All Things Considered

Wiveton Hall Cafe

I was very excited to receive a text message from Ali Yetman last week, declaring that the new eatery she is involved with, will finally be opening on July 23rd. That was Monday, so I headed north.

I have mentioned before in a previous post about the husband and wife team Ali and Peter Yetman - Peter, now brewer of delicious beer and Ali, still fabulous chef. Ali had just started her restauranteur retirement after 18 years of running 'Yetmans' in Holt, North Norfolk, when their eccentric friend and local land owner of Wiveton Hall, Desmond MacCarthy asked if she would cook in his new Cafe venture.

Wiveton Hall Fruit & Farm Cafe  is located between Cley and Blakeney and is situated over-looking one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in Norfolk. The cafe building is a converted 1950s barn, with views of ripening artichokes, red currants, raspberries, strawberries, broad beans and the beautiful marshes.

The idea behind the Cafe is for Ali to use Desmond's high quality, home grown produce and create delicious, seasonal lunches for both the hungry PYO fruit pickers coming to the farm or for anyone who is desperate to eat Ali's fabulous food again (me).

Everything about the Cafe works. The decor is Mexican bright, kitsch and clashing with enough chairs to seat approximately 30 inside and many more outside shaded by pine trees. The counter inside is ladened with cakes, meringues, biscuits and scones to accompany various different types of tea and coffee.

I ate pea, broad bean and parmesan tart followed by gooseberry fool. It was so delicious that I am willing to drive an hour to eat it again and again. You have to go if you are passing or visiting the area, not just to pick quality produce but also to taste what delights Ali can create with Desmond's seasonal supplies.

Wiveton Hall Cafe is open 7 days a week until September.

Latitude Festival

We spent last weekend camping at Henham Park situated near the fashionable seaside town of Southwold, Suffolk. The event was Latitude, organised by  Mean Fiddler, a festival of performing arts ranging from comedy, music and theatre to cabaret and poetry.

The setting itself was beautiful, so quintessentially English. Huge towering chestnut trees dotted around rolling parkland.  At one side of the lake was the bracken-scented wood with two small music stages. Crossing the temporary bridge over the lake you enter the main area with 3 music stage tents and a number of other smaller performing art tents. Further along sat the kiddies area, which was both safe and highly entertaining (for all ages).

The line-up list was long if a little obscure to me. There were a few names I recognised but the lesser-known bands, comedians and cabaret acts were more alluring. My highlights were hearing Rodrigo y Gabriela thrashing it out to a packed crowd in the Uncut tent late on Saturday night and the fabulous Puppini Sisters singing popular contemporary songs in 1940’s, The Andrew Sisters 'boogie woogie' style. Australian comedian Adam Hills had us in stitches while our two girls lay fast asleep on the turf at our feet. And we wouldn't have missed our friends perform the enchanting Norfolk tale of The Peddlar of Swaffham with their beautifully crafted, handmade theatre and puppets to a mass of captivated children.

Along with its relaxed and natural setting,  a diverse line up and a friendly atmosphere, Latitude has a unique quality. Michael Eavis, organiser of Glastonbury was seen over the weekend which will lead to further reports of a future partnership of the two festivals. Glastonbury will entice the younger crowd as Eavis has  requested and Latitude will appeal to families and people wanting a more relaxing and less exhausting festival. I know which one I'd rather go to.

Ernest Race

Following an education at St. Paul's School, London, Ernest Race studied interior design at the Bartlett School of Architecture in the early 1930s.

Having spent time working in lighting manufacture and textiles, Ernest Race Ltd. (later renamed Race Furniture Ltd.) was set up to design and manufacture his designs.

He's perhaps best known for the BA chair (designed in 1945) manufactured from re-cast aluminium and the Antelope chair designed for The Festival of Britain in 1951. These designs were awarded gold and silver medals respectively in the 10th Milan Triennale in 1954.

In the early 1960s, Race became Isokon's design consultant and it was during his time here that he re-designed the Penguin Donkey.

We were really pleased to find a 3-pieces Wing sofa and armchairs a few years ago. It was in fairly tatty condition and the fairly complex re-upholstery (with its metal frame, everything has to be hand stitched) stopped it being the bargain we thought it was. That said, it should last for years. You can see the sofa in a couple of our St. Jude's press articles.

Race Furniture Ltd. are still operating, mainly producing auditorium seating for concert halls and auditoriums. Our friends a Retrouvius approach the company about re-introducing the wonderful Ernest Race rocking chair - which they are now producing in small quantities.

We're offering these in any St. Jude's fabric - see our furniture page for further details.

Ian Mackenzie-Kerr

I always seem to be surrounded by heaps of paper including articles torn from magazines that, at the time, I must have found fascinating only to come across them weeks or months later wondering 'why?'

In a mammoth tidy-up this week I found an obituary torn from The Independent but knew exactly why. I'm just puzzled as to why I'd never heard of Ian MacKenzie-Kerr before and, having discovered him, almost lost him again.

This obituary by Alan Powers, dated 6th June 2005 (OK, so tidying up isn't my strong point) gives a detailed account of  his life and work.

MacKenzie-Kerr was a book designer at Thames and Hudson for nearly 50 years involved in the design of many illustrated books during this time. He also briefly considered a stage career and was offered Peter Cook's role in 'Beyond the Fringe' for the Australian tour.

It's this lithograph that grabbed my attention. Produced in 1956 to illustrate his article 'Notes on Toy Theatres' for ARK, the magazine of the Royal College of Art. At the RCA he was taught by Edward Ardizzone and Edward Bawden - whose influence is so evident in this image. Not just in style and colour but with its similar witty elements.

'Strong Points'  - a collection of articles written by Sir Roy Strong for The Times was illustrated with line drawings by MacKenzie-Kerr in 1985.

I'd love to find more of MacKenzie-Kerr's work. I'll have to keep hunting.

Old Skool Kool

A few years back, Stuart built me a shed. This romantic birthday gift sits at the front of the house opposite the kitchen window. The shed has a large solid old pine door and is angled into one of the corners of the garden. When I first looked inside my birthday shed, it was decked out with a collection of very odd auction items, one of them being the stylish ‘Osokool’ fridge.

Back in the 1950’s, this plaster of Paris cube with an aluminum inner lining and a nifty polystyrene lined plastic door, would sit commonplace in many boats and houses – so very carbon neutral. All you needed to do to keep your perishables cool was to keep the plaster damp and you would do this by topping up the bowl like top with cold water.

I’m pleased to say we do use our cool box. Usually at this time of the year, we would have made use of our Osokool on our camping trips, where it sits outside our tent door so we remember to water it along with a long plastic planter containing 4-week-old salad plants. You see, the great thing about the Osokool is that it is not only runs on a glass of water twice a day but if it rains, as it always does, you can just forget about it along with the salad leaves.

School Prints

We were sorry to hear that Brenda Rawnsley - founder of the School Print series - passed away a few days ago at the age of 90.

Published in the 1940s, Rawnsley persuaded some of the greatest artists of the 20th century to contribute work to be printed and distributed to Britain's schools.

In total 30 prints were produced, and despite the relatively large print runs they have become increasingly difficult to source. Earlier this year all 30 prints were exhibited at the Pallant House gallery in Chichester. This coincided with the publication of Ruth Artmonsky's excellent book that catalogues the series.

We often have original School Prints at the gallery - contact us for further details.

The Times website features this comprehensive obituary.