Week 27 - nature...(and a new look)

Today we'll complete the chapter on Nature, which means we're almost finished our book study of Jane Brocket's "The Gentle Art of Domesticity".

There's a very 'spring' aspect to this chapter which is exactly where we are in the seasons here in Australia right now, but even if you're embracing autumn in your part of the world, the love for plants and gardening which Jane embellishes to great delight in her writing will be sure to put a smile of beauty upon every heart. 

So let's start reading...

COME TIPTOE THROUGH THE TULIPS WITH ME

“Tulips are by far my favourite flower…when I am in dire need of colour, variety and loveliness after the winter. I am deeply impressed that one single curvaceous bulb can produce a flower that may be upright, stately, elegant or refined, or floppy, frilly, frivolous and flamboyant, or small, delicate and natural looking, or tall, strong and with what could pass for an artist’s hand painted stripes and markings.” (page 240)

Jane observes that the tulip’s archetypal flower shape – the kind of flower children draw – has a simplicity and form which allows the grower and the viewer to focus on colours. Red tulips are her personal favourite but it must be the best red and in her garden each year she plants ‘Jan Reus’ for its simple magnificence and a red which has a rich, warm, velvety garnet colour much like a fine red wine.

Some of her other favourite tulips to grow are –

Ivory Floradale, Menton, Apricot Beauty, Burgundy, Mariette, Black Hero, Menton and Zurel.

Picking her tulips in the early morning while the flowers are still closed, she fills vases and places her blooms along a windowsill where once the day warms the tulips gradually open in all their beauty.

JOY OF LILAC TIME

“I think of lilac as a supremely domestic plant.” (page 245)

Across England Jane observes the ordinariness of lilac blooming by the front gate, over fences and walls, growing without fuss or bother, their predictability each May adding to the seasonal delights of a domestic year.

Once cut, branches of clustered lilac flowers have a short life in the vase but Jane does find these ‘lilac pauses’ rather lovely. 

With regards to lilac in art – “Lilac makes a great subject for a frothy flower painting. It is particularly popular with artists in Russia, where lilac is an early, welcome sign of the summer after a long, cold winter. Huge luxuriant arrangements of lilac sit on tables next to samovars and teacups and create soft, pastel still lives that are suffused with the sense of spring.” (page 245)

Bringing a love of lilac into her crafting, Jane has built a little stash of lilac fabrics, beads, yarns, threads and ribbons, but admits the soft colour needs a strong companion such as dark green, sky blue, golden yellow, deep plum or vibrant lime.

TEENAGE QUILT

Walt Whitman in one of his poems describes lilac being paired with dark green heart shaped leaves, and this inspired Jane’s fabric choice when she made the Teenage Quilt, an homage to her own youthful attempts at decorating her bedroom in purple and green.

YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A NATURAL WOMAN

The gloominess of grey-weather weeks prompt Jane to seek out colour and to display it splashed around her home in an attempt to banish the clouds. Something which always lifts her mood is the humble lemon.

“Lemons are one of nature’s greatest pick-me-ups. They are naturally bright and juicy, smell wonderful and add a much-needed zest to life.” (page 248)

A family favourite, she shared her recipe for a Natural Lemon Cake.

“It can be eaten by a family of five in a nanosecond. Or the squeeze of a lemon.” (page 248)

(I personally love a good lemon drizzle cake. What's your favourite lemon treat?)

THE DAHLIAS OF BROCKET HALL

“The dahlia is slowly coming back into fashion as a somewhat ironic, kitsch floral statement, but I fell in love with it long before the arbiters of taste declared that it was fine to have huge, neon, frilly, pompom, decorative, spiky and clashing dahlias in smart gardens.” (page 250)

I really love that Jane grows dahlias to match her toenail polish because I'm rather obsessed with painting my own toenails and have done so since my mid-teens. My nana would never leave the house without a touch of lipstick and pair of earrings, and though I inherited her earring gene I've never cared for lipstick...but painted toenails? Oh yes, I'm with Jane.

“This is the kind of garden we need at Brocket Hall, with dahlias to match every shade of nail varnish I own.” (page 250)

A SLAVE TO THE SPRINGTIME PASSION FOR THE EARTH

“Putting in the Seed, written in 1916, is a typically lucid and deceptively light poem by Robert Frost in which he describes his delight in sowing peas and he calls himself a ‘slave to the springtime passion for the earth’ that makes him forget to come in for dinner. I can’t write poetry but I do have an inkling of this passion.” (page 252)

As springtime draws near Jane finds her own internal gardener clock foraging through seed catalogues and packets, then planting all sorts of seeds, both sensible and not so sensible.

