Giveaway soon.

Check back next week for a giveaway.

I'm gathering some bits together.

There will be some fabric,

some vintage table linen

and other things.

Auschwitz.

I thought, at first, that I couldn't bear to watch the programmes on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous death camp, known as Auschwitz.

Then I realised that it was my pain on which I was dwelling, instead of the pain, the unimaginable suffering, of those who were interned in this place.

There was no way to watch or to dwell on it without tears.

These three lines were found scratched into a wall in one of the cells.

The song written from these words was beautifully sung at the memorial service by a young people's choir.

There is little more to be said.

Nesting.

 In our garden we have a very old Apple tree. In the time we have been here it has never flowered, but it does produce a canopy of leaves every year.

It is rather a battered old tree, with holes in the stumps of branches.

But....excitingly, yesterday I watched a Bluetit popping in and out of one of the holes.

I so hope he was checking it out for a nest box.

Apparently Blue tits will nest anywhere, in old drain pipes, plantpots,

 and hopefully in the hole in our tree. February is the month when the birds find their nesting homes.

This is not my photo, as my camera was elsewhere when I was watching. But it is exactly how he looked.

We'll wait and see.

Sunday lunch.

What do the words 'Sunday lunch' mean to you?

If I go back....yes childhood memories alert, Sunday lunch was a regular ritual in our house. Often my mum and I would do the long walk to church, and return to the delicious smells of roast something.

Grandma often cooked roast lamb, or beef with Yorkshire puddings.

Her roast potatoes were crisp without being hard, vegetables were often from the garden, and in those post war years there was nothing exciting such as ratatouille or red cabbage. Just freshly picked peas, beans and Spring cabbage all grown by Grandpa.

If I shut my eyes I can picture those meals, with often five or eight of us around the table. Always, always, and I can hear it now, there was the drone of John Arlott in the background....Grandpa could not miss the cricket commentary. Ever!

Grandma's Yorkshire puddings were as light as a feather. Maybe I should explain for those unfamiliar,that a Yorkshire pudding is made with a light batter and cooked in a very hot oven until it puffs up. They are traditionally eaten with roast beef, but seem to appear with any roast meat nowadays.

Naturally, we children filled ours with gravy to make a well!

There was, of course, a pudding to follow, and I wonder how we manage to eat it now. Steamed syrup pudding. Flaky apple pies. Crumbles.

I rarely cook a formal roast Sunday lunch now.

But we did go out last Sunday and had delicious roast pork.

Accompanied by Yorkshire puddings!

Many thanks to Penny who kindly changed the font size on my previous recipe, and put it on her website.
www.violet-white.blogspot.com

Recipe.

This is the recipe for the Toffee apple cake mentioned in the last post.

I can't get the print any larger, sorry.

It does read as though it is from a blog or a personal recipe folder, and there isn't much instruction as to what to do with the Caramel.

However, slightly warmed, and with a spoonful of ice cream it makes a delicious dessert!

Whose recipe?

I felt like making a cake today, so picked up my recipe folder to search. I came across a recipe for Toffee Apple Cake that I had printed off, and I am sure it was from someone's blog. Sadly I didn't write the name.

So if anyone owns this recipe, please let me know.

It reminds me of a favourite of my children, Pineapple upside down cake. But this is made with sliced apples dusted with brown sugar.

There is, as part of the recipe, a Caramel filling/sauce/frosting, maybe? I'm not sure that this needs any additions. I think I will treat it as two separate cakes.

The smell is delicious!

Foxy.

Looking out of my bedroom window at about 3 am I thought I saw a large cat in the garden.

As it moved across the lawn the sensor lights went on, and I realised it was a  fox. It wandered around for a while, and then started to dig up the lawn, which was when I banged on the window.

Even then, it didn't rush off, just raised its head and glared at me, turning tail in its own time and stalking off down the road.

I've not seen one here before, but there are fields and woods nearby, so I guess that is where he came from.

This isn't my photo, as at 3 am I didn't seem to have my camera in my hand, but it shows a very similar moment.

Alison Uttley.

 I read recently that there had been a resurgence of interest in the books of Alison Uttley. I grew up with these lovely stories told around the lives of Little Grey Rabbit and friends, and have often wondered why they were not more popular.

Alison Uttley lived from 1884 to 1929, and from all accounts was a formidable lady, which does not seem to fit with the gentle tales woven around the animals.

Little Grey Rabbit had her friends, Hare, Squirrel, lovely Moldy Warp and baby Fuzzypeg the hedgehog.

The stories are simple, about daily events, birthdays, snowy days and picking flowers together.

I treasure the books that I have still got (in a box somewhere still unpacked).

