A splodge of black paint perhaps and the remains of a notice stuck on top of it, both imposed on the grey metal box which is the home of telephone links or such like. For me another abstract painting executed partly by people and partly by wind and rain.
Mount Sion is fairly steep and the walk up more exacting in recent years, so when I reach the bottom of the road and realise that I have left my notebook and pen at home, a sense of panic ensues. This blog which is a sort of minute by minute chronicle of the day, and other preoccupations require me to write down almost all the time the fleeting things I see and the thoughts which come into my head, before they fly out again. No alternative then, other than going back up the hill, but to buy the cheapest pad and ball pen I can find in the convenience store on the corner of Chapel Place. Once these are in my pocket I feel that I can walk on blithe and ready for almost anything.
Through the post comes a post card from an old friend. It depicts the cover of one of my favourite cookery books - Plat du Jour or Foreign Food by Patience Gray and Primrose Boyd. Illustrations by David Gentleman. A classic of its kind. It is subtitled A Penguin Handbook and bears the price 3/6 or17.5 p in today's money. It was published in 1958. Good to hear from a friend and to be remembered with a postcard, especially this one. It will go into my scrapbook. In a minute or two I will go down and search the cookery shelves for the original Penguin which I have long treasured.
3 comments:
My sympathies about your left-behind impedimenta. On one occasion I used my cheque-book, on yet another a paper napkin. On yet another I went into WH Smith for something to write with and found all the pens came in trios priced accordingly. Other problems developed. Writing on the napkin - a very unsatisfactory surface - I was pretty sure the words that emerged weren't the right words. Also, reduced to a ball-point, I found it failed to lay down ink on the pages of an exercise book which had previously received the secreted oils of my hands and fingers. Nor can I comfortably accept crossing out instead of (as with the PC) deletion. In fact I shouldn't be trying to write this comment in the ridiculously small space allowed by Blogger, I feel hemmed in and should have started out in MsW then copy/pasted. Gosh, aren't writers boring?
You've just reminded me that I have this book and haven't cooked from it in years. I remember cooking quiche from it as a teenager (many many years ago) and it being rather rich. I think I'll try it again.
I love your new photo and enjoy checking in to your blog after looking at Clare Law's 3BT (which is how I found you) Thank you for sharing your thoughts and photos,
All the best,
Alison
L d P Not to one another.
Alison Patience Gray is the author of another remarkable book Honey from a Weed. It describes her life and culinary experiences during her life with her sculptor husband, when she travelled for 20years along the shores of the Mediterranean and adopted the primitive growing cooking and conservation methods of the country people she encountered on the way.
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