She purchases her seeds from the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Wisley in Surrey because they carry such a wide variety of commercial and specialist brands. Trying not to get carried away by the promises on the back of each pack, or the pest-free touched-up vivid colours on the front, she attempts to stay with tried and true nasturtiums, love-in-a-mist, sunflowers, morning glories, marigolds and cornflowers, but does tend to add in a few ‘new and improved’ strains and colours.

But it is the vegetable seeds which truly seduce her gardener heart, especially the packs from Italy which carry instructions in five languages and when lined up together in rows remind her of a glorious vegetable quilt.

 “I would dearly love to plant a kitchen garden like this.” (page 252)

Our final chapter is "Travel" and I'm going to attempt to share that study in one post so we can finish off this year's study mid-November before lives are absorbed with end of year things.

All going to plan I'll have it up on the blog Tuesday, November 12th.

All the previous study posts can be found here if you've missed any. You don't need the book to do the study so perhaps have a peek at a few and glean some lovely domestic inspiration.

* What is it about your own garden that you love?

* Are there particular seeds you plant each year?

* Do you prefer growing flowers, vegetables or a mix of both?

You may have noticed I've given my blog and logo a fresh makeover.

Why?

Because there are new things coming soon and they are a reflection of the renewal which has taken place within my spirit, mind, thoughts, creativity, plans and outlook this past year.

And I can't wait to share more with you about that, but it can wait for another day.

God bless you, keep you safe, give you strength, and surprise you with His grace,

hugs

Gentle Domesticity week 26 book study...

Our second last chapter in this year’s “The Gentle Art of Domesticity” draws our attention to Nature and how it inspires, parallels and brings life to an everyday domestic life.

NATURAL PLEASURES

“Nature forms a wonderful backdrop to domesticity. It’s like an external room with an ever changing wallpaper…” (page 226)

“Nature can inspire the domestic artist not only with its visual treasures, but also with its sense of energy, its rhythms and its fundamental need for cycles and repetition. Nature is doing outdoors what we are doing indoors…” (page 226)

GREEN FINGERS AND FEET OF CLAY

Jane’s love for gardening is mainly drawn from the actual growing and not the hard labours of digging, mowing and raking. She enjoys shopping garden catalogues for bulbs and seeds, planting purchased seeds in germination trays, and the handling of her grown herbs, flowers and produce far more than the months given to tending them as they grow. In fact she’d love to wear pearls and direct a team of dedicated under-gardeners who could apply themselves to the tedious parts.

Her family have grown accustomed to an assortment of seedling trays covered in cling wrap scattered through the house and along every windowsill in spring, a practice which delights Jane, especially when her seeds show signs of budding life.

She also welcomes seasonal self-sown flowers with open arms and blooms such as cosmos, verbena and nasturtiums are regular return guests in her garden.

“…I think self-sown flowers encapsulate all that is good about an ordinary domestic garden.” (page 228)

FLOWER POWER

“I learned long ago that you don’t need to have a celebrity budget or spectacular herbaceous borders to appreciate flowers.” (page 230)

Jane once bought five deep violet tulips the day before she was due to fly to Moscow for a week, and for the next 24 hours she took the small vase of flowers everywhere with her – to her room whilst packing, into the kitchen while she cooked, to the bathroom whilst enjoying a long soak and into the living room where she watched television. Though left behind when she left next day for the airport, every detail of their shape and colour is still imprinted on her memory.

“What may have seemed like extravagance was actually an education in flower appreciation.” (page 230)

She goes on to describe in detail what she loves about the Oriental Poppy, David Austen roses, and a blue bearded Iris.

“Flowers are not a domestic essential, but even if you can only have five tulips or a single hyacinth or a free branch of lilac, it’s worth taking the time to look properly at nature’s incredible cleverness.” (page 230)

LOOKING DOWN ON NATURE

Autumn is a wonderful season to be ‘looking down’ as you walk along the way. Jane discovered this when feeding her chickens stale croissants and left over cous cous one day. Watching the hens happily pecking and scratching she couldn’t help but be drawn to the russet and orange carpet of fallen leaves beneath her feet.

STITCHING FROM NATURE

Not a fan of modern machine embroidery, Jane prefers a more natural free motion form of machine embroidery.

“At first it’s quite terrifying until you learn to treat the needle as a pen and the fabric as paper, except that it’s the ‘paper’ that moves while the ‘pen’ stays in the same place.” (page 234)

 Admitting she is hopeless as drawing Jane discovered that natural subjects such as fruits and vegetables are the perfect subject for her free stitching and at the same time satisfy her deeply ingrained allotment nature and imagination.

