Feeling fruity

fruit-salad-morguefileI keep a tiny book-themed B&B – and I offer my guests fresh fruit salad every morning. Our raspberries are just ripening, and there are only a few home-grown blueberries. I had sliced an apple but felt it needed a bit more interest – so I had a rootle in the depths of  the fruit bowl. Out came a passion fruit – and that got me to thinking about characters… Continue reading

Sussex-by-the-Sea

Gramarye_coverOn Tuesday 16th June, I had the pleasure of attending a talk organised by the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy as part of the 2015 Festival of Chichester.

It was given by their visiting professor of folklore, Jacqueline Simpson. If you have had anything to do with British folklore, or indeed the folklore of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, you probably know her name…

Continue reading

In comes I , Bold St George

St_George's_Day_in_Gravesend,_Kent_b

A St. George’s Day celebration in Kent, 2011 via Wikipedia

Tonight we have an English classic: cottage pie. There’s the roast beef of Old England recycled with mash and nice orange carrots and green broccoli. There’s gravy, and my Best Beloved will add to that with Brown Sauce. There will be real English Ale and there has been tea throughout the day, of course.

How very English – but not, I hope, Little Englander.

Continue reading