Book group afternoon tea

I spent the morning baking for the book group. It was my turn to host so I made crisp breads with soft cheese and cucumber, savoury muffins (feta, garlic, olives and sundried tomatoes), scones, (I made the blackcurrant jam earlier) lemon drizzle cake and chocolate, candied peel, prune and cinnamon squares. Everyone enjoyed it and we did talk about the book too. (“Land of Missing Trees” by Eli Shafak). I was Surprised that nobody had heard of her. Nobody gave it 5 stars, nobody disliked the talking tree and there was enough to talk about. They were interested that I lived in Cyprus between 1971-4, when part of the book was set. For me her sense is place and time were out as she’d not visited the island till recently so only knows it as the concrete jungle it is now.

It’s been a sunny day which is typical, when I’ve had to be indoors baking, but I’m off out now to relax with my book before we go over for a meal with Chris. She’s a great provider of comfort food and her repertoire consists of chilli, lasagne or fish risotto. Followed by a crumble of some sort. Her son is living with her again as he has finally got job as a Maths teacher in a nearby high school.

Thank you for your kind comments about yesterday’s blip about James.