Tasha Tudor Birthday Celebration!

A Kindred Spirit Special Edition!

Sarah in pasture with Corgyncombe Dairy Goat Carmella Lucille and other goats, too. She is wearing an old fashioned English smock and is holding her great grandfather's old hay rake.

In the 1947 edition of "A Child's Garden of Verses" by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by Tasha Tudor, the lad on the "My Shadow" poem page is wearing an old fashioned smock.

Diane and Sarah have many interests in common with Tasha, such as spinning, weaving, natural dyeing, knitting, gardening, old fashioned clothing, dolls, cooking, corgyn, goats, birds, and the old ways of living.

All these daily things remind us of Tasha. We had so many things in common.
How grateful we are to have been her friend and kindred spirit!!!

At The Corgyncombe Dairy, a bowl full of dairy goat Carmella Lucille's cream.

The colour of the smock reminds us of dairy goat Carmella Lucille's cream.

In "The Workwoman's Guide", originally published in 1838, there is instruction on making a smock.

In referencing bunnies and knitted rabbit wool items from Beatrix Potter's stories and a knitting pattern, Tasha Tudor mentioned "The Workwoman's Guide" and wrote to us "Maybe you also own this invaluable work?" Those at Corgyncombe find that "The Workwoman's Guide" is indeed a most valuable guide. It contains information, patterns, and instructions relating to bonnets and caps, collars, stitches, shawls, frocks, sleeves, knitting, household items, and many other things. The book has instructions for making little stitches and "neat" and "neatly" are predominant words.

"The Real Pretend" written by Joan Donaldson and illustrated by Tasha Tudor.

Sarah of Corgyncombe was Tasha's model for the illustrations of the little girl Kathy in "The Real Pretend". It is a true story about a little girl who goes round to her neighbors, taking pretend orders from the Larkins Catalog.

Sarah in one of the Corgyncombe Cottage gardens in her frock from Tasha Tudor's antique frock collection.

In honor of Tasha's birthday Diane made a cake from the Becky's Birthday Cake receipt in "The Tasha Tudor Cookbook". It was decorated with ferns, goldenrod, Joe-pye weed and forget-me-nots. The above photograph was done in celebration of Tasha Tudor's birthday two years ago.

Charlotte celebrating Tasha Tudor's birthday a year ago. Charlotte finds a nice place in the shade to enjoy her tea, cake, and ice cream. Her cake, decorated with forget-me-nots, is from The Corgyncombe Bakery and her goat ice cream is from The Corgyncombe Dairy.

Diane's bobbin lace pillow is dressed to do a bookmark with spiders and half stitch fans. The wooden bobbins are turned in a design called bees knees. The bobbins are spangled with beads that serve as weights to keep the bobbins from rolling about, for tension, and they also look so pretty. Collecting beads and spangling is great fun. Sometimes the Corgyncombe lacemakers, Diane and Sarah, get their beads from old glass necklaces. Their collection looks like a treasure chest!

The letter box is full of some of the letters that Tasha Tudor sent to Diane and Sarah. The Corgyncombe lacemakers gave Tasha one of their handmade bookmarks called Love-in-a-mist, like the one pictured on the corgi card in the letter box.

This is part of what Tasha wrote: "Dear Diane and Sarah, Such a delightful surprise the other day to receive your nice letter full of your news, and with the charming photographs of Sarah making lace! I assure you I am impressed no end by your new skill and really treasure the dainty lace Bookmarker. Thank you so very, very much!!!" She goes on to say, amongst other things, how she is eagerly awaiting spring...

Sarah and Daisy, we call her Daisy Petals. Can you see why?

A picture of a child at water's edge, wearing an old fashioned smock, on the cover of an old Victorian Herbarium. A herbarium is a collection of pressed flowers.

Green beans and peas from the Corgyncombe Vegetable Garden.

A thistle found behind the big old barn at Corgyncombe, that we call "The Ark".

A pat of Corgyncombe Butter stamped with a thistle print.

Butter churned at Corgyncombe Dairy using the cream from Corgyncombe Dairy goat Carmella Lucille's milk. Diane's butter churn that is a reproduction of a churn Tasha Tudor had. Diane's husband planted cosmos in the vegetable garden at Diane's request, for cut flowers to be arranged in bouquets.

Tasha Tudor added to a nice long four page letter to Diane, a P.S. about how she enjoyed Diane's article about butter making. Tasha commented about how white goat's butter was and she said "I use it in all my cooking! Delectable!"

Sarah and Daisy Petals.
In the background is The Corgyncombe Vegetable Garden.

The little lad on the cover of "Mother Goose", illustrated by Tasha Tudor, is wearing a smock.

Tasha Tudor, Sarah, and Owyn Corgi in the garden at Corgi Cottage.

Tasha Tudor in her kitchen at Corgi Cottage preparing chickens for our supper.

Sarah playing her violin in her Mum's garden of herbs.
Tasha Tudor was delighted to see Sarah in her "charming" old fashioned frocks and also delighted with Sarah's preference for pretty music.

