Last week's bread held out, unto there being (just) enough for frittata (onion &thyme) for Friday night supper.
On Friday evening I made some Famous Aubergine Dip (had wild pomegranate vinegar, yay) to take to book group (happening this evening), but have not made foccaccia due to other attendees' gluten issues. Will take carrot sticks instead.
Today's lunch (a bit early because of having to set off to book group): partridge breasts rubbed with crushed white peppercorns, thyme, rosemary and salt, panfried in butter and olive oil, deglazed with madeira; served with kasha (have now discovered the correct proportions, and this sort does not go mushy, either), purple tenderstem broccoli, for which I sauteed chopped ginger and fennel seeds in olive oil and then added the broccoli and stirred around for a bit, then added a few tablespoons of water and steamed for half an hour, and gingery-grilled baby courgettes.
In his groundbreaking documentary, We Were Here, Kuwornu shares the diverse African presence in Renaissance Europe that he found: princes, ambassadors, saints, artists, scholars, and knights—all revealed through art from the period.
The Shropshire site, which comprises 10 museums and 35 listed heritage buildings, is transferring to the custodianship of the National Trust on 2 March after a challenging period that saw it grapple with severe flooding and falling visitor numbers. Supported by a £9m government investment, it is hoped the takeover will secure the site’s long-term future and enable it to benefit from the National Trust’s high profile and visitor expertise.
This seems somehow to link on to earlier posts this week - a lot of my memories of childhood reading/being read to are associated with episodes of illness!
Posted in a group on Facebook: 'A book you read as a child yet still think about today'.
WOT.
Just So Many.
The various classic works of children's literature that have become culturally embedded in references and allusions - the Alice books, the Pooh books, The Wind in the Willows, the Jungle Books, The Secret Garden, Little Women et seq, the Katy books -
Ones that are perhaps not quite so iconic? like the Little Grey Rabbit books.
A whole mass of girls' school stories and pony books. A fair amount of Enid Blyton though I'm not sure I think about any specifics there.
Various anthologies and collections - some stories still remembered - classic fairytales, myths, etc.
Plus things like Pears Cyclopaedia and The Weekend Book
And I do, in fact think about things like, the attitude towards The Scholarship Girl in The Making of Mara in what is actually the unposh, girls' day school, to which her father sends snobbish Mara. (Only this week when thinking about educational privilege....)
Plus, I will mention yet again being absolutely traumatised by Marie of Roumania's The Lily of Life.
Today's post is dedicated to all the engaged couples out there. That's right, lovebirds, I thought we might take this opportunity to consider the most important cake of your entire lives: your wedding cake.
Now, I know I feature a lot of wedding wrecks, and I know a lot of folks will point out that asking for a fondant design recreated in buttercream is asking for disaster, but don't you worry. I'm here to help. After all, this is what Leah D. ordered for HER wedding cake:
And look what she got!
It's the tinfoil-covered cookie sheet that really sells it.
Ok, yes, it's a wreck. BUT - did you notice how the inspiration cake was all buttercream, and the wreck itself is fondant? I'm just sayin'. It works both ways.
Now, don't you feel better?
No?
Ok, then how about what Susan A. ordered for her wedding?
Not a great picture (you don't see mimeographs much these days), but I think you get the general idea.
And here's what Susan got:
Granted, I'm not sure how this is supposed to make you feel better, but trust me, guys: the REST of us are feeling grrrrr-REAT. (John! Go make some popcorn! These are gettin' GOOD.)
Sara M. wanted her wedding cake to be a hunk a' hunk a' burnin' love:
The cake! The cake! The cake is on FI-YUR!
But instead, her cake just suffered from a mild burning sensation and performance issues:
Wah-WAAAAH.
(That was my attempt at a slide-rule trombone effect. I know: I'm a veritable foley artist with words.)
And finally, Elizabeth P. dreamed a dream of ribbon-wrapped sweetness for her big day:
...but ended up with something only a mummy could love:
Ouch. Uh...that's a wrap!
Thanks to all of today's brides and just remember, guys: wreck or Sweet, we're gonna need to see your wedding cake! (Oh, and we're all invited, right? RIGHT?!)
*****
P.S. When you don't have a cake to express yourself, there's always this:
The National Archives is hosting the exhibition 'Love Letters', exploring 500 years of expressions of love. This exhibition captures the voices of paupers and monarchs, reflecting friendships, romance, and more. But why does love appear in government documents?
