Books and a cupcake

A cupcake from the batch I baked this morning for mum's Mother's Day lunch - vanilla with butter cream icing.

I didn't have long to wait after the Clunes 'Booktown' weekend for another book fix - the local library held a book sale yesterday. I picked up a few things, including another copy (you can never have too many) of one of my all-time favourite children's books - The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden.


'Sewing and Knitting' by Helen Allen is technically a children's how-to guide, but if my plan to knit a scarf is ever going to succeed, a simple step-by-step approach is the only thing that's got a chance of getting me there. Now I just need some decent wool, a pair of needles and a free evening to sit down with a mug of hot chocolate and this book.


Crete is a work of verse fiction by Dorothy Porter, author of The Monkey's Mask. Here's a taste:

Stain

If you must mark me
make it pretty

give me a birthmark
the colour of an orchid
so inviting
my lover will sniff it
like a blissed bee

embroider my wrist
with a tattoo
so my talking hand
can trail in the air
a glimpse of the exquisite

if you must keep me
in this skin

if you will never let me out

don't make me live inside
stained walls

make them pretty.