Dear Diary in England

A note from Aunt Cella includes passages from her diary that are a simple delight to read!  She and Uncle Mike routinely have "porch teas" on their sunny Arizona porch where they reread diaries of the past forty-plus years.  I think you would enjoy reading some of her diary passages too.  At the end of this one she shares a recipe for her favorite Buttermilk Pie.  Grab yourself a cuppa tea and enjoy the read.

The Diary.  It's August 4, l970 (Aunt Cella is 7 months pregnant)   "Lovely rest all by ourselves in this big open lot under a shade tree near York.  Beautiful sunny but cool day again.  We both exercised on a tiny road, & then drove into York.  Found it a delightful place, esp. the old narrow winding streets near the Cathedral.  Walked up the famous Shambles Street, a quaint little touristy-charming walking lane with no cars & bosomy overhanging 2nd stories on the houses & shops, so crooked they nearly touched on the tops.  Found a sweet little beamed & wall-papered Shambles Restaurant, & having just cottage cheese & peaches for breakfast (& no dinner the night before because I was both resting & punishing my stomach for eating  a big breakfast & then apple pie with cream yesterday afternoon),  I was hungry!  We enjoyed a delightful but cheap lunch (85 cents each) including everything! Soup, rolls, full delicious entree plate (mine was chicken fricassee with Yorkshire pudding & Mike's was steak pie & both were delicious), coffee & dessert!  Wow, never such a bargain again I'm afraid. (some lovely camp sites are 50 cents for the night with facilities.)  Anyway, "Dessert was gooseberry & apple tart in custard sauce which needed sweetening--but 85 cents!!!  After touring the famous cathedral, now being restored & nearly impassable in places, but a beautiful creation, we strolled back through a quaint area till I spotted a winsome old timbered 2 story restaurant, standing amid the stalls of the open market.  This place, the Tudor Rose, was delightfully old & beamed & we enjoyed an orange squash on the 2nd floor.  Anything to get into these places was our motto!  How we sacrificed & suffered! Drove then right on towards the Lakes District & Beatrix Potter country, passing through a town where we stopped for.......let me guess, yes 3 (THREE!) soft ice creams each!  And absolutely bereft of our long-used alibi that eating something was just an excuse to get into these places--shameless.  We then crossed the Pennines, the rocky backbone of central England via small grey stoned farming towns.  This Pennine area is much akin to Scotland, wild, brooding, craggy, green, & lovely.  Found a campsite among the many available, high on a hill & commanding a wonderful view.  Enjoyed the outlook immensely & also the price of 50 cents!"  

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Aunt Cella comments that "the diary goes on & on.  I have notebooks full of those 30 years of traveling.  I'm so glad I've got them".

She ends her note to me with this:  "Now is there room for a recipe?  Lemon-Buttermilk Pie    3 eggs, 1 & 3/4 c sugar, 4 big rounded tbsp. flour, 1 stick butter or margarine melted,  l c buttermilk, juice & rind of 2 lemons or more ( I use about 4 because we both love strong & tart lemon taste, but then of course you should increase the flour amount).  Pour into unbaked pie shell & bake for about 1 hour at 350.  Take out even if a bit soupy in the middle.  Will set.  Yum, yum." 

*The photo shows Aunt Cella preparing a "porch tea" in January.  Only in Arizona!