When Sarah was little we went to hear a quartet playing at an old historic house. We then went out to dinner. Our after dinner plans were altered as Sarah announced that she wanted to go back to listen to the "pretty usic". The event was held on a different day than it had been in years past so it was practically a private performance. Sarah sat on her Daddy's lap with her elegantly dressed bear until the evening's entertainments were brought to an end. The cellist was so impressed with Sarah's attentiveness that she invited her to feel the cello vibrate as the bow graced the strings. In a few years hence, Sarah would start playing the violin and played 1st violin in her own quartet!

Tasha Tudor enjoyed hearing Sarah play her violin.


Spinning in the garden on a warm summer afternoon is so pleasant.


Tasha Tudor spinning on Diane's wheel.

Sarah with Corgyncombe Nubian goat kiddle Lucy.

Corgyncombe Nubian goat kiddle Louisa May

Eliakim and Lydia playing in the snow at the Corgyncombe Corg'ery.
Corgyncombe Cottage & Corg'ery is a little farm in the valley where the corgyn dwell. Corgyn is plural for corgi. A combe is a valley, dale, vale, or hollow. Diane and Sarah made up their own exclusive word: "Corg'ery" ....... a corg'ery being a farm where an abundance of delightful corgyn dwell. Some spelling variations of their own word Corg'ery include: Corgiery, Corgi'ery, Corgery, Corg'ry, Corgi'ry..

Above, the turkey is roasting in Diane's Tasha Tudor reproduction tin kitchen. Wassail is in the kettle hanging over the fire. Clove oranges can be seen floating in the wassail.

Christmas morn dawned with a thick lovely lacy frost about everything. The frost lasted all day and with the snow already on the ground it gave one the feeling of a perfect winter wonderland. In the afternoon my husband started a fire and we roasted a turkey on the spit of my new Tasha Tudor reproduction tin kitchen. I put a kettle of wassail on the tripod over the fire and whilst tending the fire and the turkey, we enjoyed delicious wassail (non alcoholic). Some of the frost started coming down from the trees and it was snowing lovely frost. The creek could be heard cheerfully babbling and the smell of the turkey roasting was a delight to the senses! Later, I put a kettle of potatoes on the tripod over the fire to cook. The turkey was delicious!!!

Diane made the above photograph of Sarah and Tasha Corgi into a Valentine card that Tasha Tudor was delighted to receive. Tasha Corgi was named after Tasha Tudor, and Tasha Tudor was very honored and declared herself to be Tasha Corgi's Godmother. The Johnsons have had six corgyn: Tasha Corgi, Katrina Corgi, Ethlyn Maria Weaver Corgi, Emily Jane Jones Shepard Corgi, Eliakim May Corgi, and Lydia Rebecca Sly Corgi. The Johnsons are so grateful to Tasha for showing us through her illustrations how delightful corgyn can be!

Here are links to our blog posts with last 2009's birthday tea:
Tasha Tudor, A Birthday Celebration!
A Tasha Tudor Birthday Tea!

Contact us at our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com

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August 28th Tasha Tudor Birthday Celebration Up and Coming!

Tasha Tudor and Family Has Ice Cream Freezer Giveaway!

Last year for Tasha Tudor's Birthday we made ice cream using the receipt in "The Tasha Tudor Cookbook".
Saturday, August 28th, is the anniversary of Tasha Tudor's Birthday!
The Corgyncombe Courant will be doing a special Tasha Tudor Birthday Post on that day to honor and celebrate our friend Tasha Tudor!

On Rookery Ramblings, Tasha Tudor and Family will be giving away an ice cream freezer and "The Tasha Tudor Cookbook" as Grand Prize! Second Prize will be "The Tasha Tudor Cookbook". There are other prizes, too.

Mmmmmm! It's so delicious!!!
 At last year's Tasha Tudor Birthday Celebration we had goat races, like the residents of Corgiville in Tasha Tudor's "Corgiville Fair".


Lydia Corgi enjoyed the goat races but enjoyed most of all the cake and ice cream!


The receipts for the cake and ice cream are from "The Tasha Tudor Cookbook" and in the book there is an illustration of making ice cream with an old ice cream freezer and a corgi hoping to lick the ice cream dasher.

Natalie at Rookery Ramblings mentioned about finding Tasha Tudor's illustrations of ice cream making.

This was the list that we put on last year's Tasha Tudor Birthday Tea! post:


In "The Real Pretend", written by Joan Donaldson and illustrated by Tasha Tudor, Kathy goes around to her neighbors to take pretend orders from the Larkins Catalog. Sarah was the model for Tasha Tudor's illustrations of the little girl Kathy in "The Real Pretend". In the book, one of Kathy's neighbors, Mr. Williams, is very fond of ice cream and he orders vanilla and salt just as Kathy hoped he would. When the pretend orders become real after her brother sends in the order, she has to go around and collect the money for all the goods that were ordered. Thankfully all the neighbors were pleasant about giving Kathy the money for the orders. One can see in Tasha's illustrations that Mr. Williams is indeed very fond of making ice cream, as all the equipment for making ice cream is on his porch. Mr. Williams encouraged Kathy to write the story of her Larkins selling career and reminded her "You're invited to help me make ice cream when I get my vanilla!"

