Jane Brocket Envy

Before I went to bed last night I looked at Jane Brocket's blog, Yarnstorm, in which she describes her latest book she is working on. It's a recipe book based on the food that appears in children's books, like those written by Enid Blyton. And I think it's such a great idea, I wish I'd thought of it myself. I recently had some acupuncture done, to help combat tiredness, and one of the unexpected side-effects of the acupuncture was that I recalled vivid feeling memories from my childhood. So it wasn't particularly memories of things that had happened, but more how I had felt within the memory of things that had happened. When the days stretched, and I had all the time in the world, and all the space in the world and I read a lot. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a very safe and supported environment. My parents had moved into a newly-built housing estate when my sister was very young, and all the other houses were occupied by other young couples starting out, with small children. All the children in the neighbourhood were looked after by all the adults, and we were in and out of each other's houses all the time. It was a very social place to live. The kids were friends, the mothers were friends, the fathers were friends, it was great. We also had extended family living fairly nearby too, so there was lots of visiting of cousins and aunts, and we visited my Granny every Saturday.

My favourite author when I was a child was Enid Blyton, and because the acupuncture evoked these childhood memories I recently re-read most of 'The Mystery of...' series, which stars The Five Find-Outers, and Dog. Again, it's a safe world, where the children solve mysteries, with a regular smattering of outings to cafes for macaroons and ginger beer.

I'm not a great cook. Hagos does all our food shopping and cooks all the main meals (he is a great cook - he can find an old onion in the fridge and turn it into a delicous meal) but I am a good baker and have made many gorgeous cakes in my time, which is why I'm so envious of Jane's idea and book deal. To spend every day reading favourite children's books, make a list of recipes found there, and then make the recipes and write the book sounds like heaven to me. What a truly lovely way to spend time. I'll definitely buy Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer when it's published.