Thank you so much to everyone who came to the Edinburgh Book Festival on Saturday evening (it was a lovely, lively, spirited audience), which I thoroughly enjoyed -- having dashed there straight after the unmissable Tarland show. It's the third summer I've been lucky enough to experience such a highlight of the Aberdeenshire season; this year blessed with sunshine and blue skies, Scottish dancing, prize-winning Highland ponies, a parade of vintage tractors, delicious homemade preserves (I stocked up on blackcurrant jam and crab-apple jelly). And then on to the horticultural show in the afternoon, to admire prize-winning sweet peas (the petals gloriously pretty, despite all those long days of rain earlier in the summer), jewel-coloured chrysanthemums, perfect pansies, and the most beautiful roses. The fruit and vegetables were equally impressive: painterly displays of garden produce, luscious gooseberries and raspberries, succulent green lettuces, sturdily handsome potatoes.
Alongside, entries of home-baked gingerbread (properly sticky and dark), chic cupcakes, traditional pastries, elderflower wine, intricate knitting, iridescent paintings, handwritten poems, and everywhere evidence of imagination, skilful practice, and immense hard work.
When all is well in the Tarland show, then all seems right in the world...
10 comments:
I like to imagine that beneath the polite surface the horticultural competitions seeth with fierce and long held rivalries.
I love the sense of permanence and continuity that such events convey. Stability in a changeable world has great value.
Kate
Oh how lovely- all so Milly Molly Mandyish. Yes that's stability and good old fashioned fun. Flowers jams and breads are so comforting.
Kate -- I think you're right, the horticultural competition might be every bit as fierce as the Olympics. But as Enid observes, there's also something so comforting about homemade jam and lovingly cultivated vegetables.
Dear Justine,
I would love you to be by guest blogger this Sunday and write 4 or 5 paragraphs (2 sentences only) about Coco Chanel, to celebrate her birthday.
It's a magazine style blog featuring designers, trends, style, books, exhibitions and events. I love your book about her, it has such an honest approach! It would be an honour to have you as my first guest blogger.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Kind regards,
Lina Vaz
(London Fashion Hunter)
http://londonfashionhunter.blogspot.co.uk/
So it was Aberdeenshire heather? I loved the Scottishness of your presentation. Sadly, I can't squeeze into a boy's kilt jacket. Bravo
Having never typed on a blog before I feel so saddend to learn of Elspeth Thompsons death in 2010.I wondered why her wonderful musings had disappeared. Thank you so much for the poems. Feel very shocked.A family death at the same time obviously obscured the sad news.I know I have cuttings so will treasure them.Kriss
Thank you, everybody, for these varied comments. Linda -- I'm sorry I've missed your request, which was a worthwhile reminder of Chanel's birthday.
Ladybird: yes, it was Aberdeenshire heather, and a kilt jacket from the 1950s.
Kriss: I'll always treasure Elspeth's contributions of poems to this blog, and her friendship when we were younger...
Thank you, everybody, for these varied comments. Linda -- I'm sorry I've missed your request, which was a worthwhile reminder of Chanel's birthday.
Ladybird: yes, it was Aberdeenshire heather, and a kilt jacket from the 1950s.
Kriss: I'll always treasure Elspeth's contributions of poems to this blog, and her friendship when we were younger...
I don't full detail for Tarland show? What is these main purpose for that festival? Plz explained anybody
mezoterapia bezigłowa
www.simply-tarot.co.uk/
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