She enjoys repetitive embroidery in her machine work; rows of buns, washing on the line, cakes…but then returns back to her beloved fruit and veg.

Unable to resist a touch of girly-ness, she will hand sew a few beads or gold thread into the background of garden pieces to create highlights and texture.

“And then I look down and see my fruit salad and I remember that Grace Kelly never wore a fruity frock. She didn’t know what she was missing.” (page 234)

QUINCE

Jane waxes lyrical on the beauty of a quince…

“When the creamy flesh is cooked with sugar and nutmeg and cloves it is transformed into translucent jelly, like garnet or ruby stained glass.” (page 236)

…and each Autumn she picks them from her tree to admire, smell for a few days, and then bake with sugar and spice to serve with thick cream.

(Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried quince? How did you serve it?)

HOLLYHOCKS

“I have always thought of Hollyhocks as belonging to a world outside my domestic domain…belong(ing) to traditional cottage gardens, Suffolk lanes, French kitchen gardens and Monet’s garden as Giverny.” (page 238)

Unsuccessful in planting hollyhocks from purchased seed packs or bought as plants from the nursery, Jane lost hope of ever growing them – until she scattered a handful of seeds collected from the garden of a friend, promptly forgot about them, and was surprised to see them popping up in the most unlikely areas of her garden.

“It was like having a group of famous people turning up unannounced. I took photos to prove they had been there and set up a bodyguard zone around them so no-one could get within two feet of them. I bellowed at them if they tried.” (page 238)

Jane stitched some lovely hollyhocks which no-one could pick and goes on to mention how prominent they are in old pieces of Crinoline Lady linen, something I’d not noticed before…but she is quite right!

As she so often does, Jane then draws our eyes to a painting which evokes a strong sense of what she’s trying to convey in her words – this time her love of hollyhocks and their old world beauty.

Hollyhocks (1889) by Henri Fantin-Latour

We will complete the chapter on Nature by reading pages 240 – 253 for our next study post on October 29^th.

(catch up on all the previous study posts here)

Tomorrow I’ll be back with some pics of the latest in our own garden, a much loved piece of nature we’re working hard to tame in order to bring about productivity and a touch of beauty.

What’s happening in nature around you?

Hugs

Week 25 Gentle Domesticity...

This week we're completing the chapter on Sharing from this year's book study, The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket.

SQUEEZING IN FOYLES

Initially knitting alone at home, Jane eventually ventured out to sit with a group of other knitting enthusiasts at a wooden table in the cafe at Foyles Bookshop. Occasionally only a few would turn up and other times the 'squeeze' meant you needed to be rather careful if you were knitting with long needles. 

"But I am quite happy with a little compression, because it reminds me of the value of knitting groups like ours." (page 214)

A few reasons Jane loves the knitting group at Foyles are these -

* you don't need to book ahead

* you don't need to reserve a seat

* you can arrive and leave when you please

* no age limits

* you can knit whatever you fancy

* you don't have to wait to be invited

* you can be a beginner or a veteran

* new people are always welcome

As I read through the list above it made me yearn for a local group like that which could meet in a cafe like they have at Foyles. Personally I'd love a regular meet up in a relaxed cafe or tearoom environment where anyone can turn up, stay as long or as short as they like,  never feel guilty if they miss a week or a month, and can sit and enjoy any handcraft they enjoy - knitting, crochet, embroidery, hand quilting...The freedom which Jane details in her writings about Foyles really resonates in my heart. 

Do you frequent a group like the one at Foyles?

"There is something quite magical about sitting round a table with a group of chatty, engaging, sociable knitters who all seem to have an opinion on everything from cinema to opera, restaurants to cafes..." (page 215)

PASS IT ON

After her children remarked one morning that daddy was off to work and they were going to school, but Mummy would just be going to the supermarket, Jane was taken aback.

"Then I laughed and realised that it was up to me to demonstrate clearly to my offspring of both genders that there are many different ways to live your life, and that my chosen path (domesticity) was an alternative, but equally fulfilling, choice." (page 218)

"My children will not inherit titles, land, wealth or even a great wine cellar, but I do hope that they will inherit a few life-enhancing skills." (page 218)

THE QUILTING APPRENTICE (Tom)

Whenever Jane lays out blocks for a quilt it is son Tom who becomes the 'jigsaw master' and decides where each piece looks its best.

