Without My Yacht

Lucindaville loves Ethelind Fearon. We have a profound hope that someone out there knew Ethelind Fearon and will contact us and tell us stories. We haven't found any of Fearon's friends yet, but we are hopeful.

At some point in the late 1950's, Fearon took off to the south of France to live and write. Bookcases strain under the weight of those, "I-have-gone-to-France-and-I-will tell-you how-great-my-life-is-now." And yes, we buy every last one of them. In fact, we could probably live in France if we had all the $$$ we have spent on those books, but I digress....

If you, too, are a sucker for these books, you should definitely read Fearon's take on the south of France. She writes:

"This is no guide, merely a faithful exposition of a countenance intimately explored, with indications of particular delight, as and when they occurred. Not only the things visible, but those absorbed by all the altered senses. The snatch of an old Provencal song through an open window, the infinite, unwinking immobility of a turquoise lizard on the balustrade of the terrace in June, the scent of hot fig prunings, vine flowers or orange blossoms; the song of the nightingales at midday as one lies under the olive trees; the rhythmic fretting of tall tethered yachts whose strained ropes creak to every lapping wave."

Without My Yacht is the next best thing to actually being in the south of France. Of course, we would much rather be there.

As for women with yachts, check out The Woman's Guide to Boating and Cooking at Cookbook Of The Day.

The Reluctant Gardener

If you are a frequent reader, you will know that I have a love of all books Ethelind Fearon. Today I offer up the last in her “reluctant” series, The Reluctant Gardener. As with all of her "reluctant" titles, Fearon combines biting humor with sound advice.

“To be a real un-gardener needs a bit of skill and determination and I hope to help you with a bit of both, so you can continue playing at horticulture with pleasure and smile at those earnest hard-working folk who for all human purposes are as good as lost. Just let them go their busy ways and do not attempt to compete."

For Fearon, gardening, like entertaining and cooking should be done with whimsy and joy. She sweats the details and then reminds you not to sweat the details. Every garden should have a plan...



but it should have a good plan...


No matter how convenient it may be don't toss the compost out the kitchen door!

As a vegetable gardener who is about to embark on potato digging, I feel I should have read this passage sooner.

“You would be surprised how much of the grim toil undergone by the allotment holder is unnecessary. It is just a self-martyrdom inaugurated by Adam and hallowed by custom and tradition ever since. But you will find:

a. That half the things you sweat over are better bought than grown.
b. The ones that are better grown can be grown much more easily than you thought, and
c. Quite a lot of them will serve two purposes, thereby cutting out one operation, one ache, one moan.

Who wants to grow potatoes anyway?

Well, I wanted to grow them, and I also wanted to read Ethelind Fearon. In the end, I hope to do both, in a rather stylish hat.

Etiquette Wednesday -- Ethelind Fearon

Today’s etiquette tips come from the most reluctant hostess, Ethelind Fearon, whose book, The Reluctant Hostess, makes entertaining a breeze or perhaps a bracing wind! Have you ever wondered why we entertain? Fearon gives us the historical perspective on this practice.

In the Stone age people lived in their own caves, stalked their own food – a fair contest between man and beast with no holds barred—and ate it themselves, habits with much to recommend them. Entertaining began – like a lot of other customs – in the East.

There was a law –in a time so far back that they only make important ones and people could therefore remember them – that if you had eaten bread and salt with your neighbor you couldn’t poison him during the current year. Or he couldn’t poison you, I forget which. Probably a bit of both.

So people with good sense took care to dine out pretty often even if they had better food at home, because it wasn’t so much a meal as an insurance policy.

That makes such good sense! Now for most parties you need drinks and snacks or "cocktail snippets" as Fearon calls them.

Anything mangled up and sitting on a biscuit is a cocktail snippet.

How easy is that! Now that the food is out of the way lets look at drinks:

Any party stands and falls, as much as anything, by the nature and excellence of its drinks. To sum up: For all cocktails economy is fatal.

Spare the gin and spoil the party.

Ethelind Fearon will tell you:

Admittedly entertaining entails work, but if it’s a life of unrelieved sloth you are after, you’ll bore yourself and everyone else to death and kill off all your friendships at such a rate that there will be no need to entertain.

Entertaining isn’t just ordering a gargantuan meal and the writing a proportionate cheque. It is planning the most pleasure fro the most people with the least pain to yourself.

Wow, if everybody followed these simple rules, life would be a party! So stop being reluctant -- grab the gin, mangle up something on a cracker and get to it.

To check out Ethelind Fearon’s "reluctant cooking", head over to the Cookbook Of The Day blog and find her bold recipe for Leftover Rice Pudding Salad.