Anagramma del lunedì mattina

HAVE FUN...

art to cut out

Beatrice Pasquali is a young artist from Verona.

She made this images to cut out, taken from her artworks,

for inventing stories or playing with them like children.

(you can watch her art at www.beatricepasquali.it)

Beatrice Pasquali © Tutti i diritti riservati.

Scent of Norfolk.

I'm in love with this cake.

Lavender Pound Cake

2½ cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. baking soda

4 eggs

½ tsp. salt

1cup sour cream

2 cups sugar

¼ cup milk

1 tbsp. dried lavender flowers

Drizzle: (see Note)

¼ cup water

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter,

1 tbsp. dried lavender flowers softened

¾ cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8½ x 4½ x 2⅝-inch loaf pans.

2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium-size bowl. Pulse ½ cup of the sugar

with the lavender in a food processor until the lavender is ground.

3. In a large bowl, beat butter, lavender-flavored sugar, remaining 1½ cups sugar

and vanilla until fluffy, 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after

each. In a small bowl, combine sour cream and milk. On low speed, alternately

beat in flour mixture with sour cream mixture in 3 additions, beginning and

ending with the flour. Divide between pans.

4. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool on rack 10

minutes. Remove cakes from pans and let cool completely.

5. Drizzle: Microwave water and lavender for 30 seconds on high power. Let steep

5 minutes. Strain out lavender flowers and discard.

6. Once cake is cool, whisk together 4 teaspoons of the lavender water with the

confectioner’s sugar. Drizzle over both loaves. Slice and serve.

Harvest lavender on a dry morning when a few flower buds are just beginning

to open. Wrap small bunches with a rubber band and hang out of direct sunlight.

Once dry, rub the flowers off the stalks and store in an airtight container. Make sure

that you’re not storing any flowers that are moldy or wet.

Alice in Wonderland syndrome

I actually think i can suffer of it...But only on odd days.

The name “Alice in Wonderland” syndrome was coined by Todd in 1955 to describe the phenomena of micro- or macrosomatognosia, i.e. altered perceptions of body image,which had first been described by Lippman in the context of migraine some years earlier. It has subsequently been suggested that Dodgson’s own experience of migraine, recorded in his diaries, may have given rise to his descriptions of Alice’s changes in body form, so graphically illustrated in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Sir John Tenniel. These have been interpreted as somesthetic migrainous auras. However, Blau has challenged this interpretation on chronological grounds, finding no evidence in Dodgson’s diaries for the onset of migraine until after he had written the Alice books. Moreover, migraine with somatosensory features is rare,and the diaries have no report of migraine- associated body image hallucinations. Podoll & Robinson have discovered an earlier drawing by Dodgson suggesting that he did in fact suffer migraine aura symptoms before writing the Alice books, but the illustration suggests a right paracentral negative scotoma rather than micro- or macrosomatognosia.

Other conditions may also give rise to the phenomena of micro- or macrosomatognosia, including epilepsy, encephalitis, cerebral mass lesions, schizophrenia, and drug intoxication. It may be speculated that the latter is relevant to Alice since her experiences occur after drinking

from a phial (“DRINK ME”) and after eating cake (“EAT ME”).

Andrew Larner is the editor of

our Book Review Section.He is

a Consultant Neurologist at the

Walton Centre for Neurology

and Neurosurgery in Liverpool,

with a particular interest in

dementia and cognitive disor-

ders.

The pdf of the entire article: http://www.acnr.co.uk/pdfs/volume4issue6/v4i6history.pdf

Pouring tea.

This morning i woke up, i poured my Ceylon Green Tea and i read Virginia Woolf's essay on Jane Austen (in The Common Reader, The Hogarth Press, London, 1925).

To me, it was like the two writers were having a nice and smart conversation in front of a cup of Darjeeling Tea, with scones and muffins.

So i've made a literary diorama to make this conversation possible.

Madeleines au tilleul and egg cups...

Amplified Proust.

for 30 madeleines:

flour 150g
sugar 180g
butter 150g
eggs 3
1 lemon peel
baking powder, one spoon and 1/2
dried and minced lime blossom flowers, 2 spoons

Mash all ingredients together, and leave the dough to settle for two hours. Fill the madeleines moulds and bake for 15 minutes half turn.

Yesterday i found the silver egg cup i used when i was two...It has a little bump on the cover.

I remember throwing it on the floor because i didn't wanted to eat the egg anymore.

My Proustian memories are everyday stronger...

Albertine, crystallized in a ceramic figure smiles at me, holding Monsieur Marcel's reading glasses.

Old times.

My Wonderland is the attic of my boyfriend's grandparents.

Curiosity is the only key to enter this diaphanous world of dust and memories.