I bought this tea towel in June 2015, at Devon Guild of Craftsmen’s Annual Craft Fair, in Bovey Tracey. I first included this tea towel in a ‘page’ entitled “The Blank Canvas: Bovey Tracey – 5 June 2015”. The idea of the title of Blank Canvas was that some artists use the tea towel in the same way as a painter uses a canvas, to create a picture, a thing of beauty. Bovey Tracey was certainly the place for a tea towel (actually, in my case, eight tea towels) where textile designers produced a huge array of difference. My Blank Canvas ‘page’ incorporated all eight tea towels.
Although, as a collector of tea towels, I do not have any special favourite tea towels, this one brings together many features that I like about tea towels. When I first saw this tea towel, it was pinned on an artist’s easel; very clever, because it is like a painting, it is an image of two daffodils in a jug, on a window sill, looking out to the coast. The ‘painting’ invites you into the room, to look through the window at the beautiful view and gaze over the sea. It alerts both your imagination and your memories. I do love a tea towel designer who uses the material as a ‘Blank Canvas’. I remember thinking, as soon as I saw it, that it reminded me of the books of Derek Tangye who wrote the Minack Chronicles; stories of his escape, with his wife, from London to Cornwall, to set up a daffodil farm. I first discovered these books in 1982, on holiday in Cornwall and I loved them: no murders, no psychological thrillers, no science fiction, just a series of pleasant tales, told with humour and kindness, of a world long ago. When I saw the tea towel I thought “Must re-read Derek Tangye” and I have done, on a Kindle rather than as hard copies.
Thinking about this tea towel today, also reminds me of the Miss Read stories about a village school many years ago. Again lovely gentle tales that do not challenge you, or try and make you work out the answer to some murder mystery. In my effort to ‘declutter’ over the last few months, I have found a home for my Miss Read books with Jane’s sister who I hope will get some pleasure from them. I am still reading them on the Kindle.
The tea towel reminds me, not that I need much reminding, that daffodils are, in fact, my favourite flower. When I got married in 1976, all the wedding flowers were daffodils (much to the disdain of the florist because they are very hard to arrange): my bouquet, and that of my bridesmaid, was made entirely from daffodils, all the button holes and corsages were daffodils (I remember my mother trying to convince the florist that her corsage should be something more elegant like an orchid but fortunately the florist was on my side – because I was paying!!), the table decorations were daffodils, flowers in the church were daffodils.
Last week, I visited the Backhouse Walled Garden in Fife. I had never heard of it before; but then, what I hadn’t realised was that it had only opened, for the first time, this April, although it had been 12 years in the planning. It is the home to the National Collection of Backhouse Heritage Daffodils. The owners are descendants of the Quaker Backhouse family of botanists and bankers, stretching back six generations. “Their new daffodil cultivars caused great excitement and changed daffodil breeding in this country forever”. There is a thriving nursery which was established in 1816 and was once known as “The Kew of the North”; they have restored the Walled Garden, have created a Woodland Walk to the Tomb of the Covenanters, have a putting green and have created a Bear Walk; there is also a small Heritage Centre explaining the importance of the Backhouse Family in the field of botany . As I walked round, because I had missed the daffodil season, I could see the plants dying down and could imagine what a great display it must have been. It was at that point, I resolved to return in April 2018 to see them in full bloom. Suddenly, my “Two Daffodils on a Window Sill” sprung to mind; Backhouse Walled Gardens does not have its own tea towel, probably too early to think about tea towels. I would have to write a blog about “Two Daffodils on a Window Sill”, on its own, because I need to remember this garden. It is one of the loveliest gardens I have ever been to; it is understated, it uses chairs and tables to enable the visitor to sit and ponder, it uses the history of the area to form a part of the garden. It has a small tea room, with a veranda, serving loose leaf tea (I couldn’t ask for more).
One of the most interesting, and original, ideas is that they have linked the initials of the current owners C-G-A-T, one of the base pairs of DNA: the main paths that cross the Walled Garden are made of stone, as strings of DNA infilled with with crushed shell and the letters are carved into the centrometre sculpture which sits in the centre of the double helix pathway. As they say “It’s in the DNA – the unfolding story of many generations of one family, the remarkable Quaker Backhouse horticulturalists whose legacy is being brought back to life by the current sixth generation”.
I loved the garden; I loved the story; I love the idea that my tea towel, bought 500 miles away, can make the link between this garden, memories of books and holidays, my wedding and my love of daffodils. I will not dwell on the fact that I visited after the end of the daffodil season because I am determined to return next year at the right time. I will really look forward to that trip!
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