

A table
"When I moved into my first home, before I did anything else, I bought a table, a table not just to eat at, but to live around." Nigella...
Dec 30, 2020


Happy Christmas
This is the last picture from my 2020 Charley Harper diary - a rather cute Christmassy picture of somewhat bemused looking cats. Or are...
Dec 25, 2020


Christmas overkill panic
This is just a quickie because - guess what - it's just over a day to Christmas and I am in my usual Christmas panic even though I am not...
Dec 23, 2020


Brave new world or the end of days?
"Come to the edge, He said. They said, We are afraid. Come to the edge, He said. They came. He pushed them... and they flew." Guillaume...
Dec 16, 2020


Memory + imagination = dinner
“It needs to have whatever it was that you were reaching for as a kid: This is my after school memory, or this is the thing we always...
Dec 6, 2020


Indecision and macaroni cheese
"simplicity is the key to macaroni cheese ... nothing should leap out at you except a clumsy, gooey richness" Tom Norrington-Davies...
Nov 29, 2020


Salade Niçoise and breaking rules
"Call me old-fashioned, but surely the whole point of a classic recipe is that the punter knows, within an olive or two, what they are...
Nov 24, 2020


A moment in time - language and jargon
“I know all those words, but that sentence makes no sense to me.” Matt Groening It's a while since I've done one of my 'moment in time'...
Nov 21, 2020


Almost freedom
Last night we celebrated my grandson's 10th birthday with a family get together - in an Italian restaurant - it's always an Italian...
Nov 9, 2020


On the brink
It's a Monday, the second of November and it is very warm and sunny, indicating that summer is on the way. Which simultaneously means...
Nov 2, 2020


The joyful anarchy of home cooking
I saw that quote in Rachel Roddy's article on Pollo con peporino, so I stored it away in my head because it was so good. And then my son...
Oct 25, 2020


I've been doing it all wrong
I think my very first inspiration, as for many bloggers I suspect, was that film about Julia Child - Julie and Julia - in which Julie...
Oct 23, 2020


Carelessly old
Yesterday, in a fit of boredom, I was trawling back through various holiday photographs, bemoaning the fact that it is unlikely that I...
Oct 17, 2020


Minor magic
I saw those words 'minor magic' in passing in the Guardian newsletter that drops into my inbox once a week. It was from a review of a...
Oct 9, 2020


Great expectations
‘In my head they are going to be amazing but in reality they will be awful I expect!’ Jenny My sister was talking about some pasties she...
Oct 2, 2020


Breaking rules - good or bad?
“Look, that's why there's rules, understand? So that you think before you break 'em.” Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time We have just been...
Sep 27, 2020


Dull day, dull mind
Photographs are a bit on my mind because of the photo competition I have organised the family into, and I just liked this one. Not very...
Sep 25, 2020


Life. Be in it
"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced." Soren Kierkegaard I came across this lovely photo of my two little...
Sep 14, 2020


A sense of satisfaction
"Cooking something delicious is really much more satisfactory than painting pictures or throwing pots. At least for most of us. Food...
Sep 9, 2020


Afterthoughts and postscripts
"I work with language. I love the flowers of afterthought." Bernard Malamud I'm not sure I'm confident enough to say I work with...
Sep 8, 2020