In the photograph above, Sarah is giving her cat a treat in front of the ice box. On the back inside cover of "The Real Pretend" you will see Tasha's illustration of Sarah as Kathy, that is very similar to Diane's photograph of Sarah in front of the ice box.

Tasha told us she had an ice box much like ours for years and that it was her task to empty the drip pan.

Diane's family used to make ice cream when she was little using an old fashioned ice cream freezer. Vanilla was always the favorite.

In "Becky's Birthday", written and illustrated by Tasha Tudor, she describes and illustrates making peach ice cream for Becky's birthday celebration. There is an illustration of Becky and her brother Ned licking the dasher.

(Sarah adds this for this year, August 25, 2010: In "Becky's Birthday" Tasha's words describe Becky's feelings as Becky first sees her delightful forest birthday surprise table, which was only a foot high: "The scene that lay before them was more than anyone had imagined - even Becky, and she knew Mother and Father could do the most wonderful things." How I understood this statement, for many times I have felt like Becky, knowing how absolutely splendidly my Mum and Pa could make things memorable and special! Sometimes exceeding the anticipated joy! - Sarah)

In "The Springs of Joy", illustrated by Tasha Tudor, a young boy is turning the ice cream freezer crank, whilst other children, anticipating the ice cream to come, wait with spoons in hand at Tasha's back door. The corgyn also eagerly wait hoping they will get a lick of ice cream, too. Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted on the page "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

When you first open up Tasha Tudor's "Seasons of Delight" there is a pop up of Tasha's barn and cottage and there is an illustration of children making ice cream, again awaiting the ice cold treat along with the corgyn.

 This summer Seth Tudor made Diane a reproduction Art Stand like Tasha Tudor's.
You can purchase "The Tasha Tudor Cookbook" at Tasha Tudor and Family.

Here is the link to the Giveaway:
 Tasha Tudor and Family Ice Cream Freezer Giveaway
 
Here is a link to our Tasha Tudor Birthday Tea from last year:
Tasha Tudor Birthday Tea!

Contact us at our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com
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Corgyncombe Apothecary and Apple Orchard

Table Talk Pie Tin and Pie in a Pie Basket Revisited!

A photograph by Diane Shepard Johnson taken in Corgyncombe Garden of Herbs in 2006.


Herbs are dried in the corgyn's pretend apothecary, "Emily & Ethlyn's Potions & Perfumery".


Diane and Sarah made old fashioned labels for the packages of dried herbs. The packages look and smell splendiferous in Corgyncombe's "Emily & Ethlyn's Potions & Perfumery".


An old ledger in Emily & Ethlyn's Potions & Perfumery. In the ledger is recorded butter at 40 cents per pound. The corgyn love hand churned butter flavored with herbs.


The old ledger also has a list of old time apples.


An old copy of "The National Formulary" covered with rose patterned material. There are receipts for elixirs, confections, syrups, and infusions which use many ingredients, such as lily of the valley, iris, rhubarb, lavender, and rose. The bobbin lace bookmark is like one that Sarah made for Tasha Tudor.


Apples from another tree in the Corgyncombe Orchard. Diane swooped them up in her apron and brought them into the old Corgyncombe kitchen and apothecary. The Corgyncombe Orchard calls this apple the Ethlyn Apple.

Whilst we were taking Ethlyn Maria Corgi on one of her frequent necessary outings when she just a little pup, she spied an apple hanging low from one of our apple trees at Corgyncombe Cottage. Ethlyn jumped up and grabbed the apple several times. She ran around with it in her mouth grrring, tugging, shaking, and running in circles until she plucked the apple from the branch. Ethlyn was very pleased with her success!


Ethlyn hanging on to the apple.


Ethlyn with her prize apple.


Photograph by Diane Shepard Johnson was taken in September 2009.
When Diane bakes a pie she often uses old New England Table Talk Flaky Crust Pie tins. Sometimes these tins have a deposit amount of five or ten cents stamped in the tin.


Photograph by Diane Shepard Johnson was taken in September 2009.
The pie has been baked and placed into the old pie basket to enjoy at a pleasant outdoor Autumnal tea.


Photograph by Diane Shepard Johnson was taken in September 2009.


Photograph by Diane Shepard Johnson was taken in September 2009.
The delightful gentle movement of the wind made tea even more lovely. In the mottled sunshine with the leaves drifting down an outdoor Autumnal tea with apple pie is enjoyed.

We've had inquiries regarding what kind of apple was in our "Corgyncombe Apple Orchard" post last year. The Corgyncombe Courant is researching in it's library of apple books to see if we can find an answer.

Here is a link to: our Corgyncombe Apple Orchard post, September 2009

Here is a link to: our Bobbin Lace, A Gift for a Special Friend post from last year

Contact us at our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com


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