Happy New Year
I much prefer New Year to Christmas. It’s a heady time. I’m always happy to send the Old Year to bed at 23.59. It is 365 days old after all, and getting a bit grumpy and scuffed around the edges. At midnight, I fling open the window to hear the bells and the New Year leaps over the sill. Young, supple and wrapped in a cloak woven from so many dreams. Happy New Year...
read moreOur hens are laying again
Our hens, being elderly maidensof three years old, stopped laying at the end of October. They started to moult, and when their combs changed gradually from red to pink I knew that egg laying would cease until the days started to get longer. December 21 is starred on our calendar. Not just the winter solstice but as the shortest day. It heralds the start of the turn around in egg production. Even though we can buy excellent locally produced eggs from John’s shop in the village, Danny has been impatient to have our own. A couple of weeks...
read moreFiona’s potato cake recipe
Whenever I make mashed potatoes I make a double amount so as to have enough left over to make potato cakes. Usually, my potato loving partner sniffs out the remains, however carefully I have hidden them. It’s my fault entirely. I tend not to announce future culinary plots and plans. But this week I did. “I’ll cook tomorrow and make you potato cakes, if there is any mash left.” The uplifted arm dropped and the saucepan lid was replaced immediately. Potato cakes are easy to make and are real comfort food and somehow a bit...
read moreCompanion chariot
It’s that dreaded time of year when I have to accompany my faded friend to the Volvo garage in Bury St Edmunds. It’s like attending the Oscars and realising, too late, that you’re wearing muddy Wellingtons. Gleaming cars purr smugly past us as we make a five point kangaroo turn into the service bay. Jalopy is gutsy and doesn’t appear to notice the smirks. Once she’s up on the ramp, I feel much more relaxed. She has a gruelling three hours ahead. I, on the other hand, am snaking my way to Reception. I generally...
read moreMelt in the mouth partridge recipe
French partridge are such pretty birds. I see quite a few when I’m driving around the villages. These are busy, sociable birds that move about in small groups. They rush to hide in the hedgerows with quick neat steps and beaks held high as Jalopy thunders past. Some friends of mine reckon that they mate for life. A solo male partridge moped around their garden for days until I clomped into a dark barn wearing my hob nailed boots and by mistake, trod on him. There was a soft sighing cry. I rushed up to the house to fetch a...
read moreTravelling light
Many years ago, whilst on honeymoon in Bali, my ex husband and I met a runaway. I often think of him. He was in his forties. His plan was to rent a boat, sail to the cluster of uninhabited islands off the coast of Bali and just disappear. We treated him to supper and now I wished I’d asked him more questions. Why was he running away? This was no Ray Mears. He could have been the man next door. The sort of man that you expect to routinely pick up a pint of milk on his way home. Neatly dressed in a parka and lace up shoes, he was clean...
read moreSpecial Boxing Day Breakfast (scrambled eggs with smoked salmon recipe)
Just before I met Danny, I went to Ireland for the first time to attend a bread making course at the Ballymaloe Cookery School. For the duration of the course my sister and I stayed at the Shanagarry Guest House which was walking distance from the school, although I think we drove the 200 yards every day. Partly laziness but mainly on account of the breakfast, which was excellent and forced one to linger until the last possible moment. The couple who owned the guest house were charming. The husband was a rugby coach for the Irish team and...
read moreDoves at Christmas
One Christmas, my mother took us to Hamley’s in London’s Regent Street. This vast toyshop on six floors was overwhelming. A massive leap from Eden Lily’s toy department in Cambridge. I was about four years old and had my Christmas money to spend. I planned to buy something very special.. The magic department was enormous, with a very long counter and not much on display. I was delighted when I spotted exactly what I wanted in a showcase on the wall. Even better, I had enough money to buy one. When I pointed it out to my mum...
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