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!"  

* * *

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!

I Left My Heart in England

 "I Left My Heart in England"

by Aunt Cella, posted by permission
Originally written October, 1969/a true story
Part 1 of 4

I left my heart in England this time.  And have left pieces of it in nearly every country we've visited.  But with England it went deep.  It's simply my kind of quaintness, countryside, people...and my language.  We were actually passing through England on our way to Ireland, having "done" England "last" summer, or so we thought.  But it's a big mistake.  One should not ignore present joys in the hopes of greater, later.  Neither, is a country ever really "done" --- most of us just scratch the surface.  We were blessed for nine days with classically beautiful weather, a little nicety not often enjoyed in the British Isles.  Loved rugged Wales, but the southern counties of Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall stretching to the very tip of Land's End, are dearest to the heart of every Briton, and were sheer joy, joy, to us.  We loved the high hedges, the hidden "smuggler's cove" beaches, the cottage rambled with roses, old inns with low oaken beams, cozy fireplaces, hanging copper ware and pewter, peaceful villages, and always decency, charm, refinement.  It's such a "civilized" country!  As travelers, we felt a graciousness here not encountered since leaving Japan.  One is never a customer, but a guest to be treated with grave respect.  I discovered early how enchanting their old homes and tea houses were, so having a passion for this sort of thing, devised a system for getting into at least three a day.  Morning beverage, lunch at noon, and afternoon tea, which is promptly at 4:00.  All England pivots on the "Tea at 4:00" schedule. . .even if the house is burning, you must not rush out without having tea first!  We had Devonshire clotted cream with fresh strawberries, rhubarb pudding, deep-dish English apple pie, high tea, low tea, cream tea, country tea, lunch in a 12th century manor house, and scones, scones, scones.  We are talking of another trip. . .

To be continued.

Photo:  afternoon tea at Aunt Cella's on a sunny winter day