Slightly belated solstice and midsummer blessings to you Imogen 🌻. How lovely to read your words about summer traditions and the very touching description of the ‘gypsy rose’ still blooming at the old caravan site.
Thank you Lindsay and a very happy midsummer to you too. If you take the ‘old’ dates into account we are still very much within this tide! The rose is such a remarkable survivor and it’s also a chance in a million that the person who planted the rose made contact with me after my original
instagram post and we are now friends. Social media can be an amazingly positive force sometimes.
Thankyou Imogen for the most delightful post. I loved every bit of it and look forward to making the cake when midsummer comes, once again to me in my wobbly upside down world xxx
Yes Robyn, I’m full of admiration for the way you feel into my little northern-hemisphere-centric posts despite the very different conditions pertaining where you are right now 🙏🏼. I hope you’ll
Reading about the Midsummer cushions reminded me of our local church fete when I was little. There was always a floral ‘competition’ - children were asked to fill a saucer with sand or dirt and create a display from flowers in it. We gathered flowers and created a pattern. It was almost mandala like. I wonder if the idea harked back to old ways of midsummer that came here with our ancestors and woven into the new Australian life
I gave that link as the source material I used was given in the 2020 edition. Yes it’s published every year and back issues are still available online if you Google. It’s really good. Some features remain from year to year, but most of them are different every time. For example in the 2020 edition there was a Romani recipe for every month and also a traditional
Folk song with its musical notation. I have all of them from 2018 onwards but had to fill in some gaps - the older ones are often quite cheap as the year-specific information is out of date.
I’m noticing Laurie Lee quoted a lot this year. Seems I recognise his words before even one sentence is complete. I read a lot of Laurie Lee in my teens - it has seeped into my soul.
Laurie Lee is so inspiring! Have you been seeing him quoted elsewhere? I love the thought that he used to play his violin with my late husband’s grandparents who also both came from Stroud families and were passionate about their music. They played the viola and cello, so you can see how the violin would have woven in.
Yes, the recipe I found said exactly that, that it was in the tradition of welsh cakes! My mum used to make those on a griddle sometimes and they were a huge treat eaten warm with butter - or actually it was probably Sainsbury’s Sunflower Spread 😊
Slightly belated solstice and midsummer blessings to you Imogen 🌻. How lovely to read your words about summer traditions and the very touching description of the ‘gypsy rose’ still blooming at the old caravan site.
Thank you Lindsay and a very happy midsummer to you too. If you take the ‘old’ dates into account we are still very much within this tide! The rose is such a remarkable survivor and it’s also a chance in a million that the person who planted the rose made contact with me after my original
instagram post and we are now friends. Social media can be an amazingly positive force sometimes.
How wonderful that the planter of the rose found you! ❤️
Thankyou Imogen for the most delightful post. I loved every bit of it and look forward to making the cake when midsummer comes, once again to me in my wobbly upside down world xxx
Yes Robyn, I’m full of admiration for the way you feel into my little northern-hemisphere-centric posts despite the very different conditions pertaining where you are right now 🙏🏼. I hope you’ll
enjoy the cake in your appropriate season x
I remember the YouTube video of the caravan site!!! (Commenting as I read ☺️)
Reading about the Midsummer cushions reminded me of our local church fete when I was little. There was always a floral ‘competition’ - children were asked to fill a saucer with sand or dirt and create a display from flowers in it. We gathered flowers and created a pattern. It was almost mandala like. I wonder if the idea harked back to old ways of midsummer that came here with our ancestors and woven into the new Australian life
Yes it could well have been that, Robyn. I used to make little ‘gardens’ on a plate or in a seed tray a lot when I was little too!
Imogen, I’m really interested in the Almanac. The link is the 2020 one, do you buy it yearly? I’d love to get copies ! They are available here
I gave that link as the source material I used was given in the 2020 edition. Yes it’s published every year and back issues are still available online if you Google. It’s really good. Some features remain from year to year, but most of them are different every time. For example in the 2020 edition there was a Romani recipe for every month and also a traditional
Folk song with its musical notation. I have all of them from 2018 onwards but had to fill in some gaps - the older ones are often quite cheap as the year-specific information is out of date.
Oh my! That Green ‘man’ - it took me awhile to see it but I saw an elfin figure which morphed into an almost monkish face! 🌿
I’m noticing Laurie Lee quoted a lot this year. Seems I recognise his words before even one sentence is complete. I read a lot of Laurie Lee in my teens - it has seeped into my soul.
Laurie Lee is so inspiring! Have you been seeing him quoted elsewhere? I love the thought that he used to play his violin with my late husband’s grandparents who also both came from Stroud families and were passionate about their music. They played the viola and cello, so you can see how the violin would have woven in.
Hi Imogen, the gypsy cake sounds like a huge welsh cake!
Yes, the recipe I found said exactly that, that it was in the tradition of welsh cakes! My mum used to make those on a griddle sometimes and they were a huge treat eaten warm with butter - or actually it was probably Sainsbury’s Sunflower Spread 😊
As a welsh girl they are always best eaten warm from the bakestone, yum!
Oh yes, definitely yum!
This is lovely. Thank you. And ongoing solstice/midsummer blessings to you.
Oh thank you. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Sending blessings of midsummer to you too!