'There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature. Therefore buildings must have no straight lines or sharp corners.' Antoni Gaudi

On noticing the corners, getting round them and choking on crumbs of banana cake

Always find the sunny spot

Here we are bathed in sunshine at last. Outside beckons constantly, as does lying on the floor, as we attempt a daily assault on boxes of stuff that need to be unpacked and given a home. It is the home giving that is so challenging. Where can a huge mirror with smoke blackened once gilt frame and glass with full mildew effect that came from my parents house live? Where can we put the duffle coat my daughter had when she was 8 and is, obscurely, the only children’s garment I have kept? What about the hundreds of football bigheads from my sons bedrooms? They used to live in a corner cupboard along with cricket balls, Pokemon cards and other vital components of Nineties childhood. But now we don’t have the right kind of corners and the sons are in their thirties, and live in their own houses with their own families, all of which makes the idea of me putting the Bigheads up on a shelf a bit creepy. I shall try to get them to take them away, but I know I will be met with resistance.

For the uninitiated: these are football Big Heads

Moving house is such a profound change, and yet, as objects swim to the surface and find their place on shelves or on the walls, it also affirms the continuity of family and our desire for the embers that warm the heart of home.

Here is a fireplace in our new house illustrating just that, as a very beloved work by the brilliant landscape and nature painter Endellion Lycett Green embraces a new portrait, the paint almost still drying, which I collected from the talented Elizabeth Kemp just a few days ago. This picture of my grand daughter is alive with the glow of a toddler at the threshold of everything. The landscape seems to me to hold one of those moments when the air is still and also redolent of serenity and light, the breeze drops and the stream quiets. The combination of them here together brings memories and possibilities tumbling through my consciousness. It may seem unseasonal to mention firelighting, but for anyone without true boy scout skills, these are what you need to get your fire going. The hawk eyed reader will recognise that our fireplace is made from bumpy blocks of granite; and too often the only way to spark joy in this elemental and echoing space is with the above mentioned natural firelighters, which always seems to work, no matter how damp the wood and dank the hearth.

The bumpiness of the granite is an excellent feature. The house has soft edges, and few straight lines, and it makes sense to surrender to this this idiosyncratic theme, especially given that we are tucked away in a rural pocket of nature at it’s most riotous. This means the dogs, despite their relaxed look earlier in this post, are on high alert to shoot after deer at every opportunity, but it also means they are exhausted by their efforts and give up a little sooner each time they fail to catch anything. This is good. I don’t want to be dealing with dead bodies. Who does?

Crime writers of course, and here is a list of 10 excellent thrillers

This is a delicious banana bread recipe I make often. Recipe lies behind the paywall.

Beyond the paywall lies the recipe for the OH CRUMBS banana bread that is the perfect edible to have with any or all of the thrillers that I did not have the heart to put behind the pay wall. Please think about becoming a paid subscriber. I would be delighted if you are able to do so. So delighted in fact, that I am making a SPECIAL OFFER for the next 4 weeks - the SPECIAL thing is that the price remains the same as it is now..a humble £6 per month. From then it will GO UP. So… May 2025 is the time to subscribe and share.