The Double-Edged Sword

I had decided this was going to be my last post.  I gave myself time to reflect and whilst my mind was saying one thing my heart was telling me another.  So what if we are all busy bouncing between family, real life and the evergrowing expanse of social networking?  Never mind if this small space of mine is attracting less comments than before.  When it comes to the crunch I cannot forget the valuable connection made with precious souls through this blog and theirs.  Wonderful, inspring ladies have expressed my mixed feelings so much more eloquently than I could, both here and here.  I will, for the time being, stay here with gratitude for the friendships and inspiration offered to me in these past three years.

 

September has been glorious; continuous mellow, dusty heat with ripening apples, pears and grapes.  It has also been hard.  A precious member of my family was unexpectedly taken ill two weeks ago causing us all to scurry hither and thither, drawing ever closer in love.  I've been left with feelings of gratitude for my parents and siblings, again, but fear of inevitable, impending mortality too.  And that is why, perhaps, this September I have finally put my finger on my usual reticence to embrace autumn.  As the meadows and countryside change colour around us we find the shimmery hues of autumn leaves thrilling.  But in a sense they dupe us for they signal death and disintegration.  In time they will become fragile and return to dust.   Leaves sublime from one beautiful state to another - much as some religions tell us we will - and as they lose their green life they bloom with urgent colours.  "Carpe Diem', they seem to whisper.  This early autumn I hear their message loud and clear.  Life is precious and I intend to honour its beauty in my humble, happy manner.

 

I leave you with a palette of greens, yellows and plums.  Happy autumn friends!  Because, despite my sombre words, it really is a precious season.



 Featured above:

 

Alaria Shawl knit with divine Skein yarn Merino Cashmere Fingering in Sunspot.  My Ravelry notes are here.

 

Mademoiselle Apple And BlackBerry Crumble who is off to start a new life in Australia.

 

Mickäel and I are off to Marrakech next weekend for a short stay.  I hope to return with a few pictures to share with you all.

 

Warmest wishes to you all.

 

Stephanie

Gift From The Sea



 "The beach is not the place to work; to read, write or think [...] - at least, not at first. [...] the tired body takes over completely.  As on shipboard, one descends into a deck-chair apathy.  One is forced against one's mind, against all tidy resolutions, back into the primeval rhythms of the sea-shore. [...] And then, some morning in the second week, the mind wakes,comes to life again. [...]  It begins to drift, to play, to turn over in gentle careless rolls like those lazy waves on the beach.  One never knows what chance treasures these easy unconscious rollers may toss up."

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From The Sea (Pantheon Books: New York, 1955), pp. 15-16.

Dear friends,

 

On returning  from our holidays in Belle Ile en Mer a few days ago, I found a parcel from Stephanie over at Woolythyme; an exquisite knitted shell together with the book, Gift From The Sea, quoted above.  It was, simply, the perfect gift to receive after our time away by the sea.  I have already touched upon the enchanting beauty of this Breton island last year.  Countless thoughts and adjectives spring to mind when I look back on those precious weeks.  Sometimes returning to the same place twice with the same fellow travellers can be a little risky.  Will it be as wonderful as the last time?  Will the place hold the same magic still?  Of course, we needn't have been concerned.  The air was still as pure, the weather as gloriously clement and the seafood as delectable.  However, if I am honest, the predominant emotion I am left with is gratitude.  Not for this island (I've always really wished I could live an entire year there) nor for the salty air and glittering sand but for my family.  It's hard not to get emotional whilst writing these words.  As many of you know from personal experience, it isn't easy living in a different country from the majority of your loved ones.  I prefer to put these regrets to one side and to feel deep, deep gratitude for having a family in which EVERYBODY gets on so very, very well.   All those lengthy conversations, silly jokes and long, long hugs have left me feeling calm - I'll admit, it took me quite a while to relax this summer - and positive.  Perhaps the person I hugged the hardest was my father - can you believe he will be turning ninety-two in a couple of months?- and my wonderful mother too, of course!  It is thanks to their love for us all and their generosity that that we were able to spend these days together.

