Vintage glamour in Norfolk

On 16th November the Norfolk Costume and Textile Association has organised a Vintage Fair and Tea Dance, which sounds like a lovely way to show off some of their collection of 1930s and 1940s clothing. There will be models circulating in the tea dance in costume, and the attendees will also be expected to be in costume, which they can buy at the fair in the morning.

The Costume and Textile Association is part of Norfolk Museums – this sounds like a lovely way of bringing collections out into the real world.

 

The Costume and Textile Association presents : Strictly Vintage 

16th November 08

The Halls 
St Andrews Plain 
Norwich NR3 1AU

 

01379 641187

 

 

Marlene image from venusnaturalis 1930s girl image from free parking

Not Scotland but Suffolk

The thrilling sound of Red Deer calling through the mist, the locking of antlers, the majesty of a succesful male. Like an apocalyptic version of birdwatching, the stag rutting season is a seasonal event that comes to Suffolk as well as the Scottish mountains.

Red deer are native to the area around RSPB Minsmere, and the staff there have set up a viewing post so visitors can experience the weird excitement of rutting deer, as the males intimidate each other with strange calls and try and hang on to their harem of does in the face of opposition, bashing heads those who oppose them. Those taking children may have a little explaining to do about why they are motivated to do this… 

Via the Eastern Daily Press website

The viewpoint will be open daily until November 2, from 3pm to dusk. RSPB staff and volunteers will be on hand and telescopes and binoculars will be available. For more information, call the reserve on 01728 648281.

To get there, leave the A12 at Blythburgh. At Westleton, turn left on to the Dunwich Road. Drive straight on and the RSPB’s trailer is on the right hand side with car parking further up on the left.

Eight at Baldock Arts

Baldock in Hertfordshire is a slightly depressed town with the most glorious brick architecture from another age. It was once one of the coaching stops on the main road to London, and the doublewide high street is full of parked cars and big old inns are sadly shabby, many closed. 

In a ‘Lets put on the show right here’ kind of way, the closed town hall has been turned into a tiny studio theatre, and a new arts festival has burst upon the world. (Full disclosure, I’ve been helping out and thus am totally biased in its favour).

On Sunday night a play called Eight is stopping on its way between London and New York, which is quite exciting for Baldock. It was the hit of the summer in Edinburgh, and seems to be building from strength to strength. There are eight twentysomething characters each dealing with modern life in their own particular way. Apparently they are “deliciously cynical yet touching snippets of life that question what it is to be ‘normal’ in a generation where everything has become acceptable. Investigating 2008 from a refreshingly offbeat angle; these eight monologues present obsession in its moral, sexual and religious guises, offering intelligent, politically punchy and incisive writing that rebuffs the definition of contemporary youth as apathetic, drug-munching, no-brainers. “

Hence its clutch of awards and good reviews from everyone from the Scotsman to the New York Times.

I’m excited. Catch them this weekend before they hit the states.

Eight by Ella Hickson – Sunday 26th October at Baldock Town Hall, Baldock, Hertfordshire.

Get tickets from Clare Heyhoe  on 01462790975,  07962663499 , or email clare@baldocktownhall.co.uk

See more of the schedule at the website 

Forage in the hedgerows

After the first hard frost it is sloe picking time. They grow on blackthorns – easy to spot because they grow the same size as hawthorns but with oval leaves and really quite ferociously long thorns. They aren’t as ubiquitous as hawthorns, but most country walks in East Anglia are likely to throw up several.

This is a typical thorn. Our sloe picking expedition was punctuated by a quiet chorus of ouches.

 

The ripe berries are beautiful on a sunny autumn afternoon

 

It didn’t take long for us to collect a whole bowl, leaving plenty of less accessible berries for the birds. Then spit spot back home, and we put them in the freezer overnight to simulate a hard frost – we’ve only had a couple of light ones so far. Apparently you can make sloe jam or eat them fresh fresh from the tree, but we saved all ours for infusing in gin – find the method in good old wikipedia. It should be ready in time for christmas. An extra tip is when you have drunk the gin, try infusing the leftover berries in sherry. I haven’t tried this yet but it sounds lovely.

Available for free in a hedgerow near you. You can eat the berries but not the leaves of the Blackthorn tree.

 

A summer evening dancing

Totally outside the scope of this blog, in that it’s not homegrown in East Anglia and it’s not available by the weekend, but there’s one more night of the Richard Alston Dance Company at the Cambridge Arts theatre tonight. It is contemporary dance, which may make your mind glaze over and your eyes cross involuntarily, but if it doesn’t…

The first piece is based on the music of Hoagy Carmichael, loose, swinging 30’s jazz, all the girls in printed silk dresses, all the chaps in white shirts and tailored beige trousers, just full of sunshine and flirting and summer evenings by the river. The perfect antidote to damp cold East Anglia, which is suffering from a distinct lack of summer right now.

 

Cambridge Arts Theatre, 6 St Edwards passage cambridge CB2 Box office 01223 503 333

Local, seasonal, delicious

The Elbournes have been growing orchard fruit for five generations. Their farm shop in Meldreth has been there since 1967, but is only open in season – pretty much August to February. The apples there smell so much more apply than those in the supermarket – the orchards are around Meldreth and the next village, Melbourn, so they don’t have far to come and can be picked when properly ripe.

It’s a treat to drop in to the shed and pick out some interesting apple varieties from the wooden crates.

They have been very proactive in planting and selling heritage varieties. South Cambridgeshire was traditionally always an apple and plum growing area, famous for it, and they are carrying on the tradition and growing varieties I, an apple lover, have never heard of. 

 

They do well known varieties as well, generally at less than supermarket prices, and full flavoured apple juice pressed from single varieties, which is also available in farm shops around the area. Have a look for it if you are in the South Cambridgeshire area. Also, occasionally homemade apple muffins still warm from the oven appear on the cash desk.

There were two but one got eaten before I could take a photo…

Do seek them out and remember what apples should taste like – a touch tarter and more complex than the modern commercial varieties and perfect with Wensleydale cheese from the Hawes Creamery.

NB the shop is now closed until the season starts again in August.

Cam Valley Orchards Farm Shop

25 Whitecroft Road, Meldreth,

Royston, Herts SG8 6ND

07770 461 685

Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday only, 9AM to 6PM, August – February

No website