Fine china

Everything today seems to be high speed, top volume and low maintenance.  I admit that I was glad of many modern conveniences when I was a busy, working mother. Retirement means I have time to make real bread, real coffee, real porridge, to hang the washing on the line instead of putting it in the tumble dryer, to pick flowers for the house and generally surround myself with lovely tastes and smells. It really is worth the time and effort!

However busy I used to be, I would always lay the dining room table properly for our evening meal. Sitting down to eat together has always been an essential feature of our family life, a time to catch up on news, to sort out problems and to add to the repertoire of family jokes. The children have left home but they come to visit and the table has had to grow to accommodate the new family members but we can't imagine life without it.

My work used to take me into the homes of many young parents and I was at first surprised and then saddened to find that few of them owned a table. Lots of modern first-time houses are too small to have a separate dining room or even a kitchen/diner. People seem to eat from trays in front of the television - not a good scenario for encouraging language development in the deaf children I worked with! Deaf or hearing, children learn an enormous amount from the interaction of families and sitting in a row in front of a TV does not provide that. My husband, a maths teacher, wants a campaign to bring back multiplication tables; I want a campaign to bring back dinner tables!

My online friend, Dewena, takes great care over her table settings. Go over and see the lovely china and table linen she uses. We both think that it is worth the effort, even when we are left with only two at the table. I haven't asked, but I imagine she must have lots of cupboards to store all her china, something that I am sadly lacking. Our house is crammed with books and bookshelves and a china collection would be difficult to accommodate. 

I inherited an Edwardian teaset from my mother-in-law and it is still in a box, almost two years on. Inspired by Dewena, I took it out and washed it a few days ago. It is fine bone china, hand painted and heavily decorated:

There are 34 pieces altogether: 12 teaplates, 9 cups and saucers, 2 cake plates, a milk jug and a bowl. Mother-in-law, who inherited the set from her mother, kept it in a display cabinet and never used it. Afternoon tea parties went out of fashion in the 1940s and I don't have a display cabinet to show off that Edwardian splendour; what to do with it? I took the photographs to the local antique shop, which specialises in fine china, to get some idea of the value. I thought I might sell it and buy something I would like to use instead. I am glad that I took photos and not the box of china as I might have dropped it when I heard the valuation! £20 is the current value of this 110 year old set. There is no market for fine china.

What will I do? I will establish a new fashion for afternoon tea. I'll bake cakes and scones and make dainty cucumber sandwiches and lay the table with my best cloth and napkins and my fine china. You're invited!

A late arrival

I have been humming a certain tune under my breath for many weeks as the winter dragged on and on and on. I usually think of versions of this song by Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan but, following news of her death a few weeks ago, I'd like to play Deanna Durbin singing Spring will be a little late this year.


I thought that the garden would never recover from the long months of rain. I watched in dismay as the topsoil was daily washed down onto the yard below, forming a sludge that had to be removed quickly before it could get into our narrow drains. Local farmers said the crops this year, if they could ever get them planted, would be poor in quality as well as late because the soil's nutrients had been washed away by the floods. Imagine my happy surprise, therefore, when I returned from my peregrinations to find the sun shining and the garden bursting with blooms!  Cue another song:


Here are a few of my garden delights:

 The last of the camellias sit next to the first signs of the magnolia and lilac flowers against a remarkably blue sky.

 Spring flowers are coming into their own at last.

 and the shrubs and apple tree are all in blossom.

I have started to plant up my patio pots, only five weeks later than usual! I had this little companion throughout, almost pushing me away when he caught sight of a worm.

Today, the rain has come back and the temperature has plummeted; gale force winds are forecast for tomorrow. Perhaps our late spring will have lasted for just a few days but it was worth waiting for and perhaps the garden will survive yet again.

Peregrinations

Since last sitting at my desk, I have been travelling around Britain and generally having a good time. There has been a lot of cake:

 

Lots of memories:

April 1973

Revisiting of special places:

Hawk and Buckle April 2013

Swallow Falls 1973

Caernarvon Castle 1973

The MM and I were celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary. Our plan had been to have a quiet weekend away but our son and daughter had other plans and we were swept away in a whirl of gatherings, champagne, dinners and visits. After a weekend of fun here with the family, they packed us off to 

in North Wales to stay in the seventeenth century coaching inn where we spent the first few days of our honeymoon. The mountains, castles and coast looked the same and, as long as we avoided mirrors and shop windows, we imagined we were the same young people who went there in 1973!

Hints of spring

At this time last year, the garden was a mass of blooms and we were eating all of our meals on the patio. Spring and summer rolled into one glorious month and then were washed away by months of unprecedented rain. The floods have now cleared but winter, apparently, has not yet ended. More rain, followed by icy winds and wintry showers are to come BUT today the sun is shining and the temperature is a very mellow 11 degrees (51 Fahrenheit).

When I went out to fill the bird feeders this morning, I noticed lots of signs of spring emerging and, knowing this might be my last opportunity for a while, I fetched my camera and recorded a few of them.

The dwarf daffodils have been open for a week now but today I spotted the first of the regular daffodils.

The camellia shrubs have also been in flower for a while, the earliest harbingers of spring in my sheltered garden. Lots of the outer flowers have fallen but I spotted one deep in the foliage and a whole lot of buds waiting to open and delight.

 Another early show comes from the pulmonaria, which I call pandemonium because of its tendency to run riot in the garden.

 I am reluctant to pick spring flowers because I know the early bumble bees need them but I know that these beautiful tulips will be eaten by mice overnight if I don't get them first, so I'll be out later to gather them:

If you look carefully at the next picture you might spot a dragon. He is one of the pets we have for the grandchildren. He's rather fond of hellebores and snowdrops.

Spring was the theme for our writing group this week and we heard a selection of poems, each of them inspiring but we did not use my personal favourite so here it is:

Nothing is so beautiful as spring --
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. -- Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.
Gerard Manley Hopkins

The lushness of Hopkins' spring hasn't arrived in my garden yet but there are definitely some early hints of what is to come.

Special jam tarts

I'm sure that everyone has a recipe for jam tarts but none can be as simple or as special as mine! I was baking with 4 year-old granddaughter Millie when she asked why I was using a recipe from a little notebook rather than one of the many cookery books I have on the shelf. I explained that I write up really special recipes in my notebook, which is well-thumbed and stained from years of use. She thought about this for a while and then asked if I would write her special recipe for jam tarts in my book and here it is, just as she dictated:

Millie's jam tarts

You need some pastry and some jam

Roll out the pastry
Cut out circles with a cutter
Put them in a special jam tart tray
Put some jam in each tart
Cook them
Take them out of the oven and let them cool
Eat them.

Simple, isn't it? Of course, this has pride of place in my notebook.

The winner

Thank you to everyone who entered the draw for Slightly Foxed Quarterly. Fifteen names went into the hat yesterday and the one that came out was Derwena. Congratulations! Please send me your details via email and I will set up the account in time for you to receive the Spring edition.

Last day for Slightly Foxed draw

I'm in the midst of the grandchildren for half term but I'll be leaving for home tomorrow. Before I set out I will put the names of everyone who has left a comment here in the past two weeks into a hat and let one of the children draw one out to win the subscription for a year of Slightly Foxed quarterly.  If you have been hovering and would still like to enter then please do so today.

Good luck!