The Waiting Room

O IS FOR?

OVERFLOWING!

As is in my coldframe and I am off to a plant sale at the weekend!

You can ogle more Os over at ABC Wednesday.

32 Across,39 Down

''In Northern England, a pudding made at this time of year from the young leaves of the bistort plant" (6 - 6)

Easter has passed in a most pleasant mish-mash of gardening, greenhouse time and allotment time. The weather has been warm, almost too warm at times, so in an effort to remain pale and interesting, I have also been indulging in other favourite activities - reading and doing crosswords. My mother and I both try to complete the same weekly general knowledge crossword and compare our respective progress over the phone. Sometimes we provide each other with answers, especially if either of us is being hampered by one stubborn clue, as was the case when she asked yesterday if I could help with the above clue. She had already made more inroads than me but had reached an impasse.

Although I have spent all my adult life in the north of England and have done my fair share of pudding eating the above clue had me foxed. I had an inkling that the first word was probably Easter but it was the second part of the clue that was puzzling. I finally had to concede defeat and resort to the internet to find the answer. In doing so I came across a fascinating website - Historical Foods, which I have bookmarked for some serious browsing in the future. As well as festive recipes there are regional recipes from the U.K. and Eire, North American recipes and recipes from certain historical eras. There is also a fictional feasts section which includes recipes inspired by 'The Hobbit'.

I tend to think of puddings as sweet concoctions but this turned out to be a traditional savoury pudding. It is made in Cumberland and Yorkshire from the young leaves of the bistort plant with the added ingredients of onions, oats, barley, butter and eggs. Bistort or to give it its Latin name persicaria bistorta is a perennial plant, which usually flowers from June to October. It's the younger, tender leaves and shoots which are used in cooking from April onwards. The roots can also be eaten but take much more cooking.  The plant can be found growing wild in moist meadows, by waterways and on damp grassy roadsides as well as in open woodland. Apparently many local villages in northern England hold competitions to find the best tasting pudding - that held at Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire being the most well known.


Now just in case you have not already guessed the answer is Easter - Ledger, although the pudding is also known as Easter Ledge Pudding, Easter Giant Pudding, Dock Pudding, Herb Pudding, Passion Pudding and of course by the more prosaic name of Bistort Pudding. I am not sure about the reference to Ledger/Ledge and would like to know where that comes into the equation. Maybe more research later today but then will I ever finish the crossword? Do please let me know me know if you have tasted this delicacy or have more information about this particular pudding.

Ibanez Acoustic Bass Guitar - 3

Color….color…coloriscious…

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
~Marcus Aurelius

I may have mentioned before that I have synesthesia…

a melding of the senses…of sorts.

Words and numbers and letters all have a correlating color

I remember names and places and dates… first by the color or colors

they construe in my mind

and they blend together and form other colors...to keep me on my toes.

When I was introduced to Artist Michelle Armas’s work a few months ago...

I found it compelling. Almost musical in it’s flirtation with color.

She told me that

she also has a cacophony of color swirling around in her own mind

…she too has synesthesia.

“ It is how I do simple math...green plus purple equals black!” says Michelle

makes complete sense to moi.

yep.

So…now I have a happy inducing Armas piece of work in my home.

An Armasm hee

And it has already enjoyed a few different rooms...

I imagine it will keep moving around leaving a happy little wake of color behind.

I have seen her work throughout blogland….Allison at My little Happy Place recently acquired one…

yum

As did Jenny at MFAMB

If you are looking for a shot of color…some happy…a cacophony of thought.

and who wouldn’t...

If you want your own little insider world into synesthesia…

Michelle Armas is generously giving a 15% discount on her Art

to Lime in the Coconut Readers...

just type in COMEBACKSOON when you place an order
here:

Color…what would we do without it?

Seriously?

Ibanez Acoustic Bass Guitar - 2

...the headstock of the Ibanez Acoustic Bass guitar.

Happy Easter With the Peeps!

Ibanez Acoustic Bass Guitar - 1

After putting it off for the longest time I finally got to start regular practice with my bass and  I suddenly realised why I wanted an acoustic bass instead of a regular electric bass. It's the sound you see, it's just more organic somehow, even when plugged in. Love it!

