January doings

Our back gardens were transformed on Wednesday by a further snowfall, which made the trees look really pretty, despite the gloomy day. It didn't last long; by early afternoon the thaw had started and the trees and shrubs were dripping. At least the local roads and footpaths will be a bit safer to walk on, as last week they were covered in sheets of ice and very slippery. Lots of my neighbours were also taking photos ,as we don't usually get this much snow here in the south.

As it's now well into January, the first of the Seville oranges are in my local greengrocer, £1.52 a kilo, so I must make marmalade. I found a recipe years ago in my old Kenwood Chef handbook which uses a liquidiser to chop the oranges, so nice and quick to do. I haven't yet found a commercial marmalade that tastes quite as sharp and orangey as my own home-made, though I do buy some from time to time. Tomorrow it will be a cake making day, to help supply the tea after our new parish priest-in-charge is installed.

December reads

Despite the need to prepare for Christmas, I managed my usual book a week read; December's included Mitch Albom's The Five People you meet in Heaven,Bethan Roberts The Good Plain Cook, Katie Fforde's The Wedding Season and a crime story by M C Beaton, Death of a Macho Man, and one cook book by Norman Tebbit, The Game Cook. All of them borrowed from a local branch library, as I'm a fairly constant user. The Game Cook is a book of recipes for cooking a wide variety of game and came about from a conversation the author had with his butcher, as to why people bought tasteless chicken in supermarkets when they could buy a tasty, completely free-range pheasant for less from the butcher. The recipes look straightforward and hints as what to serve with them are given. There are also delightful mezzotint illustrations of the animals, birds and fish. Certainly a useful book for anyone who has ready access to a variety of game and an encouragement to others to try and be a bit more varied in our diet.

The M C Beaton, Death of a Macho Man is one of a series of crime stories featuring Scots policeman Hamish McBeth. There was a TV series based on these stories some time ago, starring Robert Carlyle as the laid-back police constable. I enjoyed the series, but hadn't read any of the books until now and liked this one as a good page-turner, but a fairly undemanding read.

Katie Fforde's The Wedding Season is a similar type of read, as comforting as a warm bath or cup of hot chocolate. You know deep down that the main female characters will end up happily with the dashing men they spend so much time and energy avoiding throughout the twists and turns of the plot; this one is based on the life of a wedding planner and gives a behind the scenes look at the organisation of weddings large and small.

Bethan Roberts Good Plain Cook was a different read. The story is set in a rural Sussex village, where a wealthy American, her English lover and her daughter have rented a small cottage and hired a local girl as cook. The story presents both points of view, that of Kitty the local girl and also that of Ellen Steinberg, her lover Mr Crane as well as her daughter Geenie's. The story reveals the behaviour of the eccentric and bohemian Ellen, who likes to sunbathe in the nudeand encourages her daughter to do the same, while contrasting it with Kitty's efforts to become thegood plain cook which she claimed to be when she answered the advertisement for the job. I thoroughly enjoyed this read, as it revealed a world of which I was unaware, but interested in. There was sympathy for the predicaments each of the characters found themselves in, even though many were of their own making.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom was a different read. The story of Eddie a maintenance man at a seaside funfair, it tells you about his life, how he arrived in Heaven, the people he meets there and the part each has played in his life. The idea is simple but effective, but I found some parts a bit repetetive and the general use of quite short sentences a bit jarring. There was also for me a feeling that the idea was a bit sentimental. Discussing this with my reading group, was interesting, as most enjoyed the book a bit more than I apparently did, although Idid enjoy it enough to finish it.

Christmas panic?

Well not quite a panic, but as by the middle of December I hadn't bought any cards or presents, it seemed as if a bit of action was called for. Anyhow, the tree is now up and decorated, cards written and posted, presents bought and most wrapped ( still a couple to wrap) cake made and decorated and wreath put on front door. Fortunately I have only a few presents to buy, as there are no grandchildren to buy for as yet, only immediate family, which is quite small. My mother-in-law is happy to receive flowers or a plant, as she is nearly ninety and doesn't want things or food as presents. Turkey is defrosting as I write, sprouts bought this morning, brandy butter, mince pies made, so all is pretty much there.