 

And so I am back home. There are new adventures around the corner, many animals - not just hares - to create and an exciting business venture I'm so thrilled about.   Until I return with more news I will share, below, a few pictures of recent knits.  Because when there are holidays there is time to knit and read, and read and knit.





The Duck Egg Blue cardigan Angélique is wearing is a new pattern by Georgie Hallam called Posy.  If you'd look closely you'd find the odd grain of glittering sand and wisps of dried grass from Belle Ile as I knit this pretty much everywhere we went.  I even took it on a four-hour boat trip around the island although it was far to windy to wrestle with four double pointed needles!  The flower meadow, incidentally, is not the one in Belle Ile but another, equally beautiful, a few minutes' stroll from our home.

 

The baby cardigan was a gift for the hotel manager's wife who has a eight-month old daughter named Valentine.  I wanted to show my gratitude for the summer job Héloïse had been offered in Belle Ile.  The pattern is my third version of Dani Sunshine's Bella and I still love it as much as my first attempt.



My Ravelry notes for both knits may be found here and here.


 

Tomorrow is school and I would like to wish all parents and children a very happy new school year.  Finally, whilst I've been away from the computer for the best part of a month I have finally joined Instagram and am thoroughly enjoying it!  Would you like to come and say hello?

 

I am hugely looking forward to visiting your blogs again.

 

A bientôt,

 

Stephanie

Dancing With Summer Flowers

 

 Dear readers,

 

What an interesting summer it has been so far!  Almost four weeks after the last of three cases of Scarlet Fever in our family I think it is safe for me to proclaim jubilantly that Tristan and I have trumped this unpleasant and rather vintage illness. The sore throat Héloïse started on the day of her Baccalauréat results was the first symptom of Scarlet Fever, poor child.  All is well now.  Héloïse left, a week behind schedule, to start her first summer job in a splendid hotel on the island of Belle Ile en Mer and the rest of us have been relishing the tough, resilient Paradise of high summer in Touraine.  There is nothing fey or delicate about blooming fists of lavender.  "Yikes!" I say out loud, in a mixture of delight and confusion when I observe our fast-growing garden.  Let us say that weeks of intense sunlight and rainfall have been a boon to all plant life.

 

I love the way the garden becomes an outside room during the summer months.  Our small house grows bigger.  Evenings spent with special friends, barely able to hear the trilling crickets over our shrill laughter.  Candles in holders casting lacework shadows over our lichen-covered cherry tree.  Another bottle of champagne?  Why not!  It will help us forget the latent threat of voracious mosquitos.  The food we eat is simple and good.  Shortcrust tarts with goat's cheese, tomato and basil.  Greek salad with just enough red onion and a big fistful of dill.  Luscious apricots and peaches are always piled up high in our fruit bowl.  They must be gobbled up fast; the hot, humid weather spoils them quickly.  My current favourite - and Tristan's too - is a tart made with peaches and a few sprigs from our lavender bush.*  The secret is to mix in a few lavender flowers only.

 

Summer is the song everyone is humming and I, perhaps, more loudly than all. Victoria Finlay's fascinating book, Colour, has inspired me to play with the bright and vibrant this season, even more than usual.  I stayed up far too late last night reading her chapter on Orange (my least favourite colour).  'Dance the orange,' the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in a wonderful waltzing poem about a fruit and a colour that pretend to be sweet but are actually rambunctious and challenging.  Last night's compelling read transported me to the city of Cremona in Italy where, around 1750, the secret of how Antonio Stradivari made the orange varnish for his instruments was lost.  Doubtless, I will be writing about this book again in the future.

 

In the meantime the pictures below testify to my love affair with summery colours and Liberty fabrics which I always purchase from this, my favourite online shop.