"He has developed great colour placement skills and can see patterns which are invisible to me until he points them out...In return for quilting advice we talk about rugby and BMX bikes, paper rounds and school. As we kneel on the carpet and move fabric like chess pieces, we share skills and snippets of each other's lives." (page 218)

KNITTING BEE (Phoebe)

Patiently waiting for any of her children to show a desire in knitting, Jane had to stifle whoops of joy when Phoebe decided she like to learn. After taking her daughter through the basics she bundled both of them up for a Parent & Child Knitting Weekend at the Rowan mill in Yorkshire.

"It was an amazing experience to sit for two days in a large room surrounded by young girls (and a couple of boys) and their mothers or helpers, and to see everyone knitting like pros. If anyone ever had doubts  about the value of teaching children to knit, then they should see one of these workshops in full flow...Phoebe adored the whole experience and talked excitedly about her knitting non-stop for 190 miles of the 200 mile journey home. And then she fell asleep." (page 219)

ONE SMALL STITCH (Alice)

"If I had reminded Alice of the joys of knitting on a regular basis, I would have turned her off the idea. Instead I had to bide my time and hope that positive reinforcement worked. You can take a teenager to yarn but you can't make her cast on." (page 219)

Once started, Alice showed herself to be a very careful and deliberate knitter and soon Jane, Phoebe and Alice all attended the parent and child workshops at Rowan mill together.

"I have double the amount of joy in watching both my daughters work with yarn." (page 219)

WINDING WOOL

"Unlike many knitters, I don't have a ball-winder or 'swift' to turn my loose skeins of yarn into neat, dumpy cylinders. But I do have a pair of hands and I enjoy the gentle, hypnotic motion of winding a ball of wool myself." (page 222)

Jane closes the chapter on Sharing with another art study, this time a painting by Harold Harvey, "Winding Wool" 1914...

"It is an unusual scene with the holder set above the winder (the winder normally the main subject in such paintings), the holder more dominant and in control. It's a beautiful snapshot of a moment in two girls' lives, perhaps a turning point when the older one is becoming secretive and the younger one still trusting and transparent." (page 222)

Shifting from art appreciation to poetry, Jane leaves us with this poem, "Winding Wool" by Robert Service (1874 - 1958)

She’d bring to me a skein of wool

And beg me to hold out my hands;

so on my pipe I cease to pull

And watch her twine the shining strands

Into a ball so snug and neat,

Perchance a pair of socks to knit

To comfort my unworthy feet,

Or pullover my girth to fit.

As to the winding I would sway,

A poem in my head would sing,

And I would watch in dreamy way

The bright yarn swiftly slendering.

The best I liked were coloured strands

I let my pensive pipe grow cool . . .

Two active and two passive hands,

So busy winding shining wool.

Alas! Two of those hands are cold,

And in these days of wrath and wrong,

I am so wearyful and old,

I wonder if I’ve lived too long.

So in my loneliness I sit

And dream of sweet domestic rule . . .

When gentle women used to knit,

And men were happy winding wool.

Well, we're close to the end of our book now, just two chapters left. Have you enjoyed our roam through the pages and thoughts within The Gentle Art of Domesticity?

* This week I'd like you to share in the comments below how our study so far of Jane Brocket's book has enriched your own view of, and attitude towards, living a gentle domestic life.

Our next reading will begin the chapter on Nature and we're studying pages 224 -239. I'll have that blog post for you on Tuesday October 15th. 

May your day be blessed, your smile brightened, your heart lightened, and God's peace be overflowing upon every moment.

hugs

Sharing - book study week 24...

We're beginning the third last chapter today and the title of this chapter is SHARING.

I guess most of us who value homemaking and all this entails over the course of a lifetime would imagine 'sharing' to be second nature; we share often in natural response to our multiple roles of wife, mother, child, grandparent, friend, neighbour etc. 

But let's follow the conversation with Jane as she expounds on different expressions of sharing...

INVESTING IN SHARING

"A creative domestic space is one that not only enables individuals to flourish, but also encourages shared lives and experiences." (page 200)

"Passing on, sharing, and communicating the value of skills such as baking and sewing and creating textiles is the best possible way of keeping them alive." (page 200)

Not sure if I've mentioned this before but growing up with Nana and Pop I was not taught any homemaking skills. Nana was 50 and so proficient in keeping their tiny one-bedroom flat spic and span that when she took me on as a grieving 3yo I don't think it ever occurred to her that she needed to involve me in the day to day running of her home, even when I had grown into my teens. She simply loved 'doing' for Pop and I.

Hanging washing, drying our few dishes or making up my bed on the living room couch each night was about as far as I got.

