violet season is over

but there are still some fragrant varieties in full bloom

and you don´t actually need the flowers in case you want to give this a try

the sirup does the trick

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THE TIREDNESS OF ROSABELL

by Katherine Mansfield

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her stories are unsettling

full of moodswings, lifes turned around in the blink of an eye

heavily scented with all kinds of flowers

slightly hysterical

they can make your heart break a little

so do watch out

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drenched in London rain

milliner Rosabell dreams not only of delectable feasts

she also imagines a completly different life like the ones her clients lead

full of gleaming fires, maids, cozy boudoirs

completed by a dashing suitor

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i felt so sorry for this hungry girl

wet and so exhausted she almost cried climbing up the stairs

comforting herself with beautiful stories

sleeping in this cold dull room

i wanted to bake something very luscious and extravagant for her

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something like a four (dreadful) flights high haselnut cake

spread with hazelnut-chocolate cream

coverd in a violet and anis scented goat cream cheese frosting

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and then i did something very unhealthy but utterly delicious

i put marshmallows and violet sirup in a cup of hot cocoa

made with chocolate, cocoa powder and goat milk

probably one of the craziest things i ever tasted

it could have come right from her dream

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read this and almost all of Katherine Mansfield´s stories HERE

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in case you want to bake this cake

here is the recipe for two layers only

it is really heavy and four layers are probably too much for real life

and in case you´re not intolerant to eggs

use any kind of cake batter with a bit of flour substituted with toasted ground hazelnuts

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140 g spelt flour

50 g slightly toasted ground hazelnuts

1 tsp baking powder

75 g sugar

125 ml butter milk

mix the dried ingredients and add the milk

incoporate until you´ve got a silken runny cake batter

fill into a lined baking tin - about 22 cm diameter

bake at 175 degree celsius for about 25 min

until a tooth pick comes out clean

cream about 400g cream cheese with a few tsp of sugar

blueberry juice for colouring, crushed anis seeds and as much violet sirup as you like

when the cake is cool take it out of the tin

half it with a thin sharp knife

spread each layer with some hazelnut chocolate cream

frost it with cream cheese mixture

i used a butter knife and sometimes my fingers

since i´m not a pastry chef at all

 and if you have some on hand sprinkle with edible violets

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thank you D for "lending" me your wonderful staircase

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now i need some ideas to use up all that leftover violet sirup

it was my birthday last week

the 30th - sounds like a big deal, but i didn´t feel a thing

and it was full of such nice surprises

which made me tear up

but since i´m so very busy right now

(so busy i had to actually buy some cake instead of make one)

i´ll have to show them to you some other time

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a sneak peak of a new PHOTO ESSAY i´m working on

i´ll probably post it tomorrow

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a wedding necklace we made

based on the VARIOUS NECKLACE

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green shoes - shiny green beetle

so much green outside

and so cold

planting carnations, pink sage and lots of mint varieties

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this weekend - and a bit longer - i´m going to be in Berlin

attending THE HIVE and visiting my sister

is anyone coming, too?

also i´d love to hear some ideas on what to see there
thank you so much in advance

right after posting the dandelion crown last week

i found NINA´S dandelion syrup

of course i rushed out the next day

and picked 300 flowers

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but i managed to break the tiny plate my grandmother gave to me

filled with VANILLA CRESCENTS right before she died

and chipped my favorite mixing bowl in the process

(i do have quite a few others, but this one had the perfect shape and size

and it was light blue on the outside)

also i cooked the syrup too long

so it´s more like candy now

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the black cats took off a few months ago

but their mother is back now

got her neutered (trying to break free from the trap led to a scratched nose)

and now we do everthing together

she loves to be loved and sometimes cries when we´re not around

the oddest little creature, so haunted and so into being cuddled

one of her things is climbing into a tree and singing like a bird

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topinambur is my new best enemy

i actually cry out in horror when i spot an other sprout

have to dug up whole beds to get rid of it

it´s not pretty

so whatever you do - do not ever not plant it in a pot

i would heve thrown it all away out of anger

but my garndmothers friend who planted it all over the garden (!!!)

loves it so much i had to pot some

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PETALS - dear ALMA likes them, too

want to read everything on the EVENCLEVELAND BOOKCLUB tumblr

a nice post on THE SPHINX AND THE MILKY WAY about why we share our work

it seems Spring is all about primary and secondary colours in my garden

red, blue, green, yellow - and white

actually this is almost too much

i´ll have to damp them a bit in the future

particularly those horrifing red tulips

(last years TULIPS)

there are hundreds of them

being the pride of my grand and great grandmother

so it would be quite harsh to get rid of them

and relocating is the better option

maybe hiding behind an yew tree hedge

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the forsythia is not mine

a stunningly huge shrub on a very busy street

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TINY BOUQUET #34 PRIMARY COLOURS

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had a "surprise" MRI this week

almost an hour of steady thumping and pounding

revealing a damaged spinal disc and one inflamated vertebra

which - for me - is good news

since two years ago there were three hurt vertebras

which means i´m healing and probably in a few more years

there will be just a little stiffness

due to the now unruly structure of the vertebras

yay

now i know head and back aches are not the symptoms of complicated rheumatic disease

but the side effect of a slightly slipped disc

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made myself a dandelion crown afterwards

wearing the TRIANGLE NECKLACE

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goat milk and yoghurt panna cotta inspired by this recipe from SMITTEN KITCHEN

with compote made of the sweetest and palest rhubarb i´ve ever seen

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made another TINY BOUQUET #35 BLUE

apparently one of my great grandmother´s signature bouquets

were bunches of hyacinths

so i picked myself some from her still existing beds

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tiny geraniums i cut and planted in January

yearning for Spring

a gift for my mom

we thought of posting a documentation on how PETAL PENDANTS are made

since there´s a very nice interview with the A-part of WSAKE in the new BRIGITTE

we couldn´t be more happy about it

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here we go:

making PETAL PENDANTS is hard and sometimes dirty work

.

even though i´m a rather trained "sawer" now

after finishing one or two i have to take a little sawing break

since the material is so thick and hard to maneuver

W calls me the sawing master - now he has discovered one of the secrets:

i´m working standing up

and after over 50 years of experience he says it´s so much easier to do it this way

so in case there are some people out there working in the same field

give it a try:)

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then there is rolling and forging

followed by filing

(also drilling when a silver chain should be added and brazing, too)

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browning with foul smelling hepar sulfuris

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finishing, lots of it 

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we´re never working on more than three or four at once

(which is quite a big number for us)

since the process is so exhausting

but when those are done, we start over again