St Valentine's Day

What a lazy and lovely day we've had for St Valentine's, I hope it was the same for you. We ate at home, but with no effort because we had bought our meal the day before with everything prepared and ready to pop in the oven. In Britain the major stores now compete to offer a meal package for special days such as St Valentine's and they are very good value for money.  £20 bought us a starter,

a main,

with vegetable side.

Dessert, to which I added a slice to two of banana and a spray of the gold dust (it came in my Christmas stocking and I love it!) Heart-shaped chocolates and a bottle of Merlot completed the deal.

Then we slumped on the sofa and watched the film, 84, Charing Cross Road. Do you know it?

I saw it when it first came out in the '80's and loved it. The main actors are Ann Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins and the story takes place in New York and London.

It is a story about, and for, lovers of books and is pitch-perfect on the period detail of post-war London - all those grey mackintoshes! Ann Bancroft plays a feisty New Yorker (is there any other kind?) who enters into a correspondence with an antiquarian London bookseller, played by Hopkins.

There were two tantalising glimpses of New Look fashion when this New York actress popped into the dusty London shop.  

It is a quiet, gentle film - just what I like!