Finished Eleven Hours to Murder and went on to Death by the Dozen, which combine the cozy antics of Cat Caliban and her posse with mysteries tending to be rooted in past historical events in and around Cincinnatti. And Cat is after all pursuing a career as a PI, rather than taking up some quirky midlife career and just stumbling over bodies. And her partner is a retired cop who used to work in Juvie, not homicide. So counter to a lot of the recurrent tropes....
Then I realised, oops, that next meeting of in-person book group appears to be next Sunday - though I have not received any further notification since exchange of emails after the last meeting - so I have been reading Anna Funder, Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life (2023), which is blurbed as 'genre-bending', meaning it does things I am not that on board with, i.e. the writer's personal stuff/odyssey and b) fictionalising bits as narrative. Though I am marking it up somewhat for her realisation that her Great Hero G Orwell was A Horror. I daresay a lot of his trouble with being basically incapable in managing matters and practicalities was down to class and educational background but you'd have thought he might have cottoned on to some of that? rather than blithely eating up the whole of their butter ration? (fairly minor in the overall marital picture).
On the go
Read a bit more in I Am a Woman but still feeling a bit bogged down, even if Laura has finally had a night of sapphic passion.
Elizabeth George, A Slowly Dying Cause (Inspector Lynley Book 22) (2025). Fortunately this was a Kobo deal. Phoning it in. Also getting rather bogged down. 20% in and only just getting a sight of Lynley, let alone Havers. Includes great chunks of autobiographical reminiscence from the corpse.
Have also made some progress on volume for review.
Up next
Have apparently manifested, in place where I would never have thought to look for it, GB Stern, The Woman in the Hall (1939), which I had been fruitlessly looking for elsewhere, with a notion of maybe recommending for book group, as has recently been reissued for the first time since 1939 by British Library Women Writers.
Sure, you could go with rubber duckies and baby blocks, but that's sooo last decade. Today's shower cakes are all about the biology of baby-making: tasty and educational!
And while you're at it, why not congratulate dad, too?
Of course, mom also did her part:
Whoah, whoah, whoah! TMI, Dad, TMI!
You could even illustrate the whole process with the aid of disturbing plant analogies:
Raise your hand if you're going to have nightmares about daisies sprouting Alien-style from your midsection tonight. Anyone? Anyone? Just me? Alrighty, then.
Granted, the process doesn't always start exactly the same way:
Thank goodness that cup is labeled. Otherwise, we'd have some concerned coffee drinkers on our hands right about now.
And what does all this love math equal?
(No, your eyes do not deceive you: that IS a Fetal Bite cookie in that there uterus cake. Excellent.)
And that brings us to the Big, Life-Changing Moment!
AAAAAAUUUGGGHHHH!!
Yep, I'm changed for life.
Casey D., Heidi D., Hillary M., Kristin J., Jess, Shari W., & Tiffany D., when you're ready to have "the talk" with your kids, feel free to come back here for visual aids.
*****
This book has over 2,000 5-star reviews and looks absolutely hysterical, definitely bookmark it for the new parents in your life:
'I'm so glad I didn't die with the measles when I was little!'
Thinking a bit further about that education meme and the line You were in relatively good physical and mental health.
Well, on the one hand, I had my vaccinations for smallpox, diphtheria and whooping cough all in order at a young age.
I did, however, get measles, chickenpox and mumps once I started school and they were going around. And in those days if you had an infectious disease you were obliged to stay off school for a designated quarantine period (and return your library books to the Public Health Department for fumigation).
I think scarlet fever was still around though rare, and I have a vague recollection of some child at the school actually dying from it?
Polio vaccination only came in when I was 7 or 8.
I suffered from severe tonsillitis until they removed them when I was 6, I am not at all sure, in the light of present thinking on the subject, that this was necessary, but it was very common.
In less dramatic health interventions, I mention the free codliver oil, orange juice and milk bestowed by a munificent government.
I am a little surprised, in retrospect, that my short sight wasn't picked up through testing at school, but in fact my mother noticed me squinting at things and took me for an eye-test.
I feel that I had fair amounts of time off from school being ill one way and another (besides the aforementioned epidemic diseases and operation) - not to mention the appendectomy and its after-effects when I was at uni - but that this didn't have any major adverse impact.
At the grammar school I was tagged for remedial exercises to do with the way I walked (on the outsides of my feet?): am not sure this had any effect whatsoever.
My migraines were not identified as such.
Period pains were after the way of womanhood, pretty much.
On the whole, relatively good health. A certain amount of mental stress, especially at uni.
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