The sweet season of the year
WolfCrawl Weeks 23-25
Catching up
On the table these dark weeks
Table talk
Addendum to week 22
Catching up
It happened and I fell behind, Master Simon and my fellow WolfCrawlers were barely visible on the horizon, finally I've caught up with them. But I'm apparently so used to reading this book slowly that I feel slightly overwhelmed after reading three chapters in a row. My WolfCrawl reading brain is obviously not attuned to speed, 'what's she running for now, stop, that's no way to read this book, what an imposition!' I heard it nagging in the background. Still Life with Lighted Candle by Pieter Claesz 1627
‘Will you come to my humble house to dine?’
These past weeks have been weak in culinary terms, but no wonder when you're busy bringing others down you have to cut down on the good life. But we do have a little: Lamb with Ginger Sauce at Easter (Cromwell’s recipe1 for a Ginger sauce: mace, ginger, some dried mint leaves chopped, very little garlic, a handful of breadcrumbs)
Anne toasting cobnuts over the fire (the second time cobnuts are mentionned in the trilogy. Thomas Wyatt gave Cromwell among other things a load of cobnuts as a present. Don't tell that to Lady Roachford, she'll make something of it and drag Thomas Wyatt irreversibly into the abyss.)
‘Who would not pass time with a man who has cakes?’
Well, I would not, if the man is Cromwell. A curd tart, almond cream, candied violets, raisins, cheese cake with primrose petals, lemon cakes with lavender, egg custards infused with a sprig of basil, elderflowers simmered in sugar syrup and poured over with halved strawberries. If you are lucky the sweetmeats you get, just leave a bitter aftertaste and you stay alive, for others they might be deadly.
Because don't be fooled by the table full of delicacies and the jovial Cromwell, he's threatening you: ‘The thing you must do here - you and the other ladies -you must protect yourselves.’ Sweets and Fruits by Tomás Yepes, 1642-74
‘Cremuel, help!’
Chapuys, who becomes more and more likeable as time goes on (Cromwell, on the other hand…) is spared nothing: dinner with George Boleyn. Poor Eustache.
‘He sets the table’
During these weeks, new alliances are formed at the dinner table or existing ones are strengthened, all with the aim of getting a woman out of the way. Pure alliances of convenience, therefore fragile, even if Cromwell, for example, believes he can at least control the Seymours. ‘The Seymours will come to his table, even if they have to sit under it and catch the crumbs.’ The question is for how long?
The calling of St John during the marriage at Cana by Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, ca 1530-1532
‘I have asked Mark for supper.’ How I dread this week´s chapter.
Addendum to week 22
In my last post I forgot a very important utensil at a tournament. The thing without which hardly anything works. It's the screw wrench. Here is one which belonged to Emperor Maximilian, from around 1500. It's often the little things that really matter.
Week five
"Don't tell that to Lady Roachford, she'll make something of it and drag Thomas Wyatt irreversibly into the abyss." - wise advice! I have only just caught up too, maybe we're both trying to go slow to hold back the gathering momentum of all the plotting...
Ah you've caught up! Thanks for the reminder about Wyatt's cobnuts. And that screw wrench looks like it could be put to some evil purpose.