Happy Easter…

May Easter’s gentle promise of hope and rebirth

fill your heart with joy…

Church in Rio de Janeiro

Easter Break With the Grandgirls

How to deal with heavy back-lighting.

Leave the camera on auto and you will end up with an unattractive, boring, black silhouette every time. Take a test shot, check it out on the cameras LCD screen, adjust exposure compensation to overexpose, re-shoot, check LCD screen, readjust exposure compensation to taste, re-shoot and voila! Easy peasy!

Nikon D90, Nikon 35mm f1.8DX, 1/160s, f2.8, aperture priority, +4 exposure compensation, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X3.

Mountain Road

Wordless Wednesday

N IS FOR?

NO WORDS NECESSARY!

~ well almost ~ nip over now to ABC Wednesday for much of note on the letter N!

Easter in Germany

Last year we were in Germany for Easter and it is so hard not to think back to all the decorations and celebrations we saw while we were there.  Every town, shop and neighborhood gave us a reason to want to celebrate the season. 

We especially enjoyed reading that this town square requested we avoid touching any of the 3,000 hand-blown eggs that were part of this display. 

Look at the woman's head to the left of this egg...this thing was HUGE!!!

  Every evening as the sun went down we would observe the hillsides covered with Easter bonfires.  You can learn more about the tradition of the bonfires here.   I've done some decorating but nothing that compares to the Easter celebrations I was able to observe last year.  Meanwhile I'm looking forward to Easter fun with the grandgirls. 

weekend finds…

Another hop over to the local thrift. Yep Habitat.

We found a travertine topped outdoor wicker table… Big.

Heavy…well made….we need to glue back on a few pieces on the edges

Get this…

Ten bucks…I kid you not.

Found a little garden nook…sheathed in blooming jasmine

as it’s current home.

The Jasmine is heady and Intoxicating this weekend…

The Jathropa…decades old…continues to canopy

what we call the “dog path”

The Frangipani blooms with it’s face to the strong sun.

all is well {ish}

well…until we found out how much we owe the Feds. Taxes. Ouch.

What were your weekend finds?

Nesting

Sometimes…

Words are not even needed.

Sometimes.

images: Coastal living

"If You Go Down To The Woods Today"

Himself and I took to the hills last weekend where we went walking and garden visiting . The weather was simply glorious. We walked part of Wenlock Edge in Shropshire, where we came across various wild flowers including violets, celandines, primroses, cowslips as well as bluebells which were just beginning to open. What took my breath away were the carpets of wood anenomes, which I have never seen in such numbers before ~

'Wood Anemone'
"The wood anemone through dead oak leaves
And in the thickest woods now blooms anew,
And where the green briar and the bramble weaves
Thick clumps o'green, anemones thicker grew,
And weeping flowers in thousands pearled in dew
People the woods and brakes, hid hollows there,
White, yellow and purple - hued the wide wood through.
What pretty drooping weeping flowers they are:
The clipt-frilled leaves, the slender stalk they bear 
On which the drooping flower hangs weeping dew,
How beautiful through April time and May
The woods look, filled with wild anemone;
And every little spinney now looks gay
With flowers mid brushwood and the huge oak tree"
~ John Clare,1793 -1864

More from Shropshire to follow.

Note To Self

M IS FOR?

MORE!
I have decided that I simply must plant more tulip bulbs this autumn. I have never been a great fan of the leaves which I think are most manky, but oh what magnificent flowers. Mine are all planted in containers so that I can hide them away once the flowers are done and dusted. They seem to be a couple of weeks ahead of last year. In the above photo are 'Couleur Cardinale, Havran and 'Prinses Irene'. In other pots I have 'Spring Green', 'Passionale', 'Mount Tacoma' and 'Bruine Wimpel'. Would like to know which tulips other folk are growing this year.

You will find more on the letter M over at ABC Wednesday!

Are you feeling it?

Can you smell the coconut?

Images…just browsing real estate and Architectural digest