I’ve been familiar with these books since childhood and I even read one of them during my student days; John Earle’s Microcosmography, first published in 1628. I’m not sure that I’ll ever read The Wigwam and the Warpath, Alpha of the Plough or Ballads and Ballad Poems but I couldn’t bring myself to leave them in the book cupboard when we had house clearance in before handing over the keys to my mum’s house at the end of September.
Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
A sweet post. What I couldn’t leave behind when we cleaned out my mother’s apartment was her recipe file. Yesterday I opened the box and retrieved her noodle puddling recipe, and at the bottom of the card was a little love note from my father! I guess he liked her noodle pudding too.
Folded up in the Robert Carrier, my sister searched out my mum’s friend ‘Jean’s Scone Recipe’, which must be good judging by how worn and stained the paper is.