Vintage Cookery Books and Pottery

 Hello Friends!

Thank you to those of you who have clicked on the Follow button lately.  The more, the merrier!  It's lovely to have you here.

Before I forget, those of you who asked about the Kitchen Sink cake I wrote about here, you might like to know that it freezes very well indeed.

On the subject of baking, I found some old, vintage cookery books and pamphlets.  Look at the first one, 2/6d {two shillings and sixpence} pre decimalisation!  I wonder if Woman's Weekly is still in print? I remember that magazine, and also Woman's Realm as regular, weekly purchases Mum made from the little newsagents on the bottom of the Cross Square in the village.

The newsagents, called Gwalia, was run by two spinster sisters, the Misses Williams, who lived above the shop.  During the Second World War, my grandmother delivered newspapers for them, and, apparently, they would swap their coffee and tea rations.  Later, the business passed into the hands of Mr and Mrs Hurley.  My mother worked there during the 1960's and 70's. 

My own memories of Gwalia are the wonderful window displays at Christmas, filled with books, annuals, quality toys and other seasonal things to tempt the village children. Standing on our tippy toes, we children would press our eager faces up to the small windows for a closer look, in excited anticipation that Father Christmas would bring us at least one lovely thing in our stockings on Christmas Eve.  

The owners, rather sensibly, ran a Christmas Club, and Mum always saved, putting in a regular, weekly amount, so come Christmas week, the house would slowly fill with sweets and treats as she spent her Club. I recall, fondly, the boxes of chocolates: Milk Tray, Dairy Milk, Black Magic, and Terry's All Gold, along with chocolate covered Brazil nuts, and Turkish Delight. A proper, old fashioned Cadbury's Selection Box for Daddy and me to share on Christmas morning, and always a book that would suddenly appear, half hidden under the tree after Christmas dinner was over. 

Since then, the premises has expanded into what was once the downstairs sitting room, and has been a number of things, including a café, a grocery shop, and it is now a tourist style gift shop occupying all the former living quarters.  In the annexe there once was a small clothes shop; it is now a tempting chocolate boutique. 

I digress, but it shows how things change over the decades.  Nothing remains the same.

Here are the books and pamphlets I found.

This one came with our very first electric cooker.  Great was the excitement, and Mum was even encouraged to join in a evening class in the local school on Cordon Bleu cooking.  We ate very well!

This tickled me, I had never heard of Brochette Cookery, and all I can hear is Hyacinth Bucket saying Brochette in her own, inimitable style.

These have some interesting recipes, and I may try some out in the future. They are fairly basic, but it might make an interesting project for the Winter months. The Hartley's Book of Interest is full of tips, puzzles and games.

Final booklet for today, How to Decorate a Cake.  This is a skill I have never mastered.  My rosettes and shells always increase exponentially in size as I go along.

What do you do with a sweet little teapot, slightly chipped and missing the lid?  Why, plant it up with a tiny piece of cactus that fell off a plant, of course.

I am slowly going through boxes of belongings which have been packed away for ages.  I live in fervent hope of finding another "Ollie the Owl" {fans of the Antiques Roadshow will know what I mean} so that I can retire, but no such luck, yet.  The treasures of my forebears may not yield much in money, but they hold the memories of life times of love.

I remember these!  Every Christmas, they would come out of Mum's box of decorating bits and bobs. There were always two Christmas cakes, as well as a Chocolate Log.  One was painstakingly decorated with patterns of perfectly and patiently drawn, delicate lines of royal icing, embellished with rosettes, shells, and swirls, all in white with silver dragees.  Nothing short of pure elegance.  Then, just for me, a small cake with a frosty, whipped snow scene of robins, snowmen, holly, a Santa with his reindeer and sleigh, and these two, tiny pottery ornaments.

Then, I found this jar, possibly a honey pot or jam pot for the breakfast table.  No markings, just "Foreign" stamped on the bottom, but a quaintly charming, bucolic scene of haymaking in delicate colours.

Finally, for today, someone at one time must have collected Toby jugs, for there are many, some quite tiny and would only hold an ounce.  They aren't my cup of tea, but here's an unusual one, and as a seamstress I suppose I feel a connection to this fun little Toby of a Tailor.  It is Made in Staffordshire, England, numbered 781 TAILOR, and is marked Roy Kirkham Pottery.  

I Googled the name and apparently the company was established in the early 1970's, producing character jugs and figurines.  What they produce today, which you can see here, is very different, and very pretty and desirable.

I love the knowing way he peers over his spectacles, don't you?  It's there whichever angle you look at.

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Deborah xoxo

Garlic and Onions

Gentle Reader ~~~ Where does time fly? One day I was scurrying in to wish one and all a Happy Thanksgiving, with all good intentions of a couple of posts before Christmas, and here we are, Christmas is now an almost distant memory ~ excepting the few extra pounds that linger to accompany me to the scales ~ and the New Year, replete with resolutions, is nearly upon us!

I was, as ever, late posting out my Christmas cards, but this year there was a deep sadness in the village as our lovely village Post Office closed it's doors forever on December 6th.  Oh, such a sad day indeed.  

