A very gentle day after the meetings and discussions of last week... the opening of the newly refurbished Truro Library, Truro, Cornwall, and Ewa and I run a drop-in workshop in the Children's Library:
I Packed This Myself: What's In A Suitcase? The space is large and airy: the children love making map boxes. And Ewa has made several plates of Polish cheesecake, which she hands around.
The map boxes, designed by the tireless David Cross. They are inspired by four suitcases, with maps of different stages of a journey, which have been created by illustrator Glyn Goodwin. People can drawn their own maps, reflecting metaphorical journeys they have made, and then cut them up and make them into suitcases. They can take them home and keep things in them. On the base of each box/suitcase is a key fact about migrant workers and migration. Abbie, aged five, is in the library with her mother and three-year-old brother, Jack, who eats a lot of cheesecake. Abbie draws things that remind her of home in her suitcase.
Visitors are very interested in the cheesecake and ask Ewa for the recipe. However she is busy with her own case
She does promise the recipe to one keen visitor, Mrs Vee Stott, who comes back several times for more (we will put the recipe in the post). It is interesting to find that the vocabulary for cooking is quite difficult. It's easy enough to come up with a list of ingredients - but expressions involving actions like 'separating the eggs', 'folding in', 'beating' ... are trickier.
Mrs Stott talks about English cake traditions, some of which are new to me. She tells Ewa about 'cut and come again cakes' - these are fruit cakes, intended to last for some time.
And the expression 'I'm going to straighten that up', which she thinks comes from Yorkshire. Her late husband used to say .e.g 'I'm going to straighten up that bread and butter pudding'. i.e. finish it off.
Later, Ewa and I go to the Cathedral next door for a cup of tea and our usual review meeting. Ewa sees a woman priest for the first time.
