Like a Bowl Full of Jelly

I was reading blog and personal favourite, House of Beauty & Culture the other day and he wrote about a summer specialty, jelly. Specifically, jellied champagne with raspberries. What could be more refreshing on a hot summer day than this!As I was reading the post, I remembered a company in London which specializes in sculptural and architectural jellies, which are most amazing. The company, Bompas & Parr, was started by two Oxbridge grads after their final year at university, just as a summer lark. Their work caught on and soon became in demand for the most elegant of events. For the Royal Wedding in April, they created a mould of Buckingham Palace and made a huge copy of it.

Royalty has always celebrated with jelly, as you can imagine with Queen Victoria and the Victorians and their chefs who worked to make more and more imaginative dishes for the royal banquets. You can still find elaborate jelly moulds in antique stores, and it’s lots of fun to make your own creations with them. Or you can do something as simple as oranges and cream in jelly. Don’t you think this is fun!

List Check

I hope you had a great July 4th, regardless of where you were and how you spent it!

I had a list of 12 things I wanted to accomplish this weekend, but regretfully, I only managed to cross five of them off. But I didn’t lollygag around all weekend, I did a lot!

Friday, my two sisters, their husbands and my mum came for dinner. I still have not learned to light the grill (it’s charcoal with some sort of chimney-type thing) so I had to light the oven. Before everyone came over, I had made some pennants to brighten the back garden. Dinner was a success, even though I had to cook the chicken in the oven. Hopefully by the time Easy & Elegant Life and Toad of To the Manner Born arrive for dinner on Wednesday, I will have mastered the grille!

Saturday was a wedding down on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Glorious day with a nice breeze blowing and a very happy bride and groom! The groom’s cake was so perfect – a bushel of crabs, complete with an ear of corn on the cob! I managed to find the yardage of citrine Thai silk I’ve been looking for (I knew it was in the house somewhere!), and made curtains for the guest room. In addition, I also made my niece some curtains for her room.

For the 4th of July, I went to the annual parade on Federal Hill, which was such fun. It’s a small-town event in a big city, and this year, the Mayor of Baltimore was the Grand Marshall. Last year, it was the local butcher! There are games for the kids, and my little friend Will proved to be a cool one while doing the hula hoop. Friend Len, a high-powered corporate lawyer, showed up in the most hilarious shoes! Rose, the event’s organizer, was lovely as ever swathed in red and blue tulle and sporting numerous American flags on her vest. Nolan and Michael were sharp in their seersucker shorts, perfect for a summer day! We managed to make it through the fireworks displays without Connor or his pal Halas having a major meltdown. Connor’s preferred spot during these sorts of loud events seems to be on top of my head, although I am not sure exactly what that accomplishes.

Hope your weekend was as much fun as mine!

Happy Independence Day 2011!

It’s a nice long weekend here in the US of A, and fireworks have already started, much to the chagrin of dear Connor. I’ve been dosing him a bit with Rescue Remedy, a cure-all I discovered in England many years ago after a rather wicked Pimm’s Party! Although there’s a specific formulation for pets, I’m going to use it, too, so I bought the people version – it has alcohol in it, but since you only use a few drops, there’s no harm, no foul.

The annual 4th of July parade will kick off in Federal Hill, a gracious water-front neighbourhood in Baltimore, and as I have for the past 15+ years, I will be attending. Although we’re in the middle of the big city, Baltimore’s neighbourhoods each have their own unique character, and often feel like very small towns. This parade is a perfect example of that. 

My friends Rose & Ivo help organize it, and always decorate their house and themselves for the occasion.  

Happy Independence Day!

Want to Buy A Property in England?

Well, now’s your chance, as the von Essen Group of hotels went into bankruptcy earlier this week and has had to put a number of its properties up for sale. Not saying that they’re going to go at fire sale prices, but do take a look at what’s on offer.

