The Edge of the World … a bookshop …

 

At the moment … I'd like to disappear off to this Penzance shop to quietly keep my head down away from the news … to be able to read lots of books – but life is here in sunny old Eastbourne – when the sun decides to show its face again …

I'm forever blowing bubbles appeared in my little grey cells – the lyrics don't really fit the time … but I could happily sit on the sands dreaming as the days pass … til the need to blow bubbles has passed.

The lighter days cometh … it is now warmer and of course damper – British weather.

I have numerous tomes, some shorter!, I hope to talk to you about some of them – all in due time of course … for now the winter darkness is still around … but these crocuses are reaching above ground to cheerfully greet us … and remind us time doth pass …

I'm off to an exhibition on Sunday using the Sussex Art Shuttle … a little bus that takes us from the Towner Gallery out to Charleston (Bloomsbury Group Sussex home) … meandering through the swathes of snowdrops, early daffodils and those crocuses …

Not to the bookshop (or the edge of the world) … but a bright informative exhibition in the Sussex landscape will satisfy … enjoy your times …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Pasta Primavera – Spring Pasta …

 

The delights of Spring … those early vegetables … and the thought of enjoying a Spring meal using young Spring greens – with luck new peas, sprouting broccoli, watercress, sorrel, Spring cabbage, early broad beans or runner beans, pasta with a creamy sauce … and some herbs …

Pasta Primavera with asparagus

Healthy flat ribbon pasta (tagliatelle) – steam or lightly cook your veggie as you usually do … boil the tagliatelle, drain … add the fromage frais and gently stir in (making sure the sauce doesn't split) as you warm it through …

Sprouting Broccoli - one of
my favourites

Add the veggies and chopped herbs of choice (parsley and chives come to mind) with a splash of pasta water … stir very gently … lightly season …

Broad Beans - also delicious!

Serve scattered with parmesan, and a drizzle of olive oil …

Spring Meadow - with blackthorn in the 
background

As this is a Spring dish … I prefer not to add tomato at this stage in the season … preferring a green pasta dish …

Pasta Primavera with Shrimp

We could add salmon, or seafood if so desired for a Good Friday lunch/supper …

Apparently the dish was invented in the 1970s in Canada by a New York restauranteur … I feel fairly certain the Italians would have been making similar dishes over the centuries in their villages … but so be it: it introduced me to Roberts Island, in Yarmouth County …

Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia -
their shipping museum

… but I can't find a satisfactory image – so I'm showing you Yarmouth County Museum – which is full of shipping history. Nova Scotia has an interesting coastline – suitable for rich barons who need summer homes!

Personally I wouldn't add asparagus as ours really doesn't come into season til the end of this month … on checking – St George's Day is when it commences here (23^rd April) … til mid-summer's day (21^st June). Then of course May will arrive rather sooner than expected – so please use asparagus if you'd like to!

Peas growing ... so good straight from the plant

A simple meal to prepare over the Easter weekend … with the fish appropriate for Friday … I doubt it's going to be warm enough here to eat outside – some years it has been.

Happy Easter to you all – here is a collection of Ukrainian pysanky with traditional folk designs … and I'll be back with my WEP entry next week … 

A variety of Ukrainian Pysansky eggs

Note: Pysansky are Ukrainian Easter eggs – decorated using beeswax and dyes. The verb comes from pysaty, “to write”, as the designs are not painted on, but decorated with beeswax.

See the history here ... Pysanksy Eggs project ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Spring brings the Cuckoo ...

 

I couldn't resist this photo of an Emerald Cuckoo - and remember back to earlier days of wandering in the garden, watching the robin out and about - while listening with intent to the sound of the cuckoo - first heard by one of us ... mother, father, uncle in latter years ...

Emerald Cuckoo (Africa)

While you've have noticed (hopefully ... I don't disappear into the blogging ether, when I'm not around!) ... I'm taking life away from here in April - except for the next WEP (20th - 22nd April) ... 

The Cuckoo Song – this jolly 13^th- century poem – a feel good hit for summer is a-comen in …

Sumer is icumen in,

Loude sing cuckou!

Groweth seed and bloweth meed,

And springth the wode now.

Sing cuckou!

The Anthology link is here:

Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature ...

Or for grandchildren ... or perhaps those with a more modern take:  The Cuckoo nursery rhyme ...

The Cuckoo comes in April

She sings her song in May

She changes her tune in the month of June

And in July she flies away

I just loved their colourings ... and had no idea there were so many different types of them ... 

Emerald cuckoo - beautiful colourings

Our English (common) cuckoo isn't 'quite' as pretty as this one - and again I'd no idea the Emerald Cuckoo is native to Africa ... 

Here they herald Spring ... but are not so popular now we understand they are brood parasites ... relying on other species to raise their young - I see the list contains over 290 nest-hosts = incredible ... 

Well once again I learnt - the heralder of Spring reminds us of so many wonderful things ... so to keep this shortish I won't go into the roles they've played in human culture for thousands of years ... 

The male Emerald cuckoo,
with his beautiful sunny breast

Enjoy April with its April showers, stormy skies, snow appearing and the A-Z ... I'll be around ... then again in May ... 

Frederick Delius' composition first performed in Leipzig 1913 'On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring' - after 40 secs there's some stunning English countryside - it's been described as meditative and calming ... 

I will see you when the cuckoo sings her song in May!  Actually probably an #WATWB to start a new phase of this blog fest ...

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories 

A Spring Morning … oh how it varies …

 

Early May last year was beautiful … this year – crumbs: well they wouldn’t stay on my plate for very long … as it is rocking and rolling out there … and is still jolly cold …

Eastbourne Pier - on a very windy day
today 2021

 

1791 illustration for Jack and
Gill going up a hill
(Nursery Rhyme)

 

England’s weather … John Clare (1793-1864) with thispoem sort of got it right – but I don’t remember one this cold …

A Spring Morning

 

The Spring comes in with all her hues and smells,

In freshness breathing over hills and dells;

O’er woods where May her gorgeous drapery flings,

And meads washed fragrant by their laughing springs.

Fresh are new opened flowers, untouched and free

From the bold rifling of the amorous bee.

The happy time of singing birds is come,

And Love’s lone pilgrimage now finds a home;

Among the mossy oaks now coos the dove,

And the hoarse crow finds softer notes for love.

The foxes play around their dens, and bark

In joy’s excess, ’mid woodland shadows dark.

The flowers join lips below; the leaves above;

And every sound that meets the ear is Love. 

Carpet Gardens on Eastbourne seafront

A year is a long time … and how much life has changed … and will continue to change …

 

Wall of Love (erected 2000)
in Montmatre

I rather liked this phrase – it is so appropriate for this difficult time that we’re all going through … 

… we have to possess our souls in patience

 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories