Cutting Edge? Nah!!!!
It's a bit of a given that you won't come here, to my blogs or even my website, and find something 'cutting edge'. In my work and business life I am not particularly interested in minimalism but rather drawn to tradition. I really do not go out searching for the next big thing for my inspiration but instead I look to the past and try to update it. Folk will say, and have said, that looking back like this is unhealthy. They spout that one should always be looking forward and moving on, searching for new and wonderful ways of doing and being. "What's the point in looking back? " they say with a slight sneer and curling of the upper lip. "That'll get you nowhere"
And it is on that final point that they are so very wrong.
Tradition is the heartbeat, the thread and the defining characteristic that runs through both blogs and the designs I feature on the website. Tradition, as a word and a concept, is also something that has gotten some very bad press over time. The moment you so much as breathe the word images of stuffy, dark living rooms on drizzly Sunday afternoons flood into the mind. ' Tradition' conjures up ideas of bigotry and intolerance, of unwavering support for outdated and, quite frankly, dangerous regimes and customs.
If you were to overhear somebody say "she's very traditional" what would you think of that person?I know what I may be tempted to believe, that the person being described was a tad rigid, old fashioned in thought and deed and not quite relevant. Well I am coming to the conclusion that tradition is just about as relevant as a tonic to the world I find myself in today as you can possibly get. This blog has never been a forum for social commentary but occasionally when the urge takes me I change the rules. I can do that as it's my blog. So today I make the bold and perhaps reckless proclamation that tradition, in certain, specific forms are the way FORWARD. I think you heard me right. I think it's the way FORWARD. Looking back and taking the best of the past and bringing it bang up to date without loosing the values and the good sense that lies right at its heart.
Why do people across the planet love Cath Kidston? I say that it's due in a large way to the fact that she has taken designs and concepts for the home that are steeped in tradition from days gone by and brought them bang up to date. She has incorporated the two. Incorporated, I like that word.
How about these crafty/homemaking blogs we so dearly love to read and comment on? More often than not they are written by women who work towards bringing a little bit of tradition back to their homes. They are business women, crafters, employees, SAHM's and, not forgetting, the bright young things who do not have children or may not be married but know that their loves, likes and tastes could be dragged from many years ago and quite happily dropped in their laps.
The same goes for Tessa Kiros. She has brought us recipes that her family has cooked down the generations. She has woven the fabric of her family's history into her books and we buy them in our thousands. The pictures of sun drenched, rosy fabric covered tables bending under the weight of food that has been prepared for an enormous gathering of family and friends inspire us to do the same. And I would say that this same sense of tradition runs through my favourite company/business/lifestyle in the world ever. Yes, you've guessed it The River Cottage.
Hugh F-W takes us back time and time again and reminds us of traditions and methods that not only allows us to respect the environment we live in but also enables us to stay more active and get back in touch with the great environment that is ours for the taking. I promise you that a computer will NEVER give you as much as a garden. I say that as a person who is in front of a computer for a great part of the time and who will be getting her first garden in just a few weeks. But I make the choice time and again to leave my keyboard and head off to see what is out there, and I really do believe that if enough of us incorporate (there's that word again) a contemporary, hybrid version of tradition into our lives then the word will cease to be dirty and will become the buzz word of media types across the land.
In this terrifically competitive world it is more than tempting to think that if I don't promote, promote and then promote some more I will fall behind. Fall behind what???????? What is this magical (read: ridiculous) standard that we set ourselves and keeps me changed to my keyboard. Who gives a flying rabbit poo whether or not 2 people or 200 people leave comments on my blog! When I started my blog I didn't have comments for weeks & weeks and I get a sprinkling of comments compared to others out there. But what I do remember is the fact that I would look forward to posting every day when I first started out and I didn't even know that folk were reading let alone that they could comment if they wanted to. I still feel like that and sometimes I wished that there was no business attached to my blog as I don't want folk to think that it's a constant advertisement.
Note: Do not mix up my comments regarding the numbers of comments left on peoples blogs with the utter joy I feel when people de-lurk and introduce themselves to me. Getting to know people is another thing entirely and something that brings light into my days. Comments also turn a blog into a dialogue, something I wholeheartedly encourage. Even if you disagree with what I am saying.
The subtitle to the Tales from Pixie Wood blog is 'Days in England & Adventures in Housekeeping', and I believe that in the future those days spent in my wonderful country will be featured much more heavily, especially when we move. I love my country so much I could burst. I am SO RELIEVED that I live here but this sense of relief really only comes because for the longest time I believed that I was born in the WRONG country. I felt that I should have been born in California, USA and even after LBH and I got together if I ever had too much Pimms and lemonade I would end up rather tearful because I thought that LBH and I wouldn't make it through, such was my desire to leave this country and make my life in another. My heart changed. I had a 'change of heart'. It was this that made LBH want to marry me, among other things of course. He knew his life was here and how on earth could he see a future with someone who wanted to fly off to distant lands?
My country has tradition pouring out of every pore and nowhere is that featured more heavily than when you go out to the country. When I read in Country Living magazine that only fifty years ago there were 200,000 dairy farmers in Britain and now there are just over 12,000 it feels like my heart has been ripped out and trampled on, not to mention the mild state of panic that creeps up my neck. THAT IS A RIDICULOUS STATISTIC! Is there anybody out there watching out for people like that? Is there anybody in power, anywhere, who could have seen that happening even 10 years ago and looked at the bigger picture in order to stop it? It is especially vexing when you go on to read that we are now having to import our milk as the cows are unable to produce enough for us. This makes me mad as hell and if you ever want to see me get very angry indeed it is when I read articles such as this. I take no notice of folk that tell me there is no point in getting annoyed. RUBBISH. As far as I am concerned it is righteous anger and more fool you if you get in the way.
I'll now bring this post back to its original point. The pictures in todays post are of the 'how-to' I spoke about. You'll notice that they are simply blown eggs that have been decorated.
That's it.
One of them broke and so I rinsed it very thoroughly indeed and have used it as a receptacle for salt. If the eggs are rinsed properly you can put them away and bring them out year after year to decorate the table with at Easter. So this is not a groundbreaking idea or concept that I present today. It is simply a current version of something that has been done for years. Something you can do on your own, with your children. I had LBH with me while I did mine. I should note that the coloured eggs you see are Old Cotswold Legbar and I used them to great effect in my Vanilla Kisses. I like table confetti, which is essentially what I will be using these decorated eggs for. You can hang them on a tree too but I am exploring table themes at the moment and this is my Easter version.
Phew! This has been a longer post than I thought it would be. It has also made me feel great. The relinquishing of thoughts has left me feeling refreshed, hopeful and ready to leap on into the rest of the week and the future beyond that. With my contemporary sense of tradition firmly in place of course!
Cherry xx
