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Old books, handwritten books especially, interest me.Twenty five years ago I bought a handwritten cookery bookatan auction in Bristol.

Though no information was available about wherethe book had come from,I was still pleased with my find. I took it home and read it carefully. Copper plate writing flowed over the thick yellow pages, horizontally and diagonally, too, in some places. (Past generations had a habit of 'saving' everything, writingover notes they no longer required).Unfortunately, the cook had not written her name but, evidently, her family was well fed. I could smell the old, floury kitchen and long ago meals.

There were recipes for 'Breakfast Cake', mayonnaise, kedgeree, wines, jams, jellies, pickles and evencough mixture, emetics, hair colouring, bees wax polish.

As Icarefully turned the pages, some of which were coming away from the spine, I encountered a recipe dated 1745! This book had been a family treasure and the last entrieswere inthe twentieth century.

Accompanying the book were some loose recipes, known as receipts.Examining a torn envelope, Ifoundthe name, 'Mrs Averill', Broadway. On the back of the envelope was a recipe for soup, for the attention of the overseers of the 'Poor House'. (The soup required gallons of water and just a few vegetables).

This was a find. I had a name and, by sheer chance, I had recently spent a holiday in Broadway, not far from Stratford on Avon.

Iasked the then Vicar of Broadwayfor his help and he was excellent,copying the Averill names on gravestones and sending them to me. Going one further, heasked an elderly relativeof the Averill family if she would like to correspond with me.

This resulted incontact with family members inAmerica and an invitation to stay with them in New England.

sunday 3 July

Proud Camden London

Proud Galleries made the 100 coolest brands list for 2010

we are playing three sets in the afternoon

I studied English at Advanced Mains level in college and I have an MA in CreativeWriting. I have taught Creative Writing, too, but, shall I tell you what? You cannot teach anyone to write creatively. You can mark their work, make suggestions,advise some serious editing, point them in the direction of books that might inspire them, but . . .

Writing has a lot to do with the waywe think. E.M. Forster, the novelist,said that you do not know what you think until you see what you say. That's putting whatI said back to front.Let's think again.

A student said to methat any wordsput on paper are an act of creation. Ye-es. So. We'll try it.

You got out of bed this morning, visited the bathroom, made some tea?Interesting? I don't think so. Why? Millions of others did the same thing.

But, you woke up this morning and there on your pillow was a frog with a rhinestone collar around his dear little neck (or whatever passed for his dear little neck) and standing behind him was a snow leopard? Getting better?

The problem with many studentsis that they lovetheir own work.I had the oppositeproblem. I was too critical of myself, destroying much of whatI wrote. Perhaps this is why it took me so long to write my novel 'Salt Blue'.

Although I could write, I felt the need not just to tell a story, but to use words 'creatively'. We'll look at Page 173 in 'Salt Blue'and see howI handlethis: Stella, the heroine wakes up on the day she is due to fly to America. She's not been further than London before.

'I wake early. An ice candlecrackles against the sleep-warm flesh of my thighs, claws at my belly, scrapes its way to the polished tin knocker guarding the quiet chambers of my heartand rattles hard.

"Wake up, little kiddie. Today you're off to find you're Great American Dream and you're going, frit-frightened or not."'

I might have said, if I'd listened to the student; 'When Iwoke I felt frightened about going toAmerica and I had to force myself out of bed.'

What's the verdict on the last sentence? I've placed words ingrammatical order and they make sense butwould anyonewant to read more or would thay have nodded off to sleep beforereaching the next sentence?You be the jury.

After months of working behind the boss's back. I've finally made a fairly good start on a selection of "nwyddau". For the Irish and Welsh around the world! Stop by and take a look at our store. http://www.zazzle.com/walesirelanddesign and Like us on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Wales-Ireland-Design/188236127856059 .to see the latest designs.

Diolch yn fawr Nghyfeillion,

Peter

Already the pink and red oriental poppies are dropping their petals.In a few days I will clip the leaves back and hope for a second harvest of blooms, albeit not as spectacular as these have been. Before leaving the garden, I picked a small bunch of thyme .

Today, we had cubed lamb, (a one pound pack was plenty for two). I browned it lightly in olive oil then simmered it in a pint of pomegranate juice (heat it first) with the thyme, a stock cube andsome white pepper.Cooked onsimmerfor about anhour the meat was tender, with a good flavour.

We had Pembrokeshire new potatoes (expensive still, working out at 1.98 a kg, that's 30p a potato) andcaulifower. (I can't be bothered with cauliflower cheese- I just grate some cheese over the top and flash itunder the grill. If in a rush, I melt it in the microwave).

The nectarines were on offer, four for a pound andtheymade agoodpudding.Washed, cutinto quarters, witha teaspoon of syrup and a tablespoon of elderflower juice splashed over them, they were blitzedfor 90 seconds in the microwave.To finish, Ipoured a tablespoon of Amaretto over each one then crushed Marks and Spencer Belgian chocolate meringues over them. Peter also had some cream. A quick dessert and not too calorific. The large meringues from M&S are only 50 calories each and the small ones 15 cals, making them healthier than sponge puddings with butter, sugar and flour.

The Rewards Tab - Americymru Has added Punchtab - Collect Points and Claim Your Prize by Visiting, Commenting and Sharing

OK so you'll have to visit more than once but the PunchTab program is designed to reward 'loyalty' You may have noticed the new 'Rewards tab' on the right hand side of the page. If you are on Facebook click on the tab and like the app to start collecting points for your loyalty reward.

Points can be earned by logging into Facebook and performing the following actions:

1. Visiting PunchTab-enabled sites every day.

2. Clicking on Facebook Like buttons on PunchTab-enabled sites every day.

3. Leaving comments on PunchTab-enabled sites every day.

Sometimes a site-owner will create custom actions for you to perform; keep an eye for these valuable earning opportunities.

Please remember to use the rewards tab on the right hand side of the page OR the 'Like' button with the red ribbon next to it ( at the bottom of blog pages, photo pages etc ) and NOT the FB 'Like' button in the right hand column ( top ) to accumulate your points.

As far as we know this program will be expanded in the near future to include rewards for Twitter and Google+1 users.