First up, the historic Cliveden House. Cliveden, once home to Nancy Astor and mired in the Profumo scandal in the 1960s, recently unveiled the world’s most expensive afternoon tea – £550 for two people. Queen Victoria, a frequent guest, was not amused in 1893 when the house was bought by William Waldorf Astor, America’s richest citizen. It soon became a social hub, with guests ranging from Charlie Chaplin to Winston Churchill, President Roosevelt to George Bernard Shaw. Harold Macmillan, another regular guest, when told that the house was eventually to become a hotel, remarked “My dear boy, it always has been”

Next up for your approval, one of my favourite places, The Royal Crescent in Bath. Royal Crescent, Bath: Staying at the Royal Crescent in Bath has been compared to stepping into the pages of a Jane Austen novel. Its architecture has remained unchanged since the 18th century when it was built as part of the Royal Crescent by John Wood the Younger

And here’s the lovely Ston Easton, a simple little place in the country. Ston Easton Park luxury hotel, Midsomer Norton Somerset: Dates back to the mid-18th century and is set within gardens created by landscape gardener Humphry Repton. They include an ice house, a ruined grotto fountain, a sham castle, a plunge pool and Palladian bridges over the river.

Without a doubt, one of the more architecturally interesting buildings on offer is Ickworth. Ickworth Hall Hotel, the former home of the Marquis of Bristol, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England

Just a small sample of what you can pick up at the upcoming property auction.

St. David’s Day

March 1 is St. David’s Day (Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant), and St. David is the patron saint of Wales, where I lived.  Wales is one of those very under-the-radar places, but it’s spectacular. Let’s have a little geography lesson, shall we? Wales is to the left of England, when you’re looking at a map. It is separated from England by the Severn River, as well Offa’s Dyke, a linear earthworks. It is surrounded on three sides by water – the Bristol Channel on the south side, the Irish Channel to the west and north. Wales has more than 700 miles of coastline. Because of how far north Wales is, it has major tidal swings – often 30 or more feet between high and low tide. Wales is surrounded by the Ring of Iron – all of the castles that protected Wales from invaders via the land and sea.  There are 400 castles, or castle ruins in Wales, and about 100 of those are still intact. I worked at St. Donat’s Castle, built in the 1200’s along the south coast of Wales. One of other castles I visited regularly was Caerphilly Castle, the second largest castle in the UK after Windsor Castle.  With the late summer sunsets, I used to drive the 10 miles to Caerphilly and do a walk around the perimeter of the castle’s property and listen to BBC Radio 4. Another castle that I visited often was Fonmon Castle, owned by one of my colleagues and her family. It was just a “small” castle, but it had been in her family for 600+ years. It was covered with a veil of Virginia Creeper, which turned an amazing scarlet colour in the fall. You can see it just beginning to change below. The national symbols of Wales are the daffodil and the leek. At rugby games, where there would be 60,000 people yelling and singing – mostly Tom Jones’ songs – they would be waving inflatable leeks and daffs. If you’ve never tried a leek, they’re like mild onions, and look like huge spring or green onions.Here’s a great and simple recipe for Welsh Leek Soup or Cawn Cennin (serves 6-8)

• 4 slices of raw bacon
• 6 thick leeks, trimmed of the roots and dark green, then chopped
• 10 cups chicken stock
• Salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a large soup pot, sauté the bacon over medium heat until crisp -then remove it from the pan, drain on paper towels, and reserve it for the garnish.
2. In the soup pot, reheat the bacon grease over medium heat and stir in the leeks, turning to coat them, and sautéing for several minutes, until they take on a little golden color.
3. Pour in the stock, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Purée, solids first, then pour back into the pot. (I use an immersion blender for this task.) Season to taste.
4. When ready to serve, reheat the soup over medium high heat, then ladle it into bowls and top with crumbled bacon and fresh circles of leek.

Garnish: Crumbled crisp bacon and a few circles of sliced leek per bowl. You can also add diced potatoes and cream for a more hearty soup.

Happy St. David’s Day!

