Talking about e-mails - we received a lovely ‘comment’ from a reader a few days ago. Unfortunately she put our e-mail address in the box intended for the sender to put their’s. The result is we have no way of responding properly. If you have recently sent us a comment and heard nothing from us please let me know - and include your address.
2011
It is, of course, a new year and, quite properly, people are wishing each other - what, exactly? The usual wish is ‘a happy New Year’ but what do we really mean by that? Even when we think we know what we mean, is it achievable? This year we have decided to wish our friends ‘a peaceful New Year’ but I suspect that is ducking the issue. We need new beginnings so that we can put the past behind us and ‘start again’ with a clean slate, full of optimism and energy. How about this: ‘Here is hoping that at the end of 2011 you can look back over the year with no regrets - either for things you did not do that you wish you had done or for things that you did that you regret’. If I can achieve that I shall be delighted so, clumsy though it is, that is what I wish all of you.
In ‘Forgotten Laughter’ by Marcia Willett (published in the USA under the title ‘A
Summer in the Country’), there is the following paragraph:-
'You'll be glad to get into the cottage,' Brigid was saying to Alexander, serving
her rather special pudding, Brettle cream, onto his plate. This was their third shared
supper and if the food were rather more extravagant than Brigid would have cooked
for herself she was not admitting to it.
I was reminded of this recently in an e-mail from Marylyn Bertrand who asked what
had happened to the recipe which used to appear on one of our web sites. There is
no good answer to that question so here it is - and here it will stay!
Brettle Cream - the Recipe
Whip half pint (or slightly less) double cream with a little caster sugar. Beat in
one pint natural yoghurt, top with generous coating of soft dark brown sugar and
put in fridge for at least an hour.
We have had two new visitors to the garden in the last few days: a male pheasant who is much paler (and a good deal bolder) than the one we have been seeing over the last few years who had a damaged leg. It would seem that he, poor fellow, hasn’t made it through this winter.
The other is a blackbird with a distinctive white feather on his wing. There are some five or six male blackbirds already beginning to argue over who owns which bit of the garden. They are all kept firmly in place by the only female on the scene who bullies everyone. Oddly she is much nicer to this new arrival so perhaps she had a soft spot for him. They will remain under observation!
