Upon a Box of Books, Ginger Cake, and Knitting

I am feeling a bit better now, about the wedding thing. I read a quote on Friday, in a craft shop, that is going to become my mantra.

‘My fiance asked me what the wedding day was that I wished for, and I said an elegant day with friends, family and music. I asked him, and he said the one that would make me his wife’

On the same day, I went to see Mum and Dad, and they had found an old box of books that were mine, in the garage- we had all forgotten they were there. It was like finding a box of treasure! I have let most of them go onto new homes via Oxfam, but I did find and keep a Good Housekeeping Cookbook from the 50’s, a vintage copy of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and a copy of Gone With The Wind with the thinnest paper, from the mid forties.

Mum and I went on to go to a craft shop (I bought a marvellously clever gold leafing pen- just brush it on, like a marker) and a little nursery, where we stood in a greenhouse full of cyclamen that looked like a field of butterflies, while rain hammered down on the roof.

I have been working on my knitting this weekend, when I have not been at work or doing other things. I love knitting with this wool (rown polar)- it is thick, so soft, and a wonderful colour- like blackberries that have been stirred into cream. I am making a hot water bottle cover for a Christmas present- to be given along with a mug and some hot chocolate, or cocoa. Hot water bottles make me think of cocoa and cozy nights in. I found a post on the blog of yarnstorm

http://yarnstorm.blogs.com/knitblog/2006/09/cocoa_fantasy.html

that is just what I mean, and has lovely knitting pictures too.

Yesterday, it rained so tremendously hard, that the water could not get down the drain pipes fast enough, and was making a fountain at the top. The lighting But I was tucked up inside, listening to the radio, knitting, and drinking tea.

And today, today the library staffroom smells like a tea-shop. We wanted to have a coffee morning for Macmillan Cancer Support, but several of us have Friday (the official coffee morning day) off, so we did it today instead. The smell is marvellous. I bought in my coffee pot from home, so there is the scent of fresh brewed coffee mingling with spiced apple cake, cherry bakewell loaf cake, cappuccino cake, chocolate chip cake, spiced fruit buns, and the most amazing ginger cake. I will post the ginger cake recipe as soon as I have appropriated it from the wonderful man who baked it. As soon as he showed it to us, you could see it would be good- all moist and gooey and somehow crumbly at the same time. He bought in greek yoghurt to serve with it, and it was really quite marvellous. Gingery enough to be properly ginger cake, but not so hot as to burn or make you thirsty- with crunchy bits of sugar like you get on top of a lemon drizzle cake, and nuts, and…well, it has made everyone who tasted it smile, and I fear he is getting quite embarrassed by all of us ladies going into raptures every time we see him!

As long as my elderberry cordial making goes well tonight, I shall post the recipe for that tomorrow.