We recently had our kitchen redecorated with a few Delft tiles inspired by our visit to Fanø last year. The island has many thatched cottages of a similar age to ours, and inside they are decorated with traditional Delft tiles, usually in blue and white, but sometimes in brown and white and sometimes set on the diagonal rather than in squares like a chessboard. Readers might remember me writing about visiting that Danish island last year! Since then I have been working on a storybook about a family living there during the 1890s. (More about that in a later blog)
So when we had to re-tile our kitchen I got very excited at the prospect of using a just a few hand painted Delft tiles here and there. They would be in keeping with the age of the property and we could order individual designs rather than just using modern, mass produced generic ones like the tiles we were removing. I could just imagine a child enjoying inspecting each different picture with delight and making up stories about the animals, people and landscapes in them. We had to wait 7 months for them to arrive from Holland but that just added to the excitement!
The beautiful monochrome tiles did not disappoint and we had a lot of fun working out where to place each one. Ducks and boats near the sink area, of course, and a windmill above the cupboard where we store flour!
They are the gift that keeps on giving as I love looking carefully at each picture as I potter about doing household chores.
It wasn’t long before I started wanting to do a mock up of a ‘Jaffa’ tile.
Cat lovers will understand!
As always, the physical act of painting something made me notice things much more carefully. I had to find a way to match the blue, to copy the method of shading and the placing of different items in the design and enjoyed trying to copy the brush strokes.
When I had finished this one I noticed that the four corner motifs of the tile I had copied (which was a sample) were subtly different from the ones that came with our final order. I also realised that each design we had ordered had a triangular shape, with the base being roughly half way up the tile (although it does go slightly lower in places) and a tall part somewhere near the centre of the composition.
If I do another cat tile I will try and incorporate this design feature by including a tall plant behind him, or by using a sitting pose.
living with kitchen chaos
I love it when change in routine throws up new things to me like a plough unearthing treasure in a field.
While we lived in the chaos of a kitchen conversion, I used our Rayburn to cook because there was a large cavern where the electric hob used to be.
Every meal took longer but to my surprise tasted wonderful.
Now the Rayburn is off for the summer and we have a super-fast and efficient induction hob to use. I could make my morning porridge in about 40 seconds. And for the first two mornings I did. But then I realised it just wasn’t the same as the delicious, slow cooked Rayburn version.
Now I put the hob on low, sit and write my diary and let time work its magic and turn whole oats, milk and cinnamon into something creamy and delicious.
I reflected that the fast induction variety tasted empty and raw, despite being technically hot – like modern living, something to be crammed into a rushed lifestyle where there isn’t time to savour the joy of food.
Take your time today and appreciate the full value of the good things in life, even if that’s just for one meal.