Fodder for Daydreams

Yesterday I woke up from a dream about walking on cobbles surrounded by churches.  It was 3:40 am and there was no going back to sleep for me.  But it was awfully nice to just lie there and mull over my trip to England instead of hopping out of bed to shower and change in time to make breakfast at the B & Bs we stayed at.

After an overnight flight, a one hour tube ride to St Pancras and a one hour train ride out to Canterbury, I emerged on to the station platform expecting a melodramatic reunion with my daughter.  She was coming down the stairs as I made my way through the tunnel so we missed each other but in no time at all we were all sorted and had a cuddle for the first time in thirteen months.  What followed was nine days of adventure as The Heiress gave me a guided tour of Canterbury, we visited Dover Castle and its underground tunnels from World War II, and then moved on to the hustle and bustle of London.  Over the next few posts I'll be sharing a handful of photos (which I haven't even looked at properly myself yet) and stories of the things we did and to hopefully inspire someone out there to add a place or two to their holiday or weekend plans.

Most of my nearest and dearest who stop by here love nothing more than a bit of book porn.  Considering the nature of my trip was to help The Heiress cart back her belongings I had to keep the British Airways luggage allowance in mind while browsing.  It was torture as the bookshops are packed with so many irresistible books - really large books, perfect for drooling over on rainy days.  THE find was a first edition copy of Late and Soon by E. M. Delafield which I found in the 'G' section of the basement at Any Amount of Books on Charing Cross Road.  It pays to carefully look at every single book since people are notorious for shoving things back in any space that's handy.  The other lovely finds were from second-hand bookshops, Oxfam, Waterstones and in the case of The Book of Christmas from the V&A gift shop.  Alighting from the Russell Square tube stop one day I realized that a determined stride would have me squeezing through the door at Persephone Books before closing time at six.  Danielle from A Work in Progress kindly sent me her spare copy of A Little Dinner Before the Play by Agnes Jekyll and it was waiting for me when I got home.  Surely I will never be a fan of aspic but reading about historical menus is something I never get tired of.  In the chapter 'For the Too Fat' Agnes recommends...

'If that insidious enemy, soup, be held indispensable at dinner, at least avoid the vegetable purees and bisque's made with cream, butter, root vegetables and rich fish, also the savoury potage in which milk and flour figure, and try clear Consomme a l'Estragon, with its delicate and clean flavour.

My husband doesn't particularly like soup and that really annoys me but thinking of it as an 'insidious enemy' is hilarious.  Calories are not something to concern myself with considering all of the walking I have done recently and as the photo attests, there is jam to enjoy!  Be back soon with more trip details....