. They remind me of the spectacular seventeenth century Dutch paintings that often include a wildly curving and curvaceous tulip. (My favourite painter of the genre is Rachel Ruysch - her paintings are exquisite.)

 

good friday buns

Very good Friday buns. Made to the recipe I always use in Baking with Passion by Dan Lepard but with spice modifications this year. I used a mix of nutmeg, allspice, and cloves which made a huge difference to the flavour. (I dislike cinnamon which is why I don't eat shop-bought buns - these days they are full of it.)

Although I know the sensible thing to do would be to start the dough off the night before so we could have our buns in the morning (I'd have to get up ridiculously early to have them ready even for a late breakfast), but I never manage it. Instead, we eat virtually nothing until they come out of the oven in the early afternoon then go mad and get very sticky and buttery and satisfyingly full of warm bread.

I don't always bother with the crosses, partly because I lost my large syringe a while ago. But this year I have discovered a brilliant instrument for piping on crosses. It also makes me feel like a mad doctor in a Hammer horror film.  

They take a long time to make and are faffy (three different glazes), but it's all worth it for a good Friday.

posy for wednesday

The colours of the tulips are getting hotter while the mornings are getting colder. This bunch includes 'Gavota', 'Ollioules', 'Burgundy', 'Apricot Beauty' and, I think, 'Malaika'. All from Peter Nyssen.

 

early april early morning flowers

This morning's mixed bunch.

day at the races magnolia

I found the perfect fresh floral fascinator at Wisley yesterday. If I were going to the races today, this is definitely what I would want to be wearing.

But I have to admit it would look even better on Simon whose head it fits perfectly.

sunday before easter flowers

Picked this morning. The bunch includes very pretty narcissi such as 'Bridal Crown', 'Cragford', and 'Silver Chimes'. 

In a great value enamel jug/vase from IKEA. (Much cheaper than vintage versions, and comes in three sizes.)

Just right for a sunny Sunday.

 

olympic year tulips

There has been a single, lone tulip in flower in the garden for at least ten days - it must be a super-charged, Usain Bolt specimen that just had to beat all the others. But now more and more tulips are coming into flower in spits and spots around the garden, and it won't be long before the various varieties catch up with their front-runners.

I have revelled in the recent warm weather as much as anyone, but it does cause tulips to sprint faster, so I am relieved for my tulips' sake that it in now cooler and more overcast and they can slow down to a more leisurely pace.