Yesterday's walk yielded this mass of I think marigolds. It fills most of the ground floor width of the house.
And I've been reading material other than Elin Hilderbrand, the ultimate fluffy beach read.
At least I've been trying. I embarked on Piranesi, after a wait for my turn at the library. It came faster than I expected, and I think I can guess why.
Reportedly a tour de force of fantasy writing, not my usual choice, but I loved Ladies of Grace Adieu and as far as I've got in the massive Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell.
So I started Piranesi, and I can report that if you've just been through two major flooding and damaging storms in nine days, with dozens of drowning deaths, danger to your son and cleanup still under way, this might not be a happy choice of leisure reading.
It opens in a maze like structure subject to flooding, where the main characters climbs ever higher to escape the water until it recedes, and notes human remains he's found in various rooms.
It's an allegory, not a documentary, but after a couple of waves of panic and virtual claustrophobia, I set it gently down for a more settled time in my own life. I wonder if other borrowers did likewise, hence the rapid arrival at the top of what had been a long waiting list.
And instead I watched the latest Last Homely. House on YouTube, Kate baking scones, and found hey, she's got the Be-Ro book!
My Mom had that when I was very young, though by then she probably knew it well enough not to need the recipes. So I tracked it down online and I think this was the edition she used.
The flour company used to give them away with their self raising flour, probably why it's so tall and narrow, to go with the bag of flour. The first one came out in 1923, with many editions since.
I'm pretty sure this was her vintage, because it was that sepia colored ink. So here's some of what she baked out of it in the 1940s.
The book itself had the usual wear and tear from flour and fats and being handled. It's from an era where it was intended to train girls to be good home bakers, and their inevitable goal was supposed to be that of housewife.
About reading negative space: it's the space around the solid objects. It's what a natural artist draws rather than the object itself. It's what creates the composition.
You can learn to see it, and I've taught it to adults, but to an artist it's just how you see. In fact I was amazed as an adult, when I discovered everybody didn't. It's how you create composition. It's how you crop photos.
You can see it in the way I cropped the marigold picture at the head of this post, those bits of background and the shadowed areas creating the composition. This may just need to flow over you if the concept is a new one in your thinking. But it's a permanent presence in an artist's way of life.
And it's clearly a great byway for some of us to travel on no excuse at all.
I read Piranesi last year. I went back and read my review/synopsis. I enjoyed it. it's a story that takes place in a different world.
ReplyDeleteI remember taking sewing (which I already knew how to do) and home ec in in 8th?, 9th? grade. 8th I think. the indoctrination bagan early. I had a McCall's cookbook for girls. the dish that stands out for me was hot dogs with a slit down the middle lengthwise stuffed with cheese wrapped with bacon kept in place with toothpicks and then roasted in the oven. considered good eating in the early 60s.
I know somebody (maybe the Brits?) made a TV mini-series of "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell" that was quite well received. I haven't seen it though. Or read the book. Maybe some day?
ReplyDeleteGlad you and your son are all right
ReplyDeleteI have to say that Ellen's hotdog recipe sounds delightful.
ReplyDeleteI'm serious.
My home-ec classes were excellent. We learned how to sew, yes, which like Ellen I already sort of knew how to do, and basics of cooking. I think that ALL students should have to take these classes. It's not that we're all going to grow up to be housewives, it's that we all wear clothes and eat food. We should know the basics of how to sew on a button and make something nutritious and tasty to eat that doesn't come from a box or the freezer. I have the cookbook that I learned most of my early recipes from which was the same one my mother had. I still go to it!
I never had any cooking in school ay all. No facilities for it. And in schools where it was taught, boys were doing woodwork, girls forced to do cooking. When the Be-Ro books first came out, nearly 100 years ago, it was assumed there were no jobs for poorer girls other than domestic service. For better off girls, only marriage. If you were working when you married, you'd be fired. Married women not employed. There's a lot of history in these little books.
DeleteThe standards of clothing design and construction and the skills of sewing at my highschool were excellent, though.
DeleteAs one who doesn't automatically notice negative space, it is amazing to think about how differently we perceive the world. Exercises in "Drawing On The Left Side Of Your Brain", many years ago, were extremely enlightening.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ms. Moon: home ec for all, and wood shop for all. Not the way our high school thought, back in the day.
Chris from Boise
I love the old cookbooks which show the wear of cooking and baking over the years, women’s toil to feed a family!
ReplyDeleteI remember my grandmother having a Robin Hood flour cookbook and my mother using a Red Roses cookbook. For myself, I learned to cook, from the good ol' red cookbook by Betty Crocker. I've given that book to pretty much every bride over the years because it teaches the absolute basics. It's still the one we consult when we want to know how to cook something we're unfamiliar with.
ReplyDeleteThe discussion on negative space is interesting - can't say that I fully grasp the concept per se, but I'm wondering if it's something that an artist knows intuitively.
I had a way of walking people though it, jigsaw style, pieces of paper. That worked well and was quite a revelation to some folk.
DeleteI find I can no longer read deep and disturbing books. I need inspiring or history or documentary.
ReplyDeleteI certainly have to more careful what I get into these days, yes.
DeleteI just noticed you left a comment on my old closed blig, but I happened to catch it. I found it much less confusing all around when I combined the blogs. And interesting to readers if each one who hadn't all realized there were two.
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