If only I had an Aga
May 06, 2009 By: almostgotit Category: Uncategorized
Secret confession: I love Maeve Binchy novels. A main character in many of them is the “Aga,” the classic British and Irish stove (or “cooker”), usually wood-fired, that the rest of the characters center their lives around.
This is, for me, the perfect image of domestic tranquility that I have repeatedly tried to emulate in my un-employed state, the Narnia I can never quite get to.
If I had an Aga, my life would be perfect, probably.
When we lived for a year in England (in Oxford, Oxfordshire… on the edge of the beautiful Cotswolds,) I saw several wonderful kitchens built around the modern version of the Aga, which now usually runs on gas.
Agas are numinously beautiful.
I serendipitously stumbled upon this Aga shop in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. It was a little visit to heaven.
My dear friend in England, an elderly woman named Margaret who drove me all over the Cotswolds and told me stories for hours, once operated (with her husband) a boys’ boarding school, which they operated in a large country house. She had a 20-foot-wide Aga in her kitchen there, and in the middle of the night when she had a baby to nurse, she’d sit by the Aga to keep them both warm.
Someday, someday. I will have an Aga…
May 6th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Wow. One of those might make me actually WANT to hang out in my kitchen. I especially like that one right above, with all those loverly copper pots on it. Gimme.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Reminds me of being home at Mom’s with the wood range (it is an old Monarch)…. very nice to sit by on a cold day, with a book.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Where’d you get all those pictures as I’ve remodeled my kitchen over the years? Grin…
When you get an aga, I’ll come right over for tea. k?
May 7th, 2009 at 10:24 am
[...] honestly didn’t occur to me until yesterday afternoon that there might be some connection between my love for Aga stoves and my earlier obsession with Easy-Bake [...]
May 8th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Hmm, you should try Phil Rickman’s “Merrily Watkins” mystery/suspense novels. Merrily (an exorcist) and her daughter Jane (a pagan) spend a lot of time with their Aga, if I remember correctly.
May 10th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Of course, Joanna Trollope was once the queen of the Aga Sagas with her tales of village life, country vicars and church fetes.
She had many imitators but no one ever came close. I saw her speak once and she was fantastic – really chatty and down to earth but ever so posh.
Laura Essendine
The Accidental Guru Blog
May 8th, 2010 at 7:04 am
Aga? Guys, its swedish! When have you ever seen anything good come from that country? Their excellency is based on slick branding and Nordic influence which they themselves have no part in. Trust me.