Fun fur!

 It is cold outside, but outside is the only place where I see and talk to anyone other than Himself. The current Covid death toll means that we are being ultra careful and no-one has been inside our house for months.  Thank goodness for my new fun fur coat, a present from  a daughter! It reminds me of my mother's voluminous old beaver coat. In it I look like a bear about to hibernate - but a warm bear, so that's okay.

For the first time ever we are going to be having Christmas without any family or friends around us. Government rules would allow us to meet but we have made our decision. It seems unwise just to throw caution to the wind after having been so careful all year. I think that we shall be eligible for a vaccine fairly early on in the New Year. (Elderly - moi! Decrepit - how dare you!)

When we and half the country have been jabbed we shall party. There will be many reasons to get together. The village plans a big party to welcome newcomers to our small community, we have friends whose deaths this year we intend to commemorate  in style and other friends who have been successfully dealing with cancer treatments. Bur really we don't need any excuse at all just to PARTY.

A present from Yorkshire

 A parcel arrived last week from Betty's, a present of goodies from that well-known Yorkshire teashop. What a delight! Betty's was the shop that the family went to throughout my childhood if we wanted a treat, afternoon tea with my mother, but more usually a box of cakes chosen by my father, in which there would always be a vanilla slice, which was his favourite. When we visit Yorkshire now, (sigh - not since last January) the nearest Betty's is in Northallerton and it always tempts me in to buy a few things.

Of course, what has always made the food so delicious, delicately made and beautifully presented, is that it was created by a Swiss!

Presentation is something that I care about, having made my living in the past by illustrating a motley collection of  things; packets, wine bottle labels, cans and tins. All the Betty's packaging is very pleasing to the eye.

The purchase that I always make, however, is traditionally Yorkshire, a large curd tart. I think that Betty's is the tastiest one you can buy! Here in the south-west I make my own with  cottage cheese but when I was living in Yorkshire the farmer's wife used to give me the beestings, the rich milk produced when a cow has calved, and hers is the recipe that I use. 

Beestings would have been the original curds and whey that Miss Muffet ate. 

Dorothy Horner's Curd Tart.

5oz sugar and 4oz butter beaten to a cream.

12oz curds, a pinch of salt, half a teaspoon nutmeg

4oz currants and two or three eggs. Mix well.

gas mark 6 approx 25 minutes.

The secret is to be generous with the nutmeg!

September reading list

 Three of the books that I've read this month have been for the book clubs where, pre Covid, I was a rarely attending member. Now, thanks to zoom, I never need to miss a meeting. Following on from reading Dicken's 'Great Expectations' the Yorkshire group discussed 'Jack Maggs' by the Australian author Peter Carey.  In this book Jack is the convict Magwitch that we met in the Dickens novel now returned to London with a New World attitude and the wit to create a different outcome. This was a re-read for me and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. From the opening sentence there is the pleasurable knowledge that you are in the hands of a capable storyteller. Knowledgable fun is poked at Dickens and Victorian attitudes and beliefs and I love the idea of an Australian writer giving a felon deported from England the whip hand over a variety of dubious home-grown characters!

The Lit Group discussed Tracy Chevalier's 'A Single Thread', a novel set in England in the 1932.

I had great hopes for this novel because it is such an interesting period in history. The first World War gave many women their first experience of independence, working outside the home in jobs that had been previously carried out by men. It was clear from the acknowledgements at the back of the book that the author had carried out diligent research but it did not, for me, translate into a convincing central character. The research also felt at times to be very heavy-handed .

The group were all pretty much of the same opinion, especially of the ending being so sweetly and unrealistically tidied up! There was lots to discuss; attitudes to lesbianism, the expectations of a single woman and what society expected of her.

I bought my copy second-hand online as I'm not going out and about shopping these days. It arrived looking rather battered, I think a previous owner has spilt a pot of coffee over it! It interests me that the line of thread links all across the dust jacket, complete with needle and scissors, echoing a design produced by my friend Janet Haigh for a novel by Howard Jacobson. (Janet's cover is far superior!)

For the FAB group, where a few of us were able to meet in person, we discussed  Cees Nooteboom's 'The Following Story', translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke. It is a novella in two parts and in the first part I didn't have a clue as to what was going on. As soon as I started on the second I said, "of course!"

I'm not going to tell you anything about it in case you are going to read it, except that in the first part there were bits that made me laugh and in the second there were things that made me cry.

Rather a beautiful book.

