Sunday 22 November 2009

Blueberry sunday

Smitonius:

Visited two Scandinavian Xmas fairs yesterday in south London: the elegant Norwegian fair held at St Olav's, where many women in traditional costume can be spotted. This church was built for Norwegian seamen in 1927, and has a lovely wood panel interior, which was crammed full of seasonal 'Nisse' ornaments: a type of gnome. When I was a teenager, there was a book by Wil Huygen and illustrated by Poortvliet that I loved... does anyone remember that one?

I resisted walking out with armfuls of the little creatures, though did find some presents (shhhh) and treated myself to salty licorice (not for everyone, but I do like it!).

Then I popped down the road to the Finnish fair held on the same day at the Finnish Church (if you are in London, it is on next week also!). This one is not as pretty but it is worth going to for the food alone: a nice bottle of Lapin Kulta beer with home smoked hot salmon, mash and sour cream for lunch followed by more retail. Stocked up on Moomin parafernalia, Finnish yarn, and treats (like Raspberry and Blueberry Jaffa cakes!). In fact, there was a fine young Fin doing a barrow boy impersonation and selling 1 kilo of frozen blueberries for £1. Guess what I spent this morning doing?

Blueberry jam (a 'Summer' variety following this recipe by Purplegirl plus a 'Christmas' version sort of inspired by the vague instruction in this recipe: Hendrick's cocktail) AND Blueberry vodka... not inky blue, but a velvety red I would say!

8 comments:

BumbleVee said...

hey.... I have that book! I've always loved gnomes and elves....

I found this site with some great needle felted gnomes...a lady in Norway... hope this works... haven't tried a link for a while....

felted gnomes

rachel said...

Aaaah, Moomins.... such lovely books....

I've passed your post on to the Lovely Son, as he might be able to go, work permitting.

Tania said...

I reckon I could quite happily precariously live my life through you. Am heavily addicted to salty licorice, the jam looks unbelievable and I happened to pick up that same gnomey book at a school fete a month ago.

FWOG. said...

oooh, I can smell that jam. And you're just teasing us with that vodka.
W

LITTLE BROWN DOG said...

This is a lovely blog. I would have loved to have gone to those fairs but never seem to find out about them until they're over. Love the idea of blueberry vodka! No doubt it's extremely good for you with all those anti-oxidants.

Excellent stuff!

molly said...

I remember Gnomes! I also had a calendar of some of the book's illustrations.....Because of you I've spent the last half hour admiring Gunknitter's trolls and needlefelting!

Marcheline said...

I remember falling in love with that book when I was in grade school, and then drawing gnomes and fairies and elves on every scrap of paper I could find...

Even when I was an adult, in a hotel room, I took down the wall art and drew fairies peeking out from between blades of grass, and hung them back up. I wonder if anyone's ever found them yet.

Hee hee!

kelly said...

I just wanted to leave a message to say I have that book (used to get all giggly at the slightly naked gnome anatomy page!)