But I was there beside her, watching, studying, as she polished the taps, swept the floor, cooked huge pots of pickles and ladled them into sterilised jars, shopped wisely at the grocer and butcher, darned Pop's socks, knitted Pop's vests, gloves and balaclavas, baked jam tarts and rice custards...and so many other jobs she diligently applied herself to in the days, weeks and seasons of each year. 

As a very young mother and wife at age 17, I had to lean on my memories of Nana's example in order to gain confidence in the art of keeping house, and discovered nothing was as simple as I'd imagined. You can image how much sweeter was my gratitude and awe of Nana during those first few years tending to a family of my own.

USEFUL LESSONS

"When it comes to the gentle arts I am mostly self-taught...and when I want to learn a new skill, I find someone to teach me." (page 200)

Now here's how I learned some of my domesticity - in books such as The Commonsense Cookery Book, which taught me more than you can guess about every aspect of preparing meals; one of Nana's dear friends who was known as Auntie taught me (patiently) to knit and just having that solid foundation allowed me to try more intricate designs and fancier stitches to knit warm cardies for my children; through the friends I made at playgroups who generously shared their skills; from neighbours who as a response to my gifts of delicious baked fare would show me how to do many other tasks I'd not previously been competent in.

And today we can turn to the internet for even more ideas. We can now learn a vast array of skills and techniques, from making our own soap and fitting fly screens to a door (ask Blossom about a 3 year old who ran through one, twice) to preparing herbal salves and propagating plants. My husband and I have become avid learners of all things which pertain to becoming self sufficient and many an evening is spent watching the construction of retaining walls and root cellars, how to prepare a no-till garden, or what goes in to building an earthship...among many other unusual and interesting things!

I'm SO grateful to those who share tutorials and videos in order for their skills to be passed along and not forgotten! 

MARSHMALLOWS

Not a fan herself of marshmallows, Jane's daughter Phoebe loves them and soon mastered the technique of making them. Her older twin siblings were born on Valentines Day and this gorgeous heart shaped pink marshmallow was Phoebe's surprise for them.

"Home really is where the heart is." (page 202)

PEAS, PEACE & LAUGHTER

"Domesticity should be punctuated with a healthy level of giggles, guffaws, snorts, chuckles, cackles, hoots and screams of hilarity, glee, mirth, merriment and amusement. Laughter makes the repetitive nature of so much domesticity bearable..." (page 206)

Jane listens to funny radio programmes whilst ironing, chases their hens when trying to mow the lawn, helps with a child's homework as she washes dishes, and often meets with a friend to share a cup of tea and laughter as a welcome relief from routine. 

This is one of the main reasons she loves the painting below.

Chatterboxes (1912) by Thomas Kennington

"I won't pretend that these two young women, who are no doubt in service in a grand house, would have had an easy life but I love the fact that they are enjoying a moment of laughter over a shared domestic duty....I am struck by the sense of ease and enjoyment that emanates from this beautifully clear, limpid picture...of life-enhancing, shared, domestic laughter." (page 206)

FAIRY BUNS

Once again it is daughter Phoebe who has inherited her mother's baking gene and just like Jane she always refers to cupcakes as fairy buns. Jane believes the art of baking a fairy bun is perhaps the first entry a child should have into the world of sweet bakes.

Jane discovered that one of the best ways to occupy young girls was to gather them in the kitchen and bake. Her two daughters would often bring friends home and there was nothing quite as much fun as baking fairy buns and covering them in icing and sweets, or making marshmallow.

"...fairy buns are a magical way to enter the kingdom of baking. They are quick and easy to make and are a great collaborative activity, bringing old and young and their friends together." (page 208)

I'm very excited to one day have Cully May and Rafaella here icing their own cupcakes, and perhaps even making marshmallows.

We will finish the chapter on Sharing by reading through pages 217-223 and I'll have that blog post up on Tuesday, October 1st.

Links to all the previous book study posts (today is our 24th one!) can be found here

* What skills do you have which can be passed along to family, neighbours and friends?

* What new skill have you learned in the past year? Who taught you?

* What skill would you like to learn?

Just this morning my dear husband shared that he'd like to learn the art of lead lighting so after breakfast and an iced latte we went off to investigate some classes. We chatted to the gentleman who runs the course and wandered through his workshop to see what it would involve (he had a class in session at the time) after which we decided we'd do the next course together. It begins in just two weeks so we're quite excited!

Bless you all, and I promise not to delay the next book study post. We're close to the end and I must admit it's been a wonderful exploration of the many and varied facets of the gentle art of domesticity.

A lovely bit of sharing in my own life today was the gift of this beautiful sunflower from my neighbour. She left it by the back door for me to find when I came home from a morning out with Mr E. 

Blessed indeed.

hugs