I fondly recall the village Post Office as a special place, central to village life, a meeting place on Tuesdays as pensioners stood in line to collect their pensions, a place to exchange news, read the bulletin board and find out what is happening, pick up a magazine or newspaper in the adjoining newsagents {run by the husband of the Post Mistress} the big, red pillar box, a sentinel standing proudly outside waiting to receive letters for the postman to take away for delivery ~~~ to the next town, the neighbouring Shires, over the borders, to countries far and near as the soared into the air on planes, or by surface on ocean going liners ~ ah! the romance of a letter in the post ~~~ the deliveries still happen, but the heart of our village Post Office is gone forever.  We now have a sterile, void of all personality counter, an annexe to the Express Checkout, at the local supermarket.  If I say any more I think I shall cry again, so I am moving swiftly on ~~~

So, there I was, barely getting my cards out in time, but here are some pictures of some of the ones I made ~~~

The first four I made by embossing some plain white card stock topping them with some pretty Victorian scrap papers and plaid card stock.  I kept these flat as they were being posted overseas ~~~

For the next ones, I embossed plain card stock before layering with a coated card stock that I inked up and then added some dinky little plain toppers that I ran through my Cuttlebug with embossing folders carefully placed ~~~

One of my favourites this year was the stag {below} ~~~ I had a beautiful stag embossing folder and inked the card stock before embossing, then using a black Archival Ink I stamped over the trees using one of the trees from this Clarity Stamp set.  I used a freebie stamp from a magazine for the sentiment and cut it out using a shape from my Brother Scan n Cut, then I echoed it using Mirri card in purple.  I think this is my favourite of all ~~~

I am not terribly brilliant at making cards, but I do so enjoy the simple pleasure of putzing about with paper, ink, stamps, embossing folders, and cutting machines;  making a mess too, while creating something, made with love, to send through the post to a faraway friend ~~~

Maybe we should talk a little about the garden now?  Of course, the weather and it being Winter now means very little is happening, but there is always something that can be done, even if it is sitting in the comfort of an armchair in front of a blazing fire perusing all the inspiring seed catalogues that plop through the letter box at this time of year.

Two of my favourite things to eat, yet something I have not grown for some time, are garlic and onions. If truth be told, I adore all the allium family ~ chives, leeks, onions, scallions, shallots, garlic ~ yum yum ~ happy tum!  Here is a little extra reading for you, a little information on alliums, if you want to take a peek.  I've also been reading some very nasty things about garlic that is imported from China ~ and it is so hard to find garlic on sale in my area that is not grown in, and imported from, China, so, in mid October I sent off an order to Franchi: Seeds of Italy for some onion sets and garlic bulbs. These are from Italian grown stock and I totally trust the sourcing of Franchi, and I am always happy to buy from them because they will also take the time to personally help you with any questions you have. 

So, back to the garden ~~~ a few weeks ago, when the weather was not too wet, or too cold, or too windy, in fact on some of those mid~Autumn days when, like a bowl of porridge, the weather is just right, I managed to squeeze in a few hours in the garden ~ oh, how that made my heart sing with joy!

During the horrible time when my back was bad, and I could not take care of the garden for many weeks, the weeds took such advantage and grew like ~ well, weeds ~~~ so the first thing I had to do was clear some space ~ what I mean to say is, weed and turn over the soil! 

I dug and I pulled the weeds {mostly long rooted dandelions} ~ very carefully, turned the soil over, always guarding my back against any strain or cold breezes, and eventually I cleared a small piece of ground, enough to pop in most of my onion sets ~ oh! I chose a variety bag of red, brown, and white onions so I will have a choice in the late Spring when the harvest should be ready.  

There wasn't much point in showing you photographs of empty ground, but things are starting to move along now, and here are some I took today; you can see the tiny onion sets that are now several weeks in the ground showing lovely, sturdy, green shoots ~ which I hope is a good sign, because I have never grown onions over winter before, but I am assured they will be fine, and this means I get a little crop of something from the ground next Spring ~ of course, as you can see, the weeds are growing too! 

I have put up the metal supports from my tunnel cloches over the patch and strung green garden twine back and forth to stop cats from digging and birds from pulling ~ for that is truly heart breaking when they come in and destroy your crops and undo all your hard work ~~~

Do you see the cheeky little weeds?  They won't be there much longer ~ I will be at them with my four inch wide hoe!  Perfect for scratching along the ground in between the rows of onions ~~~

The garlic is planted in two big, recycled rubbish bins that I filled with compost.  Each bin has two bulbs in it, each with about a dozen cloves, so between them that will be about two dozen bulbs to harvest in the mid to late Spring ~ I do so love garlic, so I must work out space to help achieve a constant, year 'round supply!  I still have one bulb left, so hope to plant that in soon.  At about £5.00 for a bag of three, beautiful, fat bulbs they will not be that much cheaper than ones in the shops, but I will have the satisfaction of knowing how they were grown and what compost they were grown in! 

The first two show the cloves that were planted in early November and they are growing very well indeed, I think.  Of course, as I have not done this before I have nothing to compare it with ~~~ time will tell ~~~

These two show the second tub, planted about a month later, and they have just started poking their tiny shoots above the soil into the freezing cold Winter ~~~

So, Gentle Reader ~ it is that time of year when resolutions are made ~ there's a surprise! I have resolved ~~~
~to spend less time on line using social media
~to enter some words and images here at least once a week {maybe shorter entries and more often than longer and less often}
~to grow more food
~to eat more healthily
~to get fit!!! {I bet that sounds familiar to many of us}
~to read more new authors
~to try some new recipes at least once a week! {sounds like a plan!}

What are your resolutions?  Have you made any yet, or are they a work in progress?  Do please share!


Remember that ~~~

~~~A Gardener's Work is Never Done~~~