 

Angélique's dress fabric is Floral Eve, from the Spring & Summer 2013 collection.  The pattern is  Suzanne from the French Citronille pattern and fabric shop.  Amazing, beautiful, easy patterns which can be purchased in English.  I know that Soule Mama and Posie gets Cozy are huge fans too.  And that beautiful floral wreath?  Another success from the talented Michele from Amore Bride.





Summer has also brought a dose of magic.  For those who have not read this little story over on my Madame Millefeuilles page, you will find it here.

 

Tomorrow is Mickaël's birthday.  Tomorrow we set off for Brittany where the next chapter of our summer begins.  Next week I am hoping to, finally, upgrade my mobile telephone in order to join in with the Instagram fun.

 

Happy August, dear friends.

 

Stephanie 

 

* It's easy as pie to make.  The usual shortcrust pastry first, and then slice a few peaches or nectarines which need to me mixed gently with 3 tablespoons of cornstarch or arrowroot powder, 100 g of sugar, I tablespoon of lavender buds, I teaspoon of vanilla extract and a pinch of sea salt.  Pop the tart into the oven - preheated at 180°C/375°F - for around 30 minutes after having dotted a few nobs of butter onto the peaches.

 

Storybook Lane

Dear readers,



Did you know that in the first written version of Goldilocks And The Three Bears, by the British author and poet Robert Southey, published in 1837, the central character was not a little girl but an unpleasant and malicious old women - a vixen of sorts?  The story at the time bore the title of The Three Bears.  It was in 1849 that Southey's intrusive old women became an intrusive girl, who bore various names referring to her fair hair.  The name Goldilocks was settled upon in the early Twentieth Century.  It would seem that children favoured a pretty, naughty girl to an ugly, old hag and I do believe that book illustrators enjoy portraying Goldilocks who fares well in most versions of this story in contrast with the original vagrant woman.

 

We have several Goldilocks in our home; I delight in opening Angélique's mind to the subtle differences in interpretation between each rendition of a fairy tale.  Let me be honest though; I have a soft spot for children's book illustrators and purchase such publications as much for my pleasure as for my children's.  The work of French artist, Charlotte Gastaut, always inspires me.  She works with contrasting colours and patterns and her attention to detail makes my heart sing.  Her Goldilocks is my absolute favourite.  There's a vintage style to her illustrations and, correct me if I am wrong, her choice of colours calls to mind traditional Russian children's tales.  Birds, butterflies and flowers pepper her pages and her characters always seem to have large, black eyes like mirrors to their innocent souls.



 I found myself drawn to this inquisitive child with her short, curly blond locks and was quite smitten with her red shoes!    One day, by chance, I found a fabric, named Storybook Lane, which shared many of the same colours and details as Gastaut's illustrations of the forest in which Goldilocks wanders and I knew I had to make my version of this little girl, a doll, of course.

 

High-spirited, a lover of flowers, and a little naughty too.  Please meet my Goldilocks who, though very different from Gastaut's, is clad in the same vibrant colours.  I had so much fun creating this small girl picking flowers in the forest, straying further and further away from her cosy home.  But she hasn't met the three bears yet.  I think I might have to make another doll wearing different clothes and colours inspired by the bears' cottage.

 

Her Mary Jane shoes are fashioned from pure wool felt in cherry red and clinched with heart buttons.  Her celadon-blue pinafore has a sprinkling of hand-embroidered daisies and simple flowers and her white lawn bloomers are trimmed with French pink lace.

 

Although I am very fond of her I have slipped her into my shop for a few days.  So, if you would like to give a home to a courageous, sweet girl who is happiest when skipping amongst the trees and filling her basket with wild flowers, you may find her here.

Of course I would love to know whether you have a favourite fairy tale or Illustrator?  I am very fond of The Snow Queen and The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

 

I wish you all a wonderful weekend and thank you so much for taking the time to read my words.  I truly appreciate it.

 

Stephanie x