Getting ready Well, it certainly wasn’t what I thought would happen. I had offered to help my daughter Joy with her annual Hot Cross Bun Bash on the Good Friday before Easter. This involved a 6.30 a.m. start making the dough so that it would rise at staged times, enabling preparing, shaping, baking and glazing… Continue reading Hot Cross Buns — and an Unexpected Visitor
Author: judithlouise
March
March Storm. On a recent morning walk, a passenger jet prepared to land on my head. It didn’t. And it wasn’t. It was only the wild wild wind thrashing the trees– spraying the raindrops into showers of rainbows in the surprising, intermittent sunshine. The fierce roar was intense. Sometimes I was hustled along,… Continue reading March
Keeping A Journal
Me: [Ending a telephone conversation]: It will be so good to see you. I thought I’d make fish pie.” Prospective visitor: “Yes. You made that the last time we came.” Me: I did? PV: Uh-huh. It was good. (vaguely) It was good. A storage of memories Keeping a journal will prevent YOU from having such… Continue reading Keeping A Journal
Hooray for the Glorious Peanut!
In celebration of Peanut Butter Day, January 24th. Even my mother’s feet showed distress as she pitti-pitti-patted down the stairs, “Poor Georgina! I’ve put her into a terrible mess and don’t know how to get her out!” she threw over her shoulder as she headed for the kitchen, and retrieved – of course — her… Continue reading Hooray for the Glorious Peanut!
Meeting the new community
“Hello, how are you? I’ve seen you out walking. Are you new? Yes. My name is Judy. We have just moved here to be near our daughter. I try walk each day.” This is the conversation I practised on my early walks in the countryside around our new home. I didn’t use it often because… Continue reading Meeting the new community
American Thanksgiving in a Non American Country
Well, we had roast turkey, sausages, gravy, apple-celery-bacon cornbread stuffing with cashews and cranberries, Amish sweet potatoes with apple and mace, mashed potatoes, squash with crystallised ginger, green beans almondine, broccoli, cranberry-orange relish, the obligatory creamed onions (which, I understand, is an Upstate New York addition), and mince-peach pie, apple-cherry pie, and of course, pumpkin… Continue reading American Thanksgiving in a Non American Country
Apple County Apple Country
They say that if a medieval Greek man wanted to propose marriage, all he had to do was to toss his Intended an apple. If she caught it, or even tried to catch it (let’s keep her options open as wide as possible here) she agreed to the union. A powerful thing is the apple. … Continue reading Apple County Apple Country
Living in Limbo
I can find the Christmas plates, but not the base to the kettle. I can find my Grandmother’s jewellery, but not my socks. I can find 36 boxes of books, but two slow cookers have gone missing. Taking the paper off cherished and almost-thrown-out possessions – an unknown packer treated all items of equal importance..… Continue reading Living in Limbo
A Community Farewell
Well, it had to happen eventually, didn’t it — time to leave this community. people who have welded themselves into our hearts, who know us well, have seen us in pajamas and no make up hanging up clothes, have lived through our tragedies and us theirs. Friends who have shared the ghoulish parts of… Continue reading A Community Farewell
Shakers and Movers
“’ ‘Tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to be free, ‘tis a gift to come down where you ought to be” goes the song given to us by the Shaker communal society, with their simple shared property, celibacy, pacifist life. The tune was woven in and around Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring. But… Continue reading Shakers and Movers
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