I did watch some of Kirsty Allsop's Homemade Christmas series on Channel 4 recently, as I've been doing quite a lot of most of my life, but on a smaller scale- I'm not into blowing my own glass baubles, nor putting gold leaf on pears, although one year I used gold pen on bay leaves for placenames when we had a lot of family for Christmas dinner. I found it interesting and hope that some of the younger generation can find inspiration from the programmes.

I read Marilyn Robinson's Housekeeping and loved the beautiful almost poetical writing. The bleakness of the place she describes, the bleakness of the lives of the two sisters and their grandmother and aunts made this a slightly uncomfortable read for me - at times I did wonder where it was going, but the images called up by Marilyn Robinson's writing will linger a long time in my head. The bleakness of the landscape is also echoed by the themes of loss and attachment


Nella Last's War, the diary of Housewife 49, describes the difficulties of housekeeping during World War Two. Nella lived in Barrow-in-Furness, then a ship-building town in north Lancashire, and fairly heavily bombed during the war. Nella's diary was written for Mass Observation, but edited and published after the end of the war. Nella's writing reveals her as being generally optimistic, cheerful under the circumstances and hard-working. She describes making dolls, which are sold in the Red cross shop set up in Barrow during the war as well as mending and making do with her own and neighbours clothes. A fascinatig read which added to my knowledge and admiration of those who stayed at home and kept the home fires burning during the Second World war.

Sunday walk

We went for our monthly ramble with a group we have been walking with for some years now, and perhaps because it was the Lord's day, we had a lovely dry afternoon, with sunshine for the greater part of the walk. Here is where we went. Our route took us along the river Hamble for a short while and the tide was in, so everything looked beautiful. Hard to think that warships of one kind and another have been built here through the centuries, including apparently landing craft for D-Day in 1944. Many years ago I used to walk here from Botley before the country park came into being; there was just a footpath through the old farmyard, through the woods and down to the upper reaches of the Hamble River.

Baking Day

(photo from Waitrose.com)

Tuesday this week I went up to London for the Persephone lecture and to have lunch with my son, who I haven't seen for ages- he spends weekends doing this, and if you watch the video of the cyclo-cross event, the last comment is absolutely true, I'm told. The Persephone lecture was by Bee Wilson, and was on the subject Mrs Rundell to Mrs Beeton. Mrs Rundell's book of Domestic Cookery was first published in 1806, by John Murray, and continued to be published until 1841, although the author had died in 1828. Her method of writing recipes was much chattier but less clear than Mrs Beeton's. Mrs Rundell was married to a surgeon , lived in Bath, and had five children who all survived to adulthood. She started writing her book a few years after the death of her husband, as a help to her married daughters in the management of their own domestic arrangements. Bee Wilson's lecture was both enlightening and entertaining, especially her description of following Mrs Rundell's method of making coffee, which made an undrinkable concoction!
However some of the recipes are completely followable.

Saturday was church Christmas Fair day, so Friday was baking day, as I'm on the cake stall again. Having made a fruit cake (earlier in the week), coffee and walnut sponge, Victoria sponge, chocolate cupcakes, gingerbread and some macaroons, I've almost gone off cake for a bit. We did sell everything and I also won a nice bottle of Bordeaux on the bottle Tombola.

After days of rain, the day we left for home was beautifully clear, dry and sunny, at least until we reached the Normandy coast. We were early for our late night ferry, so had dinner in a nice restaurent in Ouistreham before boarding

Having been back in home country for a couple of weeks now, the last one has absolutely flown by, as it seems to have consisted of meetings with people and cooking for them as well., culminating in today, when the Book Club I belong to came to my house for coffee, home-made parkin and chocolate biscuits and a discussion about the latest book read, Mary Ann Shaffer's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Discussion was varied , as although most of us liked the read and enjoyed the humour, one or two didn't, but were happy to tell us why they didn't like it. We also had some discussion about the floods in Cumbria, as one member moved up there earlier this year and another had just visited her while the floods were flooding, so to speak. This afternoon I helped with the refreshments at a local tea dance. We hold these monthly, and this is the last one this year, as its held on the last Friday of the month and the December one is too near Christmas. This time we offered mulled wine and canapes for openers, then later after a few dances, served tea, proper tea in china cups and saucers, accompanied with small sandwiches and cake. I had made a delicious fruit cake ( I'm only quoting from a satisfied partaker, not boasting) and the mulled wine. An excellent afternoon was had by all, despite a lot of hard work by those of us doing the catering and clearing up afterwards.