A friend lent me an Anne Tyler book. When I looked at the first page I realised that I had read it before, but it didn't stop me from enjoying it for a second time. I love her writing and it doesn't trouble me in the slightest that I forget which book is which, after all, some of her favourite characters pop up in more than one book. Unlike the Chevalier characters I can totally believe in the people whom Anne Tyler creates.

On kindle I've just finished reading, 'The Friend' by Sigrid Nunez. I've you've ever owned and loved a dog I think you will love this.

My other reading this month has been poetry and Carol Ann Duffy's, 'Answering Back' is a nice idea. She invited a number of poets to choose a poem and create their own response to it. It is a good way of reading old favourites and discovering new delights.

Dame Diana Rigg

Last week the death of the actress Dame Diana Rigg was announced on the news. I have always followed Diana's career with interest. We went to the same school, a small Moravian establishment in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It's strap line was that it was a school for 'young ladies' which always made my father snort derisively because he was accustomed to seeing me at the weekends clambering about up trees or wading in the stream wearing my brother's hand-me-down boy scout shorts, a very comfortable item of clothing in soft, beige corduroy.

Diana and I both had speech and drama lessons with Mrs Greenwood, an inspirational teacher who gave me my life-long love of poetry. I attended her classes because of my inability to pronounce the letter r. Calling myself, ' Losemaly' at age three or four might be considered cute, but it was a source of embarrassment by the time I got to seven and Mrs Greenwood and her tongue rolling exercises soon sorted me out. For the rest of my schooling I continued with speech and drama which involved parts in the school productions, Wharfedale festival competitions and theatre visits. 

Diana was a natural, as this entry in an old school magazine of 1951 demonstrates.

At the end of each academic year the school assembled in the hall and the headmistress would comment on what had been achieved throughout that year. If your name was called out you had to stand up and have the eyes of the entire school upon you.  In due course Diana had to stand while the headmistress announced that it would be good if her academic standard would only match her acting ability. Then Diana sat back down. How insulting. I was furious!

When she had left school and started her season at the Royal Shakespeare Company Mrs Greenwood organised a coach and we went to Stratford to see Diana playing the role of Helena in  'A Midsummer Night's Dream', the same role that I played at school. 

When she was made a dame I was delighted, she had given pleasure to thousands. I hoped that our old headmistress was still alive to eat her words!

Nearly normal

 Last week we were out and about in a way that we had not experienced for many months. I'm glad that we did, for once again lockdown restrictions have been put in place banning any meetings anywhere, with numbers not exceeding six people.

First we went to Bournemouth to stay with family and to enjoy our grandson's company before his return to nursery. The beach was quiet enough to  visit midweek and we ran about in the open space, played in the sand dunes and paddled in the sea. "He got rather wet," I told his mum. "I saw," she said.

On Saturday we left Bournemouth and traveled to West Bay to meet up with friends and attend a poetry event at Sladers Yard, a former sail loft that is now a gallery and café.

Dave talks and the poet listens!

We stayed for lunch - delicious, fish, fish, fish.

What to choose? I had fish stew. 

In the afternoon we went with our friends to visit a couple of artists who live in the valley above Lyme Regis with beautiful views over the surrounding countryside. It is always interesting to visit the place where artists live, there are lots of quirky things to see and I invariably feel completely at home.

Light floods in to every room,

especially into the main sitting room.

It was a really stimulating day.

On Sunday it was the birthday of our friend, Steve, and it was combined with a reduced-number meeting of our book group. Only seven members were present, but even that is now too large for the new social distancing regulations. We stayed outside to talk and eat, I doubt that there will be many days left for us to do so this year. 

Steve has put a skylight into the landing roof to bring more light into the centre of the house and as a result artwork has been re-hung. Before the others arrived we went inside the house to take a look.

Janet's enamel work and Steve's painting.

Janet's studio has been nicely tidied!

It is always fascinating to look at work in progress.

Then it was outside for lunch and a sociable time with our friends. 

Birthday weekend

On Friday we went to Bournemouth, ready to celebrate our grandson's birthday on the following day. Glorious weather was promised and we made an early start in order to avoid being stuck in traffic as everyone made a dash to the coast. I love being by the sea, but these are strange times and we knew that although others would be packed like sardines on Bournemouth beach we would not be venturing anywhere near it. We went instead  to the river to wade in the shallows with our fishing nets in the hope of catching one of the many small fish.

He was so tired at the end of the day that he feel asleep in the chair and was taken upstairs, given a sponge wash, put in his pjs  and popped into bed without waking up! The last photo of him age two.

It was a different story on the birthday morning!

A bike!

Although balloons take some beating!

Adjustments to the saddle

and then onto the open road.

Where has the balloon gone?

We had a great time.

But it was good to sit down for a rest!