One of my favourites is 'A country child', stories of childhood in the country.

I had not realised till recently that she also wrote a recipe book.

Are the books familiar to you?

Bit of a problem.

I am having a problem with someone who seems to have hacked into my Friends Connect reading list. Every day there are more and more posts. I don't open them and wonder if there is any way of deleting this person/s?

This is the rubbish that I am receiving.

Any ideas?

Almost Human (2013)

jesika feronika at MOVIE HD QUALITAT - 1 hour ago

Watch Movie Almost Human High QualityDownload Almost Human HD with duration 80 Min and broadcast on 2013-09-19 and MPAA rating is 6. 2325517 2325517 - *Original Title :* Almost Human - *Movie title in your country :* Almost Human - *Year of movie :* 2013 - *Genres of movie :* Horror, Science Fiction, - *Status of movie :* Released - *Release date of movie :* 2013-09-19 - *Companies of movie :* Ambrosino / Delmenico, Channel 83 Films, - *Countries of movie :* United States of America, - *Language of movie :* English, - *Durationof movie :* 80 Min ... more »

Daffodil time.

Spring must be on its way?

All of a sudden little roadside stalls are springing up, some selling from a trolley, some from the back of a car.

It's the arrival of the Cornish Daffodil season.

Right across Cornwall daffodils are grown, from the Isles of Scilly to fields just up the road from our house.

It's a glowing bunch of gold!

For these farms it is one of the busiest times. Daffodils are picked in bud, then bunched and sent to market, or to local shops, or by post.

It's a wet job, and when I was a student I helped out in one of our local fields, picking (backbreaking!). Daffodils open very quickly so have to be picked, bunched and packed in a minimum time, kept cool and sent off.

Every year in Falmouth there is a Spring Festival (shown last night on the Great British Garden revival). Schoolchildren take bunches of daffodils as gifts to the local people. The town is given a facelift.

Wordsworth was inspired to write his famous

 poem by a walk that he took with Dorothy, his sister, near the lake at Ullswater. In her journal she wrote that she 'never saw daffodils so beautiful...they reeled and danced'.

When I look at our fields and hedgerows of wild daffodils I know just how she felt.

Epiphany

The 6th January was never welcome when we were children.

That was the day when all the decorations had to come down. It was my mother's birthday on 7th January, and I always felt that she should have decorations! By then she was probably glad to see them go.

All were packed carefully away, and  Twelfth night was an end to Christmas.

It is of course, the beginning of the season of Epiphany.

We commemorate the visit of the Magi to see the Christ child.

The baptism of Jesus in the Jordan river is also celebrated.

In France the shops used to be full of the traditional 'Galette des Rois', a sort of puff pastry cake. Inside each one is a small figurine, or a charm, known as the 'Feve'. The person who finds this is King for the day! The paper crown comes with the Galette.

The type of feve differed, depending on the baker.

The supermarket versions usually had a very plain metal or ceramic feve.

I still have some of the prettier ceramic charms tucked away. 

I don't think I'll find a Galette in Sainsburys!

No resolutions.

No resolutions.

No special word to guide me this year.

No phrase that has a meaning for my life.

I have read, with admiration, so many blogs that feature all of those above.

However, I know that having been through a year when life changed considerably, I can't make a huge focus on future plans.

I can look back to see what I have learned from this last year, and one of the most meaningful is 'acceptance'.

Accepting that our lives have changed, that certain things are not possible, that plans have had to be shelved, and that Care, in a major form, has become the focus of life.

Acceptance, but also Patience.

And gratitude that we have been able to do so much together, travel to so many countries, share our family's lives in far away places, build a house in France,

live a very fulfilled life enjoying music, concerts and the Arts.

Gratitude for my family here and away, for their constant support in differing ways.

Gratitude for faithful friends.

So, no need for resolutions, just a quiet determination to go on going on and doing the best I can, leaning on these words.

'I can do all things through Him who strengthens me'

Philippians 4, v 13.

Catalogues

With the beginning of the year come the catalogues and brochures, crashing through the letter box, most of which I have never invited.

Do I wish for a holiday, a cruise to far away places, a train journey? A cheap flight to Vienna?

A hotel in Devon?

Yes please, but a bit impossible.

Would I like to 'bring in the new year with a new wardrobe?'

(Where would I wear it?)

Lovely. Also expensive.

Well, what about a bit of garden planning with a seed catalogue? 

That's more interesting. So far only one has come, but I know there are at least another half dozen waiting eagerly to come.

Choices!

I do wonder just how much it costs these companies to send out very inviting, beautifully photographed advertising, that mostly will go in the recycling.