Save the Date: Groundhog Day Party 2011

You might remember last year, I posted photographs of the fabulous Groundhog Day Party I attended, then was requested by the Venue which hosted the party to remove them immediately. Which I did… sort of. The Venue, which shall remain nameless, is once again hosting the Groundhog Day Party to benefit the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, on whose Board of Directors I serve. The date is Saturday, February 5th, from 7:30 to midnight. The party is lots of fun and it is a great opportunity to see the incredible interiors of a very private space. The band, The Swingin’ Swamis, is excellent. The Venue’s chef is renowned. The architecture is awesome and the auction items are brilliant. Amongst the items are a gift certificate to my favourite fabric house, DeBois Textiles; tickets to the National Aquarium at Baltimore and a personal tour for six with the curator of Evergreen House, James Archer Abbott.However, best of all, one of the auction items is a private cocktail party for four in the summer gardens of consummate hosts Stiles Colwill and Jonathan Gargiulo, owners of Halcyon House Antiques. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see an amazing estate and spend time with two incredible men. And I am not just saying this because they’re friends! Check out what Southern Accents had to say about Stiles and Jonathan’s entertaining style here and here. For tickets, or to leave an absentee bid on any of the items, click here. It’s going to be a GREAT party!

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas

My Christmas season and all of the rest of my year are filled with such great friends, amazing blog readers and commenters, fun adventures, new blog friends and so much more, that twelve men doing something or another, just seems so insignificant!

From my house to yours, all of the joys of the season!

Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols, An Annual Tradition

One of the most important parts of my preparation for Christmas is listening to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve morning as I am preparing for the festivities later on in the day. This is a quiet contemplation of what Christmas is all about, and comes from the spectacular King's College Chapel in Cambridge, England.

The BBC's weekly radio newsletter puts it beautifully:

As the winter evening shadows lengthen, a solo chorister sings the first verse of “Once in Royal David's City” in the expectant stillness of King's College Chapel, Cambridge. The experience we have here is shared with millions around the world...

The solo chorister is chosen minutes before the service begins so that he won't have time to get nervous. Every time I hear the opening notes of "Once in Royal David's City", I just burst into tears. There's just something so moving about this.

The Festival was something that my father and I both loved deeply and I was lucky enough to spend a summer afternoon at King's College Chapel with him and my mother. I have an abiding image in my mind of my father and his sister as children in England listening to the service on their old radio while their father prepared their Christmas dinner.

There's also a lovely line in the service about remembering "all those who rejoice with us, but on another shore and in a greater light", which was a reference to those lost during the Second World War, although I used to think it referred to my grandfather in England.

The Nine Lessons tradition began in 1928 and has only not happened once, in 1930. The service continued during WWII even though the magnificent stained glass windows of the chapel had been removed for safekeeping.

You can listen to this service on BBC World Service or on public radio stations in the US. It is usually repeated on Christmas Day.

Reprinted from Pigtown Design, December 2007

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas

As a child, we always anticipated the arrival of parcels from the UK. My Auntie Margaret and then my cousins would post a package sometime in November, and with the surface mail, usually on a slow boat, it would arrive just before, or just after Christmas. It had been bounced around and handled so much, that the brown paper packaging was soft from wear. My father would open the parcel and there would be a half dozen or so small packages, all wrapped in the lovely English paper. 

That wonderful experience was repeated yesterday when a massive parcel arrived for me from Andy in Wales. When I picked it up from reception, I was gobsmacked at how heavy it was – somewhere upwards of 15 lbs. I started opening it, but then decided to wait until I had someone to share the fun with… and I knew just who to call.I rang my pal, David Wiesand, owner of the fabulous McLain-Wiesand, and told him what had arrived. Once I arrived at the shop with my parcel, he and I got to work like two greedy children, opening all of the little packages.

Here’s just a peek of what was in the box.  Detail from a fork. On another set, the knife blade features a fishing creel, a rod and two salmon, amongst other decorative elements. The handle of this piece is carved like a piece of twig. Detail from the end of a spoon. And of a knife. I am undecided as to whether this is a phoenix or a griffon. Ideas? How about this tulip-shaped pattern on the ends of a set of knives and forks? This set of knives and forks were just stunning. The handles of this set of knives and forks just stopped both David and me in our tracks. This set of knives and forks was more elaborately decorated than any other I’ve seen. The knife blade has a little fantastical dolphin on it, and the forks are incised on both sides, as is the knife. Even some of the boxes the silverware came in had wonderful details, like this little clasp on a faux shagreen box. Whew! This was just about the most incredible brown paper package I’ve ever received. If you’re interested in any of these pieces, check my Etsy shop in